Sailor Oyster Bar
Oyster bar restaurant · Annapolis ·
Oysters, crudo, creative cocktails, and tinned fish served
Oysters, crudo, creative cocktails, and tinned fish served
"After fire damage caused a nearly two-year hiatus, West Street’s beloved bivalve bar reopened last March with glistening crudo, Maryland oysters, local produce, and renovated look with a newly added space upstairs. Returning favorites include torched boquerón toast, a Reuben packed with pastrami rub-cured salmon, and mortadella between springy sourdough from local bakery InGrano." - Tierney Plumb
"I note that beloved bivalve hangout Sailor Oyster Bar recently reopened next door, helping to augment the one-block stretch on West Street into one of Annapolis’s hottest dining destinations." - Tierney Plumb
"After a 2022 fire gutted the restaurant and nearly two years of navigating tricky permitting and foundation repairs, I watched Sailor quietly reopen in early March under executive chef Lorenza Aznar with chefs Dan Zegas and Sean McCardle. The menu deliberately avoids the usual Maryland staples—no Dijon- or Old Bay-flecked crab cake or ubiquitous calamari—and instead celebrates things like Eastern Shore sweet corn, blistered cherry tomatoes, tobiko with blue crab, and a torched octopus that’s sous-vided then dressed in a salsa-macha-like chili-garlic sauce with toasted cashews. Its torched boquerón toast, a family-meal-turned-favorite slathered in salty honey butter and topped with razor-thin fresno chili coins, aged anchovies, and cocoa powder, is back; the dish’s genesis even nods to compound butters and a touch of Mexican chocolate. Regulars (many hospitality veterans) will find a reconfigured upstairs with high ceilings, extra bar and kitchen space, and menu staples alongside constantly iterated specials, plentiful caviar and bubbles, tinned fish, an enoki mushroom “snow crab” vegan dish, and cocktails from Franklin Schwartz and James Dwyer (including nitro drafts and an amaro-forward boulevardier made with bourbon from District Made). The shrimp cocktail swaps horseradish for a bright aji amarillo sauce, and the team emphasizes working daily with close Mid-Atlantic suppliers and local produce purveyors." - Nat Belkov
"In the nearby Arts District, the delightful Sailor Oyster Bar made for an ideal afternoon pick-me-up, where I ordered crudo and smoked sardines with buttered bread." - Hannah Walhout Hannah Walhout Hannah Walhout is a senior editor at Travel + Leisure, where she edits the Discoveries section of the print magazine and develops longer stories focusing on food, wine, and spirits. She has previously worked at Food & Wine and in the writing program at NYU Abu Dhabi. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines
