Sun-Thurs 11 am-10 pm, Fri-Sat 11 am-11 pm.

On a recent near-winter day, when the slate-gray water in the Sound boiled and churned in an unpleasant manner and a light, useless rain fell, I sat with a friend at the raw bar at Elliott's and ate a lot of oysters.

There was a shared plate of a half-dozen oysters Rockefeller ($12.95), a preparation I had been, until recently, totally opposed to. Someone had once told me, apparently in convincing tones of authority, that oysters should only be eaten raw, and without lemon or cocktail sauce, but luckily I have stopped listening to anyone about anything and so was able to enjoy some large oysters baked with spinach, interestingly porky bacon, hollandaise sauce, and a very little Pernod. I like my hollandaise a little brighter tasting, but it didn't stop me from draining the surprisingly hot oyster from each and every shell.

Already we felt the grip of the ugly day loosening. Then a dozen oysters ($23.95) of mixed provenance arrived on a bed of ice, accompanied by a mignonette sherbet. To eat a few things slowly is to taste, to really taste, to try to put into words the fleeting thing that a taste is. The Olympias from Little Skookum Inlet were buttery and sweet, with hardly a trace of seafood flavor; the Kumamoto oysters from the south Sound had a strong briny flavor that evolved right on the tongue, tasting of ocean, then shellfish, and then kelp; the Yaquina Bay oysters were also salty, but with a surprising burst of slightly fruity mildness at the end. As for the Fanny Bay oysters, which we ordered because we liked the name, they were milky and soft and unconvincing.

Raw oysters are what the late Laurie Colwin would have called a "cheap luxury," meaning you can enjoy them in small amounts--and therefore not nurse feelings of deprivation from high lifestyle--for a moderate price. You might not get full on a half-dozen oysters, but you will be more than satisfied.