Billy the Oysterman

“The Place You Ought to Know.”

Billy the Oysterman
Pre-1898–1953
Seafood

Ownership:

William T. Ockendon, Jr. (1914–1953)

George Washington and Harvey Ockendon (1914–1928)

William T. Ockendorf (Pre-1898–1914)

Location:

10 West 47th Street (1938–1953)

7-11 East 20th Street (1912–1950)

35 West 19th Street (1914)

Wooster and West 3rd Street (Pre-1898–1912) [Operated in the basement as a small oyster stand; eventually moved upstairs.]

Literature:

Robert W. Chambers, “The Whisper,” The Haunts of Men (1898): The following is a summary of the restaurant’s role in the story from Maurice’s The New York of the Novelists (1917):

“The scene of that was laid in West Third Street in the palmy days alluded to when the thoroughfare answered shamelessly to the name of ‘Profligate’s Gate.’ Between MacDougal Street and Greene Street was a dive known as ‘Billy the Oysterman’s.’ The dominating figure of the establishment was not the proprietor himself, but his cat, ‘Red,’ introduced in the tale. Billy used to boast of ‘Red’ as the only cross-eyed cat in New York. In ‘The Whisper’ a murder has been committed. In the small hours of the morning there is a conference of the newspaper men who have been assigned to the case at Billy the Oysterman’s. They are discussing the crime.” (1)

Publications:

“Billy the Oysterman – No. 11 E. 20th Street.” Daytonian in Manhattan. Blog, August 19, 2014.

Mariani, John, with Alex Von Bidder. The Four Seasons: A History of America’s Premier Restaurant. New York: Smithmark, 1999: 9.

“Harvey Ockendon, Restaurateur Here.” New York Times, September 18, 1966: 84.

“W. T. Ockendon, 80, a Restaurateur: Billy the Oysterman, Retired Since 1953, Is Dead.” New York Times, October 16, 1961: 29.

Nickerson, Jane. “Shellfish for R-Less Months.” New York Times Magzine, July 9, 1950: 15. [Includes a recipe for Billy the Oysterman’s soft-shell clams casino.]

“Epicures Condemn Table d’Hote Meal: Billy the Oysterman Pleads Cause of a la Carte Menu Before Restaurateurs.” New York Times, November 20, 1934: 23.

James, Rian. Dining in New York. New York: John Day Company, 1930: 138-140.

“The tart, penetrating smoke of a thousand expensive cigars hangs over both floors of Billy’s like a pall. Thousands are talked of here as carelessly as are nickels in Automat; and at the noon hour, Big Business in person, groans under the right regal weight of a bowl of stewed tripe, a dozen of Billy’s giant blue-points, and an order of pie, so ample that it would constitute an entire dinner for a lesser man.”

“G. W. Ockendon Dead; Long a Restaurateur: Was Known to Thousands in the City as ‘Billy, the Oyster Man.” New York Times, December 11, 1928: 30. [Indicates the restaurant opened “50 years ago,” putting the opening date at approximately 1878.]

Griffin Dunn, Mame. “Imitation – The Rarest Flattery.” Hoard’s Dairyman 53 (January 26, 1917): 137.

“Testimony from Billy the Oysterman: Billy the Oysterman of New York City, famous throughout the country for his glorious fish dinners, when asked the secret of his supply of fish paid a similar tribute to the products of the dairy. ‘I buy fine fish, but it isn’t the fish; it’s the way I cook them. I make them literally swim in butter – the best butter on the market. The best steak, chop, or fish is ruined unless you use plenty of fresh, good butter.'”

Maurice, Arthur Bartlett. The New York of the Novelists. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1917: 245.

Notable Guests:

Diamond Jim Brady (Businessman)

Jack Dempsey (Professional Boxer)

Budd Schulberg (Screenwriter): [On the ideas behind On the Waterfront (1954)] “I went to see Malcolm Johnson, who was very nice, and he pointed me to Father John Corridan of the St. Francis Xavier Labor School on West 16th Street in Chelsea. I went down and had lunch with Corridan at Billy the Oysterman’s, and he told me how men were getting killed, right there on the waterfront, and how nobody would talk about it. ‘You’re a writer, maybe you could do something to let people know,’ he said.” (2)

Al Smith (Former Governor of New York)

Gene Tunney (Professional Boxer)

Notes:

William T. Ockendorf opened his first oyster stand near the South Ferry Terminal shortly after his arrival from England in 1865. In 1914 the business passed into the hands of Ockendorf’s three sons, George Washington, Harvey, and William. At some point the family name was changed to Ockendon. After eldest son George Washington’s death in 1928, William Ockendon, Jr., took over sole ownership, while Harvey continued to manage the restaurant on East 20th Street. (3)

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Cole Porter’s song “A Picture of Me Without You” (1953) includes the lyrics:

Picture H.G. Wells without a brain
Picture Av’rell Harriman without a train,
Picture Tintern Abbey without a cloister,
Picture Billy the Oysterman without an oyster

Menu:

December 27, 1947 (Love Menu Art, prints available for purchase)

(1) Maurice, 1917.
(2) Tallmer, Jerry. “When Labor Ruled the Docks.” Gay City News 3, 345 (November 4-11, 2004).
(3) New York Times, 1961; New York Times, 1966.

Cover photo: Menu. (1940s). In “Billy the Oysterman – No. 11 E. 20th Street.” Daytonian in Manhattan. Blog, August 19, 2014. Accessed May 18, 2017.