The Edge Conference 2014

Skip Bennett has spent his entire life on Duxbury Bay. As a local who can trace his lineage back to the Mayflower, he grew up catching lobsters with his dad, who was a part-time lobsterman, and digging steamers with his grandmother. After graduating from Merrimack College with a finance degree, Skip quickly realized that his passion for working on the bay would always trump a life behind a desk. Instead of taking a job in New York, he returned to Duxbury to make a living by the water. He started by growing quahog clams, which all died from disease in 1995. So he decided to give oysters a try instead.

Despite some very loud and serious reservations from friends and fellow fishermen, Skip started his search for an education in oyster farming and his first batch of seed. Through that process he met Christian Horne, an oyster farmer whose family owned Chance Along Farm in Freeport, Maine. Christian needed a place to grow oysters; Skip needed seed. It quickly became a happy partnership and after many trials and tribulations, they started growing some damn fine oysters.

As an oyster farmer, Skip is considered an artisan. He often compares the process to winemaking and has honed his growout methods to capture the unique flavor of Duxbury Bay between two shells. For over 15 years, he and the team behind Island Creek Oysters have harvested a consistent, flavorful oyster to overwhelming acclaim from chefs, media and epicureans nationwide.

Skip now oversees the largest producing farm and crew at Island Creek and is the owner of the wholesale arm of the company, Island Creek, Inc. Despite his many attempts to stay out of an office, he does a great job shifting back and forth between the world of the boots and the land of the suits (don’t worry: he’s still on the water every day).

With the opening of Island Creek Oyster Bar in 2010, Skip’s first restaurant venture, his goal was to expand upon the locavore movement. Rather than bringing the farmer to the restaurant, with Island Creek Oyster Bar, brought the restaurant to the farmer. A place where guests can reliably and consistently find hand-selected local and sustainably-raised seafood and shellfish, while learning the importance of local and sustainable products, Island Creek Oyster Bar is a joint venture from Skip and partners Jeremy Sewall and Garrett Harker.

In 2013, Skip and his partners collaborated once again to open Row 34 in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood. Located at 383 Congress Street, Row 34 is a workingman’s oyster bar: an approachable and convivial neighborhood-focused restaurant and bar that will continue the team’s mission of celebrating New England’s rich seafood traditions and the farmers, fishermen, and lobstermen who inspire them.

When he isn’t on the water or at the restaurant, Skip spends his time traveling and working with the Island Creek Oysters Foundation project in Zanzibar. He has two daughters who share his passion for the water and spend most of their summer days on the bay with their dad.