Having relatives in great places is sweet and this is my sixth or seventh trip to the city. And, because the house is vast with room for all and my father-in-law such a good cook, we tend to stay in for dinner.

But Drago’s is a family favorite and we have to eat here. This is where the now popular New Orleans charbroiled oyster originated in the early ‘90s, which is pretty much all we order: platters and platters of the buttery, garlicky, grilled bivalves.

“We’ll have another dozen,” says my husband’s brother, Jamie, to our server.

Chances are, even if you don’t like oysters, you’d like these. They taste like the world’s best garlic bread with a little something more. If you were blindfolded, I don’t think you’d know they were oysters, yet die-hard oyster lovers adore them.

We have so many great oysters on the South Shore, but I’ve never had or seen them grilled the way owner Tommy Cvitanovich does it at Drago’s.

The restaurant was founded in 1969 in Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans, by Tommy’s parents, Drago and “Miss Klara” Cvitanovich, who are still very much a part of its operations. Some 38 years later, in 2007, the family opened a second Drago’s on the Mississippi River, steps from the Quarter. The 360-seat restaurant is inside the Hilton, which was totally renovated after Hurricane Katrina, or the storm, as locals call it.

As soon as you walk into either Drago’s you see dozens of oysters on the half shell on an enormous grill. Chefs literally throw handfuls of a Parmesan, Romano, and parsley topping over the butter-sauce-filled oysters, causing the fire to flare up and char them.

Tommy came up with the idea of grilling oysters in the shell one bright day at the restaurant in the early ‘90s, after sending out an order of redfish, covered in garlic, butter, and herbs.

“We cooked the redfish with skin and scales that acted like a shell or extra plate that held the juices and basting in,” said Tommy. “I thought ‘there’s no better liquid than oyster juice,’ and put two and two together and won the lottery. It’s one of the coolest things, they’re on a lot of menus in town now. I pinch myself.”

In 2009, Drago’s sold more than 3 million oysters, a dozen at a time.

“We knew it was special right away, but there was a high learning curve for mass-producing them,” said Tommy.

Drago’s is still getting all its oysters from the Gulf and Tommy wants people to know that endless tests have found all the seafood leaving those waters to be free of hydrocarbons and oil. This echoes the findings of a report released from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Food & Drug Administration last week.

Which isn’t to say everything’s good in the Gulf since the BP oil spill. According to Tommy, a large percentage of the oyster beds in the Mississippi Delta region are dead now, due to the influx of fresh water that was diverted into the Gulf to keep oil off the coast.

Tommy was very interested when I told him about Island Creek Oyster’s farming operation in Duxbury. He’s familiar with the general area because he buys some of his lobsters in Bourne.

Five weeks after Katrina, when Jamie and Mary finally returned home to New Orleans, I kept asking them if this place or that place had reopened. It was the only way I could try to gauge the devastation. Hardly any place was open, and those that were, were mostly giving away what food they had.

And Drago’s was first among them.

“I was in Baton Rouge and came back … a few days after the storm hit… but Freddie McKnight our manager stayed in the restaurant during and after the storm,” said Tommy. “We were serving first responders and employees who lived in our neighborhood the day after Katrina.”

In the eight weeks after the storm, Drago’s gave away almost 80,000 free meals, while busily repairing the restaurant. For this generosity, the Washington D.C.-based National Restaurant Association honored Drago’s with its Restaurant Neighbor Award – the first to be given to a restaurant in New Orleans.

In the five years since Katrina, it seems that Drago’s business has about doubled, what with the new restaurant. They don’t take reservations at either location and we waited an hour in the warm night to get our table for 12 (we are 15 in all, but some of us hadn’t arrived yet).

A good thing is a good thing and it’s good to see a family make good – whether that family is mine, the Cvitanovich’s, or the family of people that is the city of New Orleans.

Lisette Dell’Apa’s Drago-inspired grilled oysters

Drago’s recipe is different from the one my sister-in-law (in Pennsylvania) has struck upon after trying many methods for replicating Drago’s oysters. I suspect that’s because Drago’s has a much hotter grill than a home gas grill. Tommy Cvitanovich told me that his butter sauce is a combo of butter and margarine, chopped garlic, Italian seasoning, and black pepper. His cheese is a mixture of half Romano and half Parmesan with some chopped parsley. Drago’s puts the butter sauce on the oysters before they’re set on the grill, then throws the cheese over them. Lisette finds that they burn if she does it that way and has settled on the following recipe.

This is for a dozen oysters: double, triple, or quadruple it for more!

The sauce:

1 stick melted unsalted butter
1 pinch kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 pinch cayenne pepper
1 pinch white pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon minced Italian parsley

Blend everything together.

Cheese mixture:

1 1/4 cups grated Romano and Pecorino cheeses, mixed
1/3 cup breadcrumbs

Mix cheese and crumbs together

1. Shuck a dozen oysters
2. Heat a charcoal or gas grill until very, very hot.
3. Place oysters on the hottest part of the grill and let them cook in their own juices for three to four minutes or until they start to bubble and the edges ruffle.
4. Top each with a generous portion of the cheese topping (enough to fill the shell).
5. Sprits with water a few times to get the flames to jump
6. When the topping starts to bubble and brown, which could be as long as five to seven minutes from the time you started cooking them, ladle a little butter sauce on each oyster (using a long ladle and gloves).
7. Cook for another minute or so.
8. Transfer oysters to a serving platter, drizzle with more butter sauce, and serve with hunks of crusty bread, lemon wedges, and hot sauce.

The particular “Dish” they were referring to was written a few days after I’d gotten home from a trip to Italy. It was a plea mostly to Starbucks — as our main café option on the South Shore. I asked that they start offering small, low-cost, locally made, simple sandwiches with fresh ingredients — and to serve them on napkins (the way a donut or cookie can be offered) from platters without heavy-duty plastic packaging.

It was also a rallying call to everyone who cares to help us create a more beautiful everyday life experience for ourselves through simple local pleasures.

Most of the comments I got were from people who agreed with my sentiments, but one was from someone who thought I was such a pretentious snob that my editor should be fired for letting me go on about such trivia!

Here are some (slightly edited) excerpts from some of those who wrote in:??”I LOVE A PANINI TOO, but I like even better what you’re really saying here, which is that community is stronger when we can gather together casually and eat good stuff. Europe really does know how to do this in a way that the States hasn’t quite embraced fully. And the thing is, it’s not that difficult, like you illustrate with your homemade sandwiches. As you say, making our everyday lives better in even the smallest ways makes a big difference in our enjoyment of life in general. Thanks for pointing that out.”

“OMG. How pretentious is this woman? Poor thing…how difficult it must be for her to return to little ole USA after one of ‘her ten trips to Italy’. Pleeaasse, spare us all of your ‘troubles’. What a snob. Her editor should fired for allowing such a trivial matter to be printed….A Plea For A Good Panini? I think I’m going to be sick.” ?

“I didn’t get the snob… I got the love. It’s the joy, the taking time, the fresh stuff, the making it yourself….. It’s Slow Food, without the pretension of calling it that: It’s about pace, and food as part of the fabric of what we’re doing.”

“Ah yes, great memories of stopping in at Café Bonari in the heart of Paganico (Tuscany) — a sandwich with fresh, local bread, ham, gorgonzola, and arugula along with an outstanding cappuccino… take me back.”

“Yes, I too wish there were more cafes serving delicious paninis around here. It’s definitely harder for these smaller, lesser known places to compete with Starbucks… Even though I CAN think of some good sandwich places in the Boston area, I definitely prefer the culture in Europe of sitting outside at a cafe relaxing at lunch and enjoying a bite.”

“I think your article carries a lot of merit…. Europeans have the finesse to provide an environment whereby eating becomes an art and relaxation goes along with their plan….I abhor food placed in styrofoam or plastic containers. I am leaving for Europe next month and I fully anticipate enjoying my food in Italy, France & Switzerland so much more than here !!! They know how to do it right!!!!”

“I’m glad that you’re giving a plug to my dear ‘ol Starbucks. For all the bashing we hear about the corporate giants, I feel that they know how to do it right. They create a great balance of community and commerce, and I for one love them. Would I prefer to have a family-run shop on every corner, with cafe tables and chairs, umbrellas and waiters with aprons whisking in and out — sure. But until that happens, every time I step into a Starbucks I feel at home. Students feverishly studying, a couple on a “coffee date” and me. “Decaf Iced Grande Americano please…”??

“I just finished reading your article on the lack of good cafes here on the South Shore. I enjoyed it very much! I agree with you that we need a more European approach to our way of ‘dining.’?I do have a suggestion, though, regarding good cafes. While they are probably incorrect in labeling a single sandwich a ‘panini,’ I think you would like the offerings at Circe’s Grotto in North Scituate. All fresh ingredients and simply delicious…..Their gorgonzola is the best I’ve ever had!?I have dreamed of owning my own Italian pastry café in Scituate Harbor for many years. A place worthy of a walk down Hanover Street in the North End. A place to get an expertly made expresso (in real porcelain cups, of course) to enjoy with a homemade Italian pastry. I am a former cake decorator who had to change career paths, but hope to return to my first love of baking. Ah, someday….”?Good luck on your quest to find a little Rome/Venice in our neck of the woods!”