itinerant foodies

On my last full day visiting Maya, we went to lunch at Pearl Oyster Bar, a place that Maya’s been raving about since before we went to Maine back in our twenties. If you ever have the opportunity to have Maya drag you around to her favorite places in New York City, my experience from this trip (and many others) says: take her up on this. In short, I fell in love with Pearl within seconds of walking in, and not just because Maya’s entrance brought on cheery greetings from the bar staff. (It was instantly clear that her favorite spots are high on her dining rotation.)

This long and narrow restaurant, featuring a bar with many a mid-afternoon solo diners eating alongside it while reading the paper or a novel, looks more like Maine than most of Maine.

Their menu looked lovely, though I was not allowed to order from it; Maya had planned our lunch within ten minutes of my purchasing the flight.

First, we would have fried oysters with the green garnish serving as a “salad,” she announced to me as we sat down at the bar. If those oysters look familiar, it’s because they’ve been on IF before, and for good reason. Fried (yet not too heavy) breading meets the tang of dill pickles in every bite. On its own, these flavors would be regular bar fare, but with the addition of fresh oysters hiding within the layers of crunch, it was something that made for a decadent Monday lunch. I loved it.

Next on her agenda was a bowl full of mussels swimming in a sea of wine and cream tangled with a light mustard flavor. Dairy allergy be damned, I was determined to eat as many of these darlings as I could, while slurping and sucking up the sauce with all available methods. Luckily, french bread and mussel bones were both within reach for the task.

The main course, of course, was the lobster roll – one shared between the two of us – served alongside a mountain of shoestring fries. Heaven. Sweet and savory (and not too goopy; it has just the right consistency of real lobster meat and mayonnaise), I cherished bite after bite of our “sandwich” and felt sad when it was gone. Believe it or not, we were able to do considerable damage to those fries, as well.

Around the corner from our seats at the bar, I spied fresh blueberry pie, begging me to finish off the seaboard experience. But it wasn’t on Maya’s itinerary for the afternoon, so I watched, full and happy, as our plates and remnants went through the chef’s window to their resting place at the dish tank.

There was one thing that Maya did let me order: the wine. As I sat down at the bar, I asked the bartender for a light red. She started pouring two glasses of Domaine Sautereau Sancerre Rouge Cotes de Reigny and before I knew what hit me, we’d consumed the entire bottle. By the time we left, I found myself wanting to hug the staff. Thinking this might be considered a bit strange, I withheld my desire and with a nice Monday afternoon buzz, walked outside to continue my day.

Pearl Oyster Bar
18 Cornelia Street
New York, NY
212.691.8211

Tags: french fries, lobster rolls, mussels, oysters, Pearl Oyster Bar

This entry was posted on January 14, 2010 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Destination: Appetite, In The Neighborhood, New York City, Table Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.