The Maine lobster roll at B & G Oysters costs over $20, fried Ipswich clams are close behind, and raw oysters are $2 each, but customers line up day and night to spend barrels of cash at James Beard award-winning chef Barbara Lynch’s latest enterprise. Why? Lynch and business partner Garrett Hasker are using ingredients fresh enough to remind you of summers spent by the sea. The quality is so superior that dishes can be presented simply. Flavors are pure: raw items are briny and fried dishes crisp. The atmosphere is urban chic—in a cellar, a noisy, well-informed crowd dines casually on food that is the antithesis of casual. Lynch and Hasker have used the old-fashioned concept of a New England seafood and fish shack to create a restaurant that’s closer to what you find on coastal France than on the coast of Maine. Nostalgia has a price.

B & G Oysters Ltd Information:

• Seafood menu. Lunch, dinner. Closed holidays. Casual attire. Valet parking. Outdoor seating.