Entrepreneurs Derrick’a Calvary and Javone Richardson were driving their new Street Oyster trailer back from Houston when they started receiving calls about where they were going with their shellfish. Passersby spotted the chargrilled oyster illustrations on the trailer, along with the couple’s phone number, and they needed to know where to get them.
“We told them that we’re going back to South Carolina,” Richardson said. “And to follow us on social media,” Calvary added.
Those commuters would be correct in their desire for the duo’s seafood. Street Oyster is a seafood food truck, and the top seller is the Street Oyster. It is an oyster on the half shell, topped with butter, lemon, Parmesan, spinach, breadcrumbs and sweet crab meat that is grilled to order on the trailer.
At $30 for half a dozen, these meaty mollusks rival the offerings at some of Charleston’s top restaurants. They’re a rich and comforting bite, best eaten with plenty of napkins, and in your car if you can’t wait to get home. If customers want to get even more decadent, they can opt for the loaded oysters, with the addition of shrimp, lobster and crawfish.
An oyster origin story
Richardson and Calvary started Street Oysters near the end of 2025, and they’ve taken off — literally and figuratively. They are on the road most of the week, bringing the trailer to Charlotte, Augusta, Spartanburg and wherever their fans request. Their homebase is in the historic Union Heights neighborhood of North Charleston. They park their business at 2033 Comstock Ave., right across the street from Richardson’s grandmother’s former home and next door to the community convenience store left to Richardson by his late mother, Eunice Yvette Richardson.
“It was called Union Heights Pantry,” Richardson said. “And to be honest, it wasn’t really making any money, so I had to try something different.” Selling chips and snacks wasn’t enough.
An idea came to Calvary after an evening of grilling oysters in their backyard. She knew that they had something special. Her cousins taste-tested the shellfish, and they agreed. “I thought people will pull up and buy them,” she said. “It started out with my close friends and my cousins, and then [Richardson’s] friends. Then it was the neighborhood, and then it went off on the end.”
Calvary is the culinary mind between the couple. She grew up cooking with her grandmother, Rosa Vanderhorst, who sold suppers out of her Meeting Street home and briefly ran a soul food restaurant, D&R’s, on Line Street. “She was known for her seafood dinners, deviled crabs and strawberry cake,” Calvary said. “I incorporate the recipes that my grandmother taught me.”
The full menu
Street Oysters offers more than the eponymous menu item. Customers can choose from crab egg rolls, a crab cake rich with meat and the new addition of a loaded spicy bowl, which is a South Florida dish of jalapenos, banana peppers, hot sausage, pickled egg and pickle juice eaten with Ruffles or Doritos. Street Oysters adds crawfish and crab to their dish.
Many new patrons learned about the trailer on social media. Calvary and Richardson post their schedule on Facebook and Instagram, but it was videos from fans that really spread the word.
Over countless posts, people are seen trying the chargrilled oysters for the first time and declaring them “the best.” Many times, the influencers are in their cars, as they can’t wait to get the bites home before trying, though they can be reheated in the oven if you want to eat them on the couch.
On a recent visit, one of the new Street Oyster customers was Southern soul singer Nephew Jones of “My Type of Carryin’ On” fame. His tour led him to Charleston (he is from the area), and he wanted to sample the crab egg rolls. After Jones posted on social media to his 10,400 followers, the mollusks received even more attention.
A new, roaming kitchen
After nine months of popping up as Street Oysters and going through 1,500 oysters a week, the first little red trailer wasn’t working for the duo. “It was time to upgrade,” Calvary said. “I’d categorize it as a ‘lemon,’ but we’ve learned from our mistakes.”
Now they have a deluxe, new food trailer with slick graphics that are earning them phone inquiries from random truck drivers on the interstate.
With more road trips on the horizon, they also want to break into the downtown scene. “I noticed that in Charleston, a lot of people still don’t know about this oyster food truck,” Calvary said.
She wants to park on the peninsula at least once a week. If anyone has word on a lot, reach out to Street Oyster on social media.
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