Edible Food Find: Green Island Oyster
Photos by Adam DeTour
About a month into opening his latest restaurant, Mike Covino received assurances from the sea that Green Island Oyster would succeed. A couple traveling through the city sat down at high-top by the bar to a plate of fresh Norumbega oysters harvested from the Damariscotta River in Maine. One of the large shells held—along with the sweet, buttery, briny meat—a pearl.
According to Green Island, which made its maiden voyage this summer in the historic Canal District, the odds of finding a natural pearl in an oyster sit somewhere around 1 in 10,000. The discovery astounded Covino, president of Niche Hospitality Group; he had his creative director come straight to the restaurant, his group’s fifth, for a photo.
Beyond the ocean’s blessing, Green Island has a lot going for it. Few if any dedicated oyster bars operate in Central Massachusetts, and the restaurant lets guests know how seriously it takes its mollusks from the moment they enter: Greeting patrons isn’t a desk with a dutiful host or hostess, but rather two shuckers toiling at a raw bar, piles of New England oysters resting before them atop pebble ice. The “R” month rule dictates that the winter months present the best time to enjoy the tastiest, freshest oysters, Covino says, with $1 specials served through the end of the year. At Green Island, you can even order oysters topped with tuna tartare or the sumptuous combination of crème fraîche and caviar.
Its location in the city inspired Green Island’s name. The Blackstone Canal—hence, the Canal District—was rendered obsolete as a means of transport by the mid-1800s after the opening of the Worcester-Providence/Boston railroads. Shut in by the canal, the Mill Brook and the railroad, the neighborhood around it began calling itself an island. “It felt like a cool name for an oyster bar,” Covino says.
As it battens down the hatches for the winter, Green Island anticipates its light and buttery lobster rolls and fried delicacies—overflowing platters of whole belly clams, shrimp, scallops and haddock—to give way to hearty chowders and bisques and fresh seafood dishes kissed by the fires of a wood oven it inherited from the previous restaurant.
“The restaurant morphs in the winter,” Covino says, adding, “There’s always something to feature in the world of seafood. In November and December, Nantucket Bay scallops come into season; they’re beautiful, succulent little scallops.”
In the barroom at Green Island, designed to feel like the inside of a weather-beaten cottage isolated in a coastal New England town, the cocktails range from tropical to briny to savory to warming. A gin fat-washed with blue cheese lends a silky mouthfeel and umami flavor to a martini. Mixed rum drinks flow from the taps, including Covino’s favorite, the Goombay Smash, a blend of Jamaican rum, coconut liqueur, apricot brandy, pineapple, orange and lime juice, and aromatic bitters. The tropical concoction transports the restaurateur, whose group has operated in Worcester for over 20 years, to Edgartown, the setting for some of his breezier days.
“I worked on Martha’s Vineyard many, many years ago. There’s a place called David Ryan’s where we used to drink Goombay Smashes out of mason jars back when it was cool to do,” says Covino.
Running a seafood restaurant in the winter is uncharted waters for Niche Hospitality. Its warmweather vibe doesn’t exactly mesh with days growing darker earlier, bleaker and colder. Eventually snow will blanket the dormant patio and shuttered shack bar. But Covino believes people will crave, if not lobster rolls and fried clams, long dinners with comforting chowders, fire-roasted fish, fresh pastas and sautés of shrimp and scallops. And he always has that single tiny pearl of hope.
“Everyone talks about finding a pearl in an oyster, but nobody ever finds one,” Covino says. “I guess that was our blessing: ‘Hey, you’re a new place, so here’s an oyster with a pearl in it.’”
90 Harding St., Worcester
greenislandoyster.com
This story appeared in the Winter 2026 issue.
