New York restaurant fave: Pearl Oyster Bar

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Whenever I fly into New York, I’ll plan to check out whatever new restaurant sounds interesting and fun. But I always go that first night to a restaurant that’s been around since 1997. And that’s Pearl Oyster Bar on Cornelia Street in the West Village. Pearl, named for owner Rebecca Charles’ Scottish-Jewish grandmother Pearle (pictured in the restaurant’s card and postcard), doesn’t take reservations, so there’s always a wait of sorts out on the sidewalk in front -- or, if you’re lucky, at one of the two window seats inside, where you can order a glass of Sancerre while you wait.

Personally, I’d wait a very long time for a bucket of steamer clams served with drawn butter or the perfectly fried oysters served with handmade tartar sauce tucked under each one. (Charles picked up her frying skills under New York chef Anne Rosenzweig at Arcadia.) Oh, go ahead, order a bowl of the milky clam chowder laced with potatoes and smoky bacon or a half dozen Little Neck clams on the half shell. To top off my order, I usually go with the spectacular pound-and-a-half grilled Maine lobster at market price ($34 last visit) and/or the classic Pearl lobster roll with shoestring fries and maybe some sugar snap peas.

Charles spent summers in Maine as a kid and has excellent lobster connections. Her crustaceans taste as if they’ve just been plucked from the water, perfectly cooked, perfectly delicious. And you can’t leave without ordering a butterscotch praline parfait for dessert: vanilla ice cream layered with caramel sauce that tastes of burnt sugar and butter.

It might be a good idea, too, to pick up a copy of her cookbook, ‘Lobster Rolls & Blueberry Pie’ (published in paperback in 2006, but you can also turn up used copies of the hardcover edition on the internet) for the butterscotch parfait recipe--and of course, the sumptuous lobster roll.

Pearl Oyster Bar, 18 Cornelia Street, New York City; (212) 691-8211. Open for lunch Monday through Friday from noon to 2:30 p.m. and for dinner Monday through Friday from noon until 11 p.m. No reservations.

--S. Irene Virbila

Photo is Rebecca Charles’ grandmother, Pearle. Family photo.