From Old School New England Classics to The Present at Turner's Seafood at Lyceum Hall (Salem, MA)

I was recently invited to check out the newer location of Turner's Seafood up in Salem, MA. Turner's Seafood opened their first seafood restaurant in Melrose over 20 years ago, taking the name of a popular old fisheries that used to supply to the Westin hotel chain. They opened up the Salem location 22 months ago.

Sure, Salem is mostly about the old witch trials and stuff, but I was more excited about this: Turner's Seafood is located at the old Lyceum Hall, which was where Alexander Graham Bell first did his public demonstration of the telephone! That's history right there.

I also love how Turner's Seafood is supporting local businesses, like the Ryan & Wood Distillery in Gloucester, MA. They use this distillery's products in many cocktails, like the Pamplemousse (Beauport vodka, St. Germain, pink grapefruit juice, lemon)

One of the key components of Turner's is the oyster bar. Sure, oyster bars are pretty common now, but when they first launched their oyster bar at their Melrose location 15 years ago, they were one of the few. Turner's still has a leg up, though, boasting one of their staff, Ryan Kripp (middle), the two-time champion of Boston Seafood Festival's Oyster Shucking contest!

Naturally, we started with some fresh oyster: Kumamoto, Pemaquid, and Wellfleet

Followed with broiled Pemaquid oysters with fennel butter

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