Island Creek Oysters

About Island Creek Oysters

Reviewed by Oyster Tasting Guide editorial team · June 2, 2026

Founded

By Skip Bennett in Duxbury, Massachusetts; first oysters planted in the early 1990s

Location

Duxbury Bay, Massachusetts

Species

Eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica)

Cultivation

Bottom culture and tray methods in a bay with no native wild oysters

Reputation

Bennett called Duxbury Bay "the Napa Valley of oyster farming"; oysters appear on top menus including the French Laundry

Restaurants

Island Creek Oyster Bar (Boston, opened 2010) and Row 34 (opened 2013)

Island Creek Oysters was founded by Skip Bennett in Duxbury, Massachusetts, named for the Island Creek neighborhood of Duxbury where he grew up in a family that has been a fixture in the town since its founding in 1637. The son of a lobsterman, Bennett spent years working the bay before turning to aquaculture. He planted his first oysters in the early 1990s after a stint growing quahog clams, and he was told he was moving from a tough business to an even tougher one; curiously, Duxbury Bay had never had a wild oyster population at all, so there was no guarantee oysters would thrive there.

They did. Bennett funded the early years through the wild harvest and sale of mussels and other catch, and after years of trial and error he was eventually joined by partners including Christian Horne, from a Maine oyster-farming family, longtime friend Don Merry, and his own father, Bill Bennett. By around 2000 the group was harvesting enough oysters to pursue the business full-time, and Island Creek grew into one of the most recognizable commercial oyster farms in the country.

What makes Duxbury Bay special is exactly what makes an Island Creek taste the way it does. Bennett famously described the bay as "the Napa Valley of oyster farming," and the shallow, cold, well-flushed water produces oysters with a distinctive balance of brine and sweetness. Tasters frequently describe an initial pop of salt that gives way to a sweet, almost citrusy finish and a clean close. The farm uses bottom culture along with tray-growing methods, and that tray method is credited with shaping the flavor and shell of specific lines like the Aunt Dotties.

Island Creek's reputation was built in part on Bennett's insistence that carefully hand-raised oysters deserved to be recognized as distinct rather than lumped in with anonymous bivalves, an attitude that helped fuel a broader oyster renaissance. The farm's oysters became a staple of celebrated menus across the country, including the French Laundry and Le Bernardin, and the company has emphasized the ecological benefits of oyster farming, with shellfish filtering and improving the waters they grow in.

The brand expanded beyond the bay as well. In 2010, Bennett's team and chef Jeremy Sewall opened the Island Creek Oyster Bar in Boston, which quickly became one of the city's premier seafood restaurants, and in 2013 they launched Row 34 in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood. Together with farm tours and tastings in Duxbury, these ventures turned Island Creek from a single farmer's experiment in an oysterless bay into a defining New England oyster name.