S&D Oyster Company opened 50 years ago, in September 1976. Its founder Herb Story recounts the 47 years he spent running the company with his wife.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
When S&D Oyster Company opened 50 years ago on Dallas’ McKinney Avenue, a then-quiet street, a dozen bivalves and a cup of gumbo would set you back $3.95.
Military fighter pilot Herb Story had just moved to Dallas after living in San Diego, New Orleans, Biloxi, Miss., and Pensacola, Fla. — coastal cities where he had developed a taste for seafood during his Navy career.
But in Dallas, Story was hungry.
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“I just got to missing seafood,” he said.
Story and his wife, Mary Kary, bought a charming building in a Dallas neighborhood not known for much except the Quadrangle. (It would be more than a decade before neighbors started calling it “Uptown.”) Story believes he paid $20,000 for the orange-red brick structure, which dates back to 1891 and housed grocery stores from the 1920s to 1950s. Story filled the historic room with four-tops sporting red-and-white checkered tablecloths. Servers, then and now, wear crisp button downs and sharp bowties.
He created a little slice of the Southern coast and plunked it in the middle of Dallas. Story proudly owned S&D for 47 years.
Gulf oysters are a signature at S&D Oyster Company in Uptown Dallas, which turns 60 on Sept. 16, 2026.
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New Orleans barbecue shrimp were added after S&D Oyster Company opened in 1976.
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The building that houses S&D Oyster Company has been on this street since 1891, according to the Historical Marker Database.
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New Orleans barbecue shrimp at S&D Oyster Company have become a popular order, founder Herb Story said.
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Customers congregate at S&D Oyster Company in Dallas on a Saturday in September 2026.
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Signage inside S&D Oyster Company makes us laugh every time.
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At the back bar of S&D, customers can eat or drink.
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When Herb Story opened S&D Oyster Company in 1976, he was missing Gulf Coast seafood he enjoyed as a pilot in the Navy.
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Celebrating 50 years, S&D Oyster Company has a week’s worth of fun events planned.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
He’d stop at tables to clap a friend on the back or remember a pint-sized customer’s name, as if he were the grandpa for the whole neighborhood. From the beginning, his idea for S&D was earnest and uncomplicated: Offer “great attention to detail and strive for quality on everything,” he said.
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The restaurant business isn’t usually that simple. But Story, now 82, said S&D “just worked.”
It was profitable in the first month, and Story credits his wife Mary Kay’s recipes as part of the success. Two of the restaurant’s cooks, Santos Vasquez and Fortino Calzada, have worked in its kitchen since it opened Sept. 16, 1976.
“They know the recipes and everything about S&D,” Story said.
So, too, does the restaurant’s general manager, Therese Washington, a 32-year employee. Little has changed about the original dining room, the menu and the restaurant’s personality in 50 years. Story added a New Orleans-style patio behind the restaurant in 2014.
Story retired and sold the business in 2023 to D-FW brothers Ryan, Sean and Beau Bellomy when Mary Kay had health issues. She died in May 2026, and all her recipes — items like fried shrimp, hush puppies and broiled snapper — are still used in the S&D kitchen.
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Story said the Bellomy brothers were a natural fit because they were already in the restaurant business as the co-owners of Rex’s Seafood. At the time of the sale, Sean Bellomy called it “a privilege and an honor” to continue the legacy at S&D, one of Dallas’ historic seafood spots. They fancied up the place a bit, opening a small cocktail den upstairs.
S&D founder Herb Story, kneeling, sold his family business to Ryan Bellomy, Beau Bellomy and Sean Bellomy in 2023.
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Just before S&D’s 50th birthday, Story tells its stories:
What was on the menu in 1976?
“We had very few changes to the menu since day one,” Story said. “Over time, we added things like the muffaletta and barbecue shrimp. But mainly, the basics were oysters on the half shell, fried oysters and fried shrimp.”
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You also serve a cheeseburger at a seafood place. Why?
“I wanted an option for those who didn’t want seafood. The regulars who were there a lot certainly knew about it — and certainly didn’t want seafood every time.”
Story was ahead of his time: Today, some Dallas restaurateurs tack a burger onto a menu, no matter the cuisine. Dallas-born Tex-Mex restaurant Taco Diner — R.I.P. — might’ve done it best. You’ll find a burger in unlikely places like cocktail bar Bowen House, Italian restaurant Caffe Lucca and seafood joint Flying Fish, to name three.
Has your burger changed in 50 years?
“I don’t think one bit,” Story said.
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The recipe is a nothing-fancy cheeseburger topped with mustard and garnished with lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion.
New Orleans barbecue shrimp were not on S&D Oyster Company’s menu when the restaurant launched in 1976. We’re glad they made it to the menu now.
COURTNEY PERRY/127638
How would you characterize S&D’s first five years?
“We just were such an instant hit,” Story said. “Before we opened to the public, we had a private party and invited a bunch of our friends to come down and taste the food and socialize with us one day. That really got us going, I think. It was one of the smartest things we did.”
What never worked at S&D?
“Maybe my mother’s cheesecake. We had that on the menu as one of the dessert items for years, but it was not a big seller so we finally took it off after my mother died,” Story said. “It’s been off the menu for quite a while.”
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Two times in one year, cars launched through the wall of S&D Oyster Company in the middle of the night. Both times, no one was inside the restaurant. Police believe the drivers were leaving a nearby bar. “Nothing shocks me anymore,” founder Herb Story told ‘The News’ in 2020.
Courtesy of S&D Oyster Company
How involved was your wife, Mary Kay?
“Very involved. Her hand is in every recipe.”
Whose idea was it to have the waiters wear bowties?
“Both of us,” Story said, referring to himself and his wife. “We’re referring back to a New Orleans look; that’s where that came from.”
The restaurant had rules for its servers: No facial hair and short haircuts were requirements for male servers. Story paused. “That’s something you can’t do today.”
Servers wear crisp white botton-downs and bowties at S&D Oyster Company in Dallas.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
Did you ever want to open S&D in other cities or neighborhoods?
Yes, he said. Story became friends with Stanley Marcus, the Neiman Marcus executive, and the two wanted to open an S&D in Santa Fe. Story also considered Nashville.
“Venturing out of Dallas, Santa Fe and Nashville were the two I had the most focus on,” he said. “But I never could put it all together.”
The back patio at S&D Oyster Company in Dallas was installed in 2014. It’s one of the best seats in the house.
Shafkat Anowar/The Dallas Morning News
What advice would you give another restaurateur?
“Just the basics,” Story said: “Great attention to detail. Striving for quality in all areas. And treating your staff as family.”
At what point did you realize — if ever — that S&D could live for a long time?
“I never even questioned it,” he said. “I never even thought about it coming to an end. It just wasn’t going to happen.”
S&D Oyster Company is at 2701 McKinney Ave., Dallas. Closed Sundays.
On Sept. 16, 2026, the restaurant will sell Gulf oysters for 50 cents and 50% off alcohol to celebrate the 50th birthday. The anniversary party continues Sept. 19, 2026, with beer specials and 50th anniversary merchandise priced at $19.76.