7. The Fulton Fish Market was an oyster destination
The oyster industry was a huge part of the Fulton Fish Market. Tourists and locals alike would flock to the market’s many restaurants and oyster stalls to consume the inexpensive bivalves. They were eaten raw, in a stew, or as “Fulton Market Roast,” “nine large oysters cooked in the shell, buttered and sprinkled with pepper.”
One of the most popular oyster restaurants in the market was Dorlon and Shaffer. Rees cites an 1866 guide that claims that the restaurant saw three to four hundred female customers a day and employed thirty men to serve its largely female clientele. Though oysters could be procured at many places around Manhattan, Fulton Fish Market vendors sold the most oysters than anywhere else by 1872.
