Shaw’s longtime “Royster with the Oyster” festival, rebranded last year as “Oyster Fest,” is now the “Oyster Fest Block Party,” and its 26th edition takes place Sept. 26 in West Town. Please don’t confuse this with Roscoe Village’s “Oyster Fest,”
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which happens this weekend at Damen and Roscoe.(Sidebar: What’s a royster? It’s a stylized spelling of roister, which the dictionary describes as “to engage in boisterous merrymaking; revel noisily.” Google’s helpful Ngram Viewer, which measures the frequency of word usage, says the etymological height of roister was around 1907.)
For years, Royster with the Oyster was held in front of Shaw’s Crab House’s River North restaurant. This year, the festival was moved to a lot off Grand Avenue directly west of the Chicago River. It’s your outdoor food festival but instead of baby rack ribs and burgers, substitute oysters, sushi rolls and chilled crab. Organizers say 15,000 oysters will be brought in for the event.
Pre-sale tickets for the 26th Annual Oyster Fest Block Party are on sale beginning Wednesday for $20 (code: LOBSTER). Prices go up to $25 on Friday. Suggested donation for Roscoe Village’s Oyster Fest this Saturday is $7.
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