You can’t throw an oyster shell without hitting Motorshucker these days. The trio behind the popular pop-up holds a weekly Sunday afternoon residency at Logan Square’s Easy Does It, where they serve oysters and seafood towers. They’ve taken over Queen Mary Tavern’s Sunday and Monday happy hours, so you can get shrimp cocktail with sambal cocktail sauce and mussels escabèche alongside East Coast oysters. You might also spot them partnering on events, like a shrimp boil at the Long Room, a seafood and rum pairing at the Bamboo Room, and a prix fixe dinner at Lula Cafe. Or you might spy their motorcycles zipping around town delivering oysters.

The mobile nature of the business is what gives Motorshucker its name. Founder and chef Mico Hillyard spent the pandemic engaging in two hobbies: repairing a 1974 Honda CB360 motorcycle and holding oyster parties in the butterfly garden at the Humboldt Park Natural Area. In 2021, he teamed up with Kat Dennis (both worked at Red & White Wines; Dennis has since left Motorshucker) to bring in bivalves from Fishers Island Oyster Farm in New York. They held private events and backyard parties. “We got a Yeti backpack and started delivering oysters on the bike,” Hillyard says.

Motorshucker expanded with the addition of Red & White colleagues Cub Dimling, whose family owns Fishers Island, and Jamie Davis, a chef who has worked at spots like Marisol. Adding Davis was key to pushing Motorshucker’s culinary offerings beyond just oysters. “The way I approach the menu is purposely subversive,” Davis says. “We’re serving caviar, but it’s like nachos, so it feels like something you’ve eaten before. Some dishes are inspired by travels to Europe, but we bring that back to Chicago in a way that feels like home.”

That approach manifests itself in dishes like Chicago-style hot dogs made with fish sausage, and disco chips — salt and vinegar chips topped with trout roe, bottarga, crème fraîche, and herbs. “We also offer oysters by the single piece so there’s no barrier to entry,” Dimling says.

The team is dedicated to sourcing sustainably. “Oysters are natural water filters, so they make the environment safer for other creatures,” Dimling says. “Even though we’re not on a coast that can produce oysters, we use it as a talking point for aquaculture and improving our waters here, too.”

Motorshucker’s offerings keep growing. The crew has added a butcher shop, Cut Once, which focuses on whole-animal butchery. They sell the meat at markets and for delivery (see their offerings at @cutoncechicago on Instagram). They’ve also launched an online store at motorshucker.com, where you can order oysters (a shucking add-on is available) as well as shrimp cocktail and bottles of horseradish and Fresno pepper cocktail sauce for delivery. While they’ve gotten so big that most deliveries are done via car, that doesn’t mean they’ll stop using the vehicle that inspired their name. Says Davis: “It’s part of the origin and likely part of the future.”