Even if you don’t eat oysters, chances are you’ve heard of Fanny Bay. That’s the name of a picturesque place on Vancouver Island north of Nanaimo that’s known for the bivalves.

The eponymously named Fanny Bay Oysters is credited with being the first company to make B.C. oysters available worldwide, having farmed and harvested them there for more than three decades.

Now Fanny Bay is making a name for itself in a new way in Vancouver, having just opened an oyster bar and seafood restaurant here and being the only place downtown where you can buy live oysters, mussels, clams, crab, geoduck (“gooey-duck”), prawns, and more right out of tanks to cook at home. The Fanny Bay Oyster Bar and Shellfish Market bills itself as offering “tide to table” cuisine, and there’s no arguing with that claim: it doesn’t get fresher than this. Those tanks get filled with seafood straight from Fanny Bay farms every morning.

A note about that word, farm. If, in relation to seafood, it makes you want to cry foul, simmer down: shellfish farming is not the same as net-cage salmon farming, the kind of environmentally damaging production system that David Suzuki rails against. For one thing, unlike in other forms of aquaculture, shellfish farmers don’t feed their crops. Oysters, clams, and mussels feed on algae and phytoplankton, so they rely on clean water and healthy ecosystems to survive. Fanny Bay, which grows shellfish in Baynes and Desolation sounds and Okeover Inlet, is an Ocean Wise–certified producer, while the restaurant is an Ocean Wise partner. Suzuki himself even lists farmed oysters on his top-10 list of sustainable seafood.

Fanny Bay Oysters, the largest producer of shellfish in Canada, was purchased in 2007 by Taylor Shellfish Farms, a Shelton, Washington–based company with three oyster bars in Seattle. The Vancouver oyster bar is situated on a nondescript block of Cambie Street behind the CBC building. Inside is a bright, lively, clean-lined, contemporary space in white and grey, with several high-tops by the tanks, other tables by big windows, and a long bar where you can watch general manager Issac Martin del Campo and others shuck oysters. (Formerly of Rodney’s Oyster House and Joe Fortes Seafood and Chop House, Martin del Campo claims that he has shucked about two million of the little devils to date.)

After you walk by the tanks—which hold Shigoku, Kumamoto, kusshi, Olympia, golden mantle, Fanny Bay, and other varieties of oysters, among other shellfish—it’s hard to narrow down your meal choices to just a few. Get a sampling of oysters, maybe some petite Fanny Bay, briny mattaki, and firm kusshi, all served with cocktail sauce and freshly microplaned horseradish, brought to the table with glass bottles of house-made mango-habanero and watermelon-chili sauces. (Be prepared to wait if you happen to visit during the daily happy hour, when freshly shucked Fanny Bays go for a buck each. On a recent weekday visit, the place was packed.)

If you’re squeamish about raw oysters, opt for the fried version. Panko-crusted medium-size Fanny Bays are served with a piquant house-made tartar sauce and coleslaw.

The geoduck is a must, even if you are repulsed by the clam’s odd appearance, with its large neck, or siphon, that can reach a metre in length. The flesh of the extra-large mollusk is dipped in boiling water for exactly eight seconds before being plunged in ice water. Chef Chris Andraza (also formerly of Rodney’s) slices it and serves it sashimi-style, presenting the ivory meat in a pretty white shell alongside spoonfuls of horseradish, fuchsia-coloured watermelon radish (more pungent than the former), and pickled ginger. The oceanlike flavour resembles that of a cherrystone clam but with more crunch.

Andraza wisely applies an equally light touch to other dishes, letting the seafood star and never overfussing. Crab cakes are a dense threesome with chipotle aioli and a heap of arugula. Perfectly plain roasted sockeye salmon, served with broccolini and potatoes, has a crispy skin. Ceviche consists of scallops, shrimp, and lingcod with a bright pineapple pico de gallo. Meaty grilled scallops rest on pork-belly mats topped with minted-pea purée.

For those in the group who don’t eat seafood (there’s always one), there’s a triple-A sirloin accompanied by chimichurri sauce and thick fries or a pasta dish with sautéed oyster mushrooms and arugula in a tarragon cream sauce.

B.C. wines dominate the concise wine list, but the few from other regions are smartly chosen. (A bottle of Ferrari-Carano Fumé Blanc with that platter of smoked seafood or bowl of Salish mussels and Manila clams? Yes, please.) If you have a sweet tooth, you’ll want to share a piece of chocolate cheesecake with a graham-wafer base and honey-marshmallow topping.

Dinner-menu items range from $9 for seafood chowder to $25 for bouillabaisse.