"At around the same time Oyster Cellar was opening, Tom Douglas Restaurants was bringing its Pike Place Market-adjacent Etta’s Big Mountain BBQ back to its seafood roots. Instead of returning the name to Etta’s Seafood, though, the company chose the oyster-evoking name Half Shell. Similarly to McGill, Douglas and chef/managing partner Eric Tanaka found inspiration in the oyster tradition of the eastern United States." - Mark DeJoy
