One of the few year-round tenants at Hampton Harbor is the squeaky-clean Swell Oyster Shack, operated
by a pair of young, professional aquaculturists and oyster farmers who sell their own fresh, shucked New England oysters and other fresh locally sourced seafood products, including bluefish, salmon and steelhead trout pates, and very good, locally made clam chowder. 

The proprietors also operate public tours to their four-and-half-acre nursery on one of their two boats, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, in season. The proprietors are more than happy to introduce uninitiated customers to the fine art of raw oyster consumption, and educate them all about how and where oysters are cultured and harvested in
their two oyster farms, one of which is in the Hampton River estuary and the other about a mile off shore
from the Harbor.

The Swell Oyster shack is the third from the south end of the upper Harbor access road (GPS coordinates:  
1 Ocean Boulevard, Hampton, New Hampshire).

Editors’ Note: While researching this story, Visit New Hampshire’s Senior Editor consumed his first ever (and then second) raw oyster, with and without cocktail sauce here, not knowing what to expect, and found them quite palatable. We recommend the house cocktail sauce, though aficionados will have multiple other options here. Our Senior Editor says, “You’re never too old to try your first raw oyster”. He’s in a position to know.