How To Make a Raw Bar at Home

Are you wondering how you can make this year’s New Year’s Eve party better than last year’s? Why not create a DIY raw bar for you and all your friends! We have everything you need to know in order for you to have the best DIY raw bar your friends have ever seen.

All December long, we’re bringing you the recipes, tips and tricks you need to Feast your way through the holidays, no matter how you celebrate the season.

New Year’s Eve can be a serious letdown: You get stuck paying too much for a prix fixe dinner, you get left in the cold because you can’t hail a cab, or maybe you’re of the camp who falls asleep before the ball drops because you know better. This year, it’s time to take matters into your own hands—literally—and go out with a bang by assembling your own bar. A raw bar, that is.

Instead of building expectations that will never be met, try building a shellfish tower that will top everything else on the table. We’re talking oysters, clams, lobster and accoutrements your guests will remember for years to come, even if the rest of the night is hazy.

David LeFevre, chef and owner of Manhattan Beach’s Fishing with Dynamite, where L.A. chefs go for seafood, is here to offer all the tips and tricks you need to pull this off. LeFevre, who spent three years manning seafood at Charlie Trotter’s and makes a mean fish taco, knows his way around a raw bar. Order Fishing with Dynamite’s largest shellfish tower, the Mother Sucker, and you’ll see why.

Here are LeFevre’s tips for raising the, ahem, bar.

Prep Talk

How to buy, clean and prepare shellfish in advance

When you’re buying shellfish, “it should smell like the ocean, not like the beach,” LeFevre says. Use a trustworthy fishmonger and beware of clams and mussels whose shells don’t close when you tap them, a sign that they’re already dead and shouldn’t be eaten.

LeFevre suggests cleaning oyster and clamshells in shaved ice, stirring them rapidly to dislodge any sand or clay hanging on the shells. Then spray them down. Scrub and pull out any beards on mussels and devein your shrimp, remembering to keep the shells on, LeFevre says, because they provide more flavor and are easier to handle.

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