Best of Boston

Briny oysters are just the tip of the ice-packed platters here. Sure, restaurateur Kathy Sidell provides an intimate Back Bay port of call for passersby to stop and slurp expertly shucked bivalves—buttery, Duxbury-raised Merry Oysters, sweet South Bay Blondes from a multi-generation Onset farm. But there’s also super-fresh shrimp and crab cocktail, sea urchin spruced up with ponzu sauce from medicine droppers, and a list of bottles for washing them down in crisp waves of wine.