Aw, shucks — you don’t want to miss Wintzell’s Oyster House

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Mobile, Ala., is the birthplace of Mardi Gras, dating back to 1703. The celebration kicks off Feb. 9 and lasts until Fat Tuesday, Feb. 21.

IF YOU GO

There are a dozen — not a baker’s dozen — Wintzell’s Oyster Houses in the Alabama region, including one near the airport at 6700 Airport Blvd. in West Mobile [(251) 341-1111]. The flagship location is at 605 Dauphin St. [(251) 432-4605., wintzellsoys
terhouse.com] For more information on Mardi Gras parades, visit the Mobile Carnival Museum (est. 2005) at mobilecar
nivalmuseum.com

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Updated: March 6, 2012 8:04AM

MOBILE, Ala. — It’s all oysters and pearls of wisdom at the historic Wintzell’s Oyster House in downtown Mobile.

The ramshackle roadhouse opened in 1938 as a six-stool oyster bar at 605 Dauphin St. In scrawled Southern folk-art fashion, gregarious owner J. Oliver Wintzell liked to paint his favorite sayings and post them on the wall. The sayings grew along with Wintzell’s emporium:

“Be true to your teeth or they will be false to you.”

“Worry is like sand in an oyster. A little produces a pearl — too much kills the animal.”

And my favorite: “Egotism is the anesthetic that deadens the pain of stupidity.” I’ll think about that during the next time I endure a 10-minute guitar solo.

Wintzell’s is the home for Mardi Gras parades in Mobile that are running from Feb. 9 through Feb. 21 (Fat Tuesday).

Many folks don’t realize that Mobile is the birthplace of Mardi Gras. The bacchanal began in 1703 and returned after the Civil War. Mobile resident Joseph Stillewll Cain had the post-war blues and led an impromptu parade down the streets. Cain was born in 1832 on Dauphin Street, and parades still pass a block away from Wintzell’s. These days historic Dauphin Street is too narrow to host a parade. In 1867 Cain dressed as a fictional Chickasaw chief named Slacabamorinico because Mobile was still under Union rule. Cain’s image was a metaphor for the fact the Chickasaws had never been defeated in war.

But inside Wintzell’s, Willie Brown has defeated many an oyster.

He has been a shucker at Wintzell’s since 1970. A cousin worked at the oyster shack, and Brown was hired through the cousin’s recommendation.

A 65-year-old native of Mobile, Brown has never eaten an oyster. Well, maybe he had one about 35 years ago. “I love seafood, I just don’t care for oysters,” Brown said while relaxing during a Friday night lull at Wintzell’s. “I guess it’s a good thing. You don’t want to eat up the profits.”

By the way, “Never put off enjoyment for another day, there’s no time for the pleasant.”

But Brown can get busy. “During Mardi Gras, I do a hundred dozen oysters or better in a day,” he said. Brown also gets busy when people like Ken Orndoff walk in. On Sept. 11, 2010 the Birmingham, Ala. resident set the Wintzell’s house record by eating 421 oysters in an hour. He broke the 2003 record set by “Big” Joe Edwards.

“There were two of us shucking for Ken,” Brown recalled. “We have a set up of catsup, hot sauce, horseradish. We give you a baker’s dozen (13) oysters.” Wintzell’s also has “Lady Champions” such as Beth Carter Larrimore, who downed 215 oysters in an hour in March, 1997.

Wintzell’s serves oysters in several styles.

The fried oysters are made with a secret 75-year-old recipe, there’s classic Oysters Rockefeller with ample spinach, and I loved the hearty nature of the Bac’on Blue Oysters (served with crumbled bleu cheese and hickory smoked bacon). The oysters are primarily sourced from Bon Secour Bay in Alabama. Area seafood companies buy from the harvests of individual oystermen.

J. Oliver Wintzell was to oysters what Ray Kroc was to hamburgers. “Oysters are rich in protein,” Wintzell once wrote. “They also contain vitamins A, B, C and D, plus phosphorus, copper, sulphur, manganese and iodine. So rich in nutritive value are they, that with the addition of only one food, milk, as in oyster stew, they make a practically complete diet on which one can live and thrive.”

Wintzell died in 1980 at the age of 74. The Wintzell family sold the restaurant in the 1980s, and current owners Bob and Buffy Donlon have kept all traditions alive. Besides oysters, Wintzell’s serves regional fare such as West Indies Salad, a cold salad with lump crab meat and onions marinated in an oil and vinegar dressing.

In November 2010, Willie Brown was honored by the Mobile City Council for his 40 years of shucking at Wintzell’s. Over the years he has shucked for some famous customers. “Hank Aaron (a Mobile native) has been in here a few times.” Brown said. President and Mrs. George W. Bush selected Wintzell’s to cater Air Force One. But Brown has not seen Mobile native Jimmy Buffett in Wintzell’s.

Wintzell’s shucker Willie Lee Crompton taught Brown to shuck. “You need a very good knife and a good set of hands,” said Brown, who works fast. “It’s not as easy as it looks.” Brown swiftly inserts his knife blade into the front of the oyster shell and like the snap of a finger, flicks open the shell. This is old school. Many contemporary shuckers go in the back side of the shell and pry open the hinged section. Brown then dished out some oyster trivia I did not know. “Oysters are alive in that shell and live three to five seconds after they are opened,” he said. “It’s true.”

Brown is not married. His father was a truck driver and his mother was a stay-at-home mother.

Brown knew Wintzell. He recalled, “He would be here from the time it opened until the time it closed. He always had a joke to tell. He’d write recipes and his sayings on napkins. He would tease pretty girls when they came in. Even when I started in 1970, it was one room and four or five stools. It’s grown a lot.” Today, guests enter through the original oyster bar. Three rooms have been added as well as an outside patio and streetside tables. Wisdom is spread all over.

You can sometimes get a pearl from an oyster, but it take a pretty girl to get a diamond out of an old crab. — J. Oliver Wintzell.

Information for this article was gathered in a research trip sponsored by the Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau.