History

"The oysters did indeed taste fresh, tender and delicate -- not at all fishy. The fish was cooked just right and the Creole rice that came with it was yummy. The coleslaw - not too gooey, not too dry -- was spectacular. So good, in fact, it alone justifies a return visit. Besides to-die-for lemon meringue pie and scrumptious bread pudding with whiskey sauce, dessert options include vanilla ice cream or pineapple sherbet. The restaurant attracts an eclectic mix of downtown and Uptown business people, shoppers from Highland Park and hip urbanites. There's often a line out the door. It's an old-timey place that serves butter with its crackers and doesn't make customers have to ask for a glass of water. Ownership and management have stayed much the same since it opened 30 years ago, as has the menu. Besides attracting a loyal customer base, S&D also has a faithful crew, with several employees having been on staff since the beginning."
Dallas Business Journal, March 2006

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“If Herb and Mary Kay Story had opened their S&D OYSTER COMPANY restaurant one year later, you would be indulging in your favorite fresh Gulf Coast seafood at S, D & C Oyster Company. Fourteen years ago the couple named the famous eatery for their children Stephanie and Doak. That was the year 1BC – one year before Charlie Story was born.

After Herb’s six-year stint as a Navy fighter pilot stationed on the Gulf Coast, the SMU graduates moved back to the Park Cities. Yearning for the fresh seafood that they had enjoyed during Herb’s Navy career but finding no source in Dallas, the Storys decided to open their own seafood restaurant.

Armed with treasured family recipes and Mary Kay’s experience observing and learning from Louisiana cooks on frequent duck-hunting expeditions, the Storys opened S&D on McKinney.

Herb traveled the Gulf Coast visiting boat captains to establish a reliable source for fresh seafood.”
PARK CITIES PEOPLE, March 1, 1990

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Shucks, S&D can’t be beat
“Restaurants in Dallas, even those in the trendy Uptown neighborhood, come and go. They may be delightful when they’re at the top of their game, but I’ll take a well-established survivor like S&D OYSTER COMPANY any day over any one of the flavors of the month. Opened in 1976, S&D does a top-notch job with a simple New Orleans-inspired menu; no wonder it has legions of devoted fans who call it their favorite restaurant in all of Big D. There isn’t a better seafood gumbo in town.”
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 10, 2004

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“Despite the competition, patrons are as willing as ever to wait in line to feast on S&D’s New Orleans-style fresh Gulf fare. The informal setting, in an old brick building that’s a historic landmark on McKinney, has enough character to pull off the New Orleans act. The food helps set the mood, too, beginning with dark, mildly seasoned gumbo full of shrimp, meat and rice. All the oysters seemed straight off the boat, wonderfully fresh-tasting and plump. Fried shrimp – good-size, tender and coated with crisp, unobtrusive batter – also were top-of-the-line.”
The Dallas Morning News

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BEST SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
“Nothing fancy here, just basic ocean livestock. It’s fast, simple, and indelicate. But it’s the best fast, simple, and indelicate you’ll find. Broiled fish is extraordinary: fresh, moist, and well-seasoned.”
DALLAS OBSERVER, September, 2000

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“This room, with its tile floors and high ceiling, is the next best thing to being in the Big Easy. A dozen plump fresh oysters needed no accompaniment except S&D’s great red sauce (you can customize it yourself, or the waiter will oblige you). Bread pudding with whiskey sauce sent us reeling.”
Texas Monthly, June 2001

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THE OYSTER LOAF AT S&D OYSTER COMPANY
“First-class French bread, split, with a half dozen juicy fried oysters and a little tartar sauce. This is a perfect example of how the sandwich can be a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Normally, I insist that there’s no point in frying good oysters, and that tartar sauce is an insult to fish. But somehow this sandwich transcends its transgressions.”
D Magazine

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Flash in the Pan
“Herb Story was spoiled. While a pilot in the Navy, he had lived on every United States coast and had been able to get fresh seafood as easily as Dallasites get enchiladas. So when the SMU graduate returned to Dallas to go into the commercial real estate business, ‘I kept waiting for someone else to open a good seafood restaurant’, he says. Finally he took matters into his own hands and opened the S&D Oyster Company on McKinney. Six years later, it is one of Dallas’ most popular seafood spots.

Story planned a menu that included his favorite seafoods: shrimp, gumbo, red snapper, redfish, flounder, trout – and, of course, oysters. Everything is homemade here, including the hushpuppies and pies.”
The Dallas Morning News, July 18, 1982

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"Never mind the ever-escalating number of posh seafood restaurants in Dallas, S&D could easily survive for years just on its substantial assemblage of regulars who would much rather fight the ever-present crowds than switch. And understandably so; S&D consistently provides seafood cultists with uniformly superior fare.”
D Magazine, December 1981

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“S&D takes no reservations – you give your name to the maitre d’, order plastic cups of beer and head for the sidewalk benches to wait with the rest of the crowd. But if you prize absolutely fresh raw oysters and spicy seafood gumbo, it’s worth the wait.”
FORBES, December, 1981

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Restaurants Draw the Football Crowd
“Many fans of SMU and North Texas State and those who pilgrimage to Dallas for the Texas-Oklahoma clash this year will find their way to the S&D Oyster Company at 2701 McKinney Avenue near downtown Dallas.

Owner Herb Story located his restaurant in a century-old building that was once a grocery store. Today, the restaurant’s floors are bare cement, walls are painted brick, and the menu is a straight-forward lineup of seafood.

‘I never wanted it to be a gourmet seafood place,’ Story explains. ‘I wanted to be very basic and do things we could do well.’ The success of the S&D, since it opened five years ago, has helped usher in a whole new wave of restaurants along McKinney Avenue, which has become one of the main streets for restaurants in Dallas.”
Southern Living, September, 1981

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One of a few good seafood restaurants
“A few years ago, Herbert Story, 36, looked at this city’s seafood restaurant market, and with an entrepreneur’s instinct he knew what had to be done. ‘I just felt there was a true need for this type of food here’, he says today, four years after opening his S&D Oyster Company seafood eatery. He pauses, then adds: ‘Obviously we were right’.

His restaurant, a bustling place on McKinney Avenue, is a refurbished old brick warehouse, originally built as a livery stable. It was, as Story thought it might be, an immediate success when it opened.”
Nation’s RESTAURANT NEWS, September 22, 1980