Al Sunseri, P&J Oyster Company
New Orleans, Louisiana

Al is one of the owners of the P&J Oyster Company located on the north edge of the French Quarter, the oldest continually operating dealer of oysters in the United States (1876). Because of the oil spill P&J has not been able to shuck oysters since early June - and their supply has nearly been cut off. Al and his family were gracious and shared several stories about their lives and being part of a iconic local business. Al shared that in the face of the oil spill he remains hopeful that mother nature and the Gulf ecosystem will restore itself. We were impressed by Al's optimism and when we asked him about it - off camera he explained that Katrina had taught him a big lesson in priorities - that in the face of disaster and challenge - his family and friends were most important.

Update from Al December, 2010:

Sorry for not responding earlier but I’ve been busy with doing lots of stuff except for processing and selling a bunch of cultivated Louisiana oysters like we normally do…

Our business has changed significantly and we’ve had to recreate our business model hoping that the changes we’ve made will allow us to succeed until we get back to how we’re accustomed to operating our business…

My brother and I are the only full time employees…We have a few of our old employees working very, very part-time…The shuckers that we laid off on June 10, 201 are still not back to work and my son has left the company after working here since 2003…

We are no longer receiving any oysters from Louisiana but are getting some oysters from Texas…We have about 1/3 of the customers we had before the BP oil rig disaster back in April…

I don’t want to sound “doom and gloom,” but things at our business is different and we pray that we will be able to learn from what has occurred and be better for the experience…