FOX 24 - CHARLESTON
TAYLOR MILLER GETS REAL WITH KEVIN JOSEPH HERE
Tyler was such a joy to meet and discuss RAW LAB with. Thanks so much to her and the folks over at FOX 24 for this really great feature!
SOUTH CAROLINA LIVING MAGAZINE - Jan 2023
HASTINGS HENSEL Tells two oystories HERE
“Four evenings a week at Raw Lab, Joseph orchestrates a three-hour, 11-course dining experience that’s part TED Talk, part science experiment, part party. On the night I visited, in early September, electronic Caribbean dance music played in the intimately dim barroom for diners making their way through an omakase menu (a Japanese term for dishes selected by the chef) “from the bottom of the seafood chain.” It’s what Joseph has dubbed “Marine Cuisine”—dishes like Crab Gazpacho, Shrimp Ceviche, Lobster Salad, Cubed Salmon, and, of course, oysters. Most of it is local; all of it is raw.”
TOWN & COUNTRY MAGAZINE - Dec 2022
Travel Editor KLARA GLOWCZEWSKA HITS THE NAIL ON THE HEAD HERE
“Raw Lab, a hole-in-the-wall near Charleston’s City Market, is billed as the world’s only omakase raw bar and in the most innovative eating experience I have ever had, presided over by chef and “mermmelier”, Kevin Joseph, (“I am to oysters what a sommelier is to wine”.) There is one three - four hour nightly seating, for 12 people max: nine courses, endless [wine] pours, and shifting music soundtracks. Dinner as performance art, and you’ll never look at an oyster (or caviar) the same way again.”
Photo Credit Margaret Pattillo
FOOD & WINE MAGAZINE - Sept 2022
HANNAH WALHOUT HELPS SPREAD THE OYSTER GOSPEL HERE
“If you're not sure where to begin, start with some advice from oyster expert Kevin Joseph, co-founder of Oyster Week. Over the years, Kevin has hosted an oyster tasting menu pop-up at Megu in New York City, where he has showcased international varieties and experimented with pairings and flavor profiles. Here's some of his shellfish expertise.
For Joseph, the oyster experience at a restaurant should be "no gimmicks: just superior product, live shucking, excellent service, and extraordinary presentation." If a restaurant piles on the cocktail sauce, it might be a red flag — you don't want to obscure the taste of the shellfish. At the Megu pop-up, he puts the focus on the oysters themselves with a clean, omakase-style menu.
Though his favorite oysters shine on their own, Joseph knows that pairings can enhance the oyster experience when executed thoughtfully. "It's as much about what we don't use as what we do use," he says. For example, "No cocktail sauce, ever!" His preferred pairings include "freshly made mignonettes, spirits, and fruits."
PASTE MAGAZINE- Sept 2022
Alyssa Pinkser gets it HERE
“If you really want an unforgettable experience, though, you need to visit Raw Lab. The world’s only omakase (Japanese for “I’ll leave it up to you”) raw bar experience, Raw Lab is hosted by chef, owner, and Master Mermmelier Kevin Joseph, a charismatic expert with decades of study of seafood, and who is working on opening an actual academy for future Mermmeliers. (A term he coined, it is to oysters what “sommelier” is to wine.) Each dish is an original work of art for the senses. It was opened less than a year ago and has won Open Table’s 2022 Diner’s Choice award, and many five star reviews from locals and travelers who pay $225 per seat plus tax and gratuity for his highly instagrammable edu-tainment experience.You’ll be seated around the “U- Shaped” bar with built in ice moat in a salon-like atmosphere and be able to ask questions and learn about the seafood you eat—including if caviar is always made from sturgeon and if the “R” month saying about oysters is true.
Joseph is full of superlatives and puns, like calling cocktail sauce the “C word” and explaining that his is the best raw bar in the world because there is no cooked seafood distraction. “It is like Michael Jordan…who also played baseball for a hot minute,” he quipped during a recent visit.
Joseph’s world-beat uber-hip soundtrack and sound effects create quite an engaging experience, but his knowledge is key to making each oyster a true amuse bouche with various unprecedented mignonettes and hyper-creative seasoned and paired dishes. Those include gazpacho with dry white wine, caviar “bumps” off your hand which we learned is the proper way to taste (and then pop them against your teeth), lobster Caesar, salmon tower, shrimp ceviche, and his piece de la resistance: raw oysters cold-smoked like a cocktail in a disco lit case. The wine was fine and plentiful and perfectly paired. You will learn and have to give yourself a Porron pour, serving yourself straight to the mouth. It’s a Bourdain-esque experience, and you will leave with new friends.”
LUXE MAGAZINE - Sept Oct 2022
LISA Mele TELLS IT LIKE IT IS, here
CHARLESTON LIVING MAGAZINE - Sept/Oct 2022
Jenny Peterson BREAKS IT DOWN HERE
RAW LAB dining experience will go down as one of the most memorable meals you’ve ever had.
Describing one of the greatest meals of your life can magically transport you back the moment, remembering the vivid flavors that stay with you for weeks, months, even years later.
That’s the experience for the 600 diners who have discovered Empire Oyster's RAW LAB, the most unique fine dining experience in Charleston. The magic unfolds inside a room the size of a master bedroom behind a nondescript door along the historic Charleston City Market.
With seating only for 12 diners each night at communal bar seats, diners are given no menus, putting their entire dining experience into the hands of Kevin Joseph, a mermmelier (sommelier of seafood), aquaculture expert and hospitality veteran, who takes them on a nine-course raw seafood journey unlike anything they’ve ever seen.
It’s a prix-fixe Omakase raw bar experience—the first of its kind in the world done with oysters and seafood and not traditional sushi.”
THE LOCAL PALATE - Aug 2022
Emily Havener reveals here, what is so great about Raw Lab @ Charleston
Kevin Joseph creates a habitat for sustainable seafood in omaksae dining at Raw Lab
When it comes to “the world’s only omakase raw bar experience,” however, Joseph’s penchant for originality is on full display. He lists Jacques Cousteau, Julia Child, and Jack LeLanne among his sources of inspiration, or, as he says, “people I refer to as originals, people who created a new way of promoting a passion.
The dining room itself is intimate. It seats twelve people max at a square-horseshoe-shaped stone bar with an ice-filled trench running around its entire length. Joseph stands in the center, where he—with some assistance—prepares and serves each course directly on the ice, pours Champagne and wine pairings, cracks jokes, and offers pearls of wisdom such as, “Think of oysters as marine grapes. They have a merroir like wine has a terroir.” (Hence his coinage of the term mermellier.) He shucks more than half a dozen oysters for each guest bare handed, not a glove or bar rag in sight.
CITY PAPER @ CHARLESTON - June 2022
Great story here about Kevin Joseph, Master Mermmelier @ Raw Lab @ Charleston
RAW LAB is what local chef Kevin Joseph calls “Earth’s only omakase raw bar experience,” and you can find it in the heart of downtown Charleston on Market Street.
Located at Port of Call Food + Brew Hall, RAW LAB is a three-hour raw bar dining experience curated by the world’s first master mermmelier (mer-mah-lee-aye). (A mermmelier is to oysters what a sommelier is to wine, Joseph said.)
But RAW LAB is so much more than oysters. That’s just the first course out of nine. Joseph calls the experience “Marine Cuisine,” a term
he coined that encompasses more than what seafood has to offer and emphasizes health and sustainability.
Marine Cuisine, trademarked in January 2020, stems back to his childhood infatuation with marine biology, oceanography and coral ecology.
Though he moved to Charleston from Sag Harbor, New York Joseph doesn’t see himself as a New Yorker. “In a manner of speaking, yeah,” he said. Joseph has lived in different parts of New York throughout his life, but spent nearly two decades in Colorado, and 15 years on and off in Florida as he moved north and south with the seasonal changes. MORE HERE
HAMPTONS MAGAZINE - Oct 2020
What a summer. This about sums it up. Tip of the iceberg really though. We only had one afternoon on Yacht Kelpe, but we killed it. We worked extensively with Yacht Kingfisher however. And in the end we earned return business and referral after referral from elite clientele on a handful of other yachts. Thank you @KD Hamptons & @HamptonsMag for mentioning us in the same breath as @YachtKelpe, @YachtKingfisher and @ExploreKissaki.
KD HAMPTONS - Oct 2020
Such a nice write up from a true Hampton’s Queen! KDHamptons.com
201 MAGAZINE - Nov 2019
The hits keep coming! 201 Magazine sings praises for our work at Stern And Bow Restaurant in Closter, NJ. 201 is the area code for Bergen County, NJ. This is a bedroom community for NYC. Highly educated. High median incomes & High expectations. These kinds of areas are where we shine the brightest. Read the WHOLE STORY HERE
OMAKASE STYLE OYSTER SERVICE: Now a thing! Well, now (finally) appreciated by major food media anyway.
October 2019 by Esther Davidowitz, Food Editor, The Bergen Record & 201 Magazine
We introduced Omakase Style Oyster Service in February 2017 (See Tampa Bay Times article below). Since then we have been refining it. We are now to the point where we are taking reservations for it at Stern And Bow Restaurant in Closter, NJ. Available Thurs - Sat, 5pm -9pm. (201) 750 3350 www.SternAndBowRestaurant.com
Sept, 2019 - PREVIEW OF STERN & BOW restaurant in Closter, NJ HERE by Esther Davidowitz of The Bergen Record
And below is a very short film we made back in 2018 to illustrate how our Omakase Style Oyster Service works. In this space in St. Petersburg, FL, guests stood at the Oyster Bar.
SHUCK HEARD ROUND THE WORLD: Couple Finds Pearl in Taylor Kumamoto we shucked!
Oct - 2019
Truly viral and global stories come once in a lifetime, like this one, about a pearl being found a Taylor Kumamoto served by us in New Jersey!!! Our discovery garnered international news coverage and millions of impressions from New York to London to Beirut to Sydney. Coverage from dozens of media outlets included The Daily Telegraph (Australia) and Fox News National (USA)…and far too many more to list here. For a moment on Wed, Oct 21, this was the #1 News Item on Apple News. We had no idea this would blow up, but we knew it was special. According to Wes Taylor of Taylor Shellfish, “As far as we know, nobody has ever found a pearl in one of our Kumos.” VIDEO HERE
TV / VIDEO: Empire Oyster Founder, Kevin Joseph, featured on WNBC - NYC to talk New York Oyster Week VIII.
For the third year in a row we appeared on the Sunday Morning Show on NBC TV in NYC to talk Oyster Week. Thankfully, it wasn’t the 7am slot this year.
TV / VIDEO: Empire Oyster Founder, Kevin Joseph, featured on Brooklyn 12 TV talking New York Oyster Week & Molecular Gastronomy with Rutte Celery Gin Pearls.
First time on TV in Williamsburg!
B-EAT MAGAZINE: Elite Oyster Destinations chosen by Master Mermmelier Kevin Joseph
March 2019
by Sara Lau / B-EAT Magazine / Germany & Netherlands
Empire Oyster Founder & CEO Kevin Joseph is featured in this beautiful glossy magazine published in Germany. He speaks German and has lived and worked as a Professional Ski Instructor in St Moritz, Switzerland. He still maintains a great network of friends and associates in Germany, Switzerland and Netherlands and this article (in German) features Kevin’s picks for the best oyster experiences / raw bars in the world. If you can read German, enjoy the article HERE
