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Another Kind of Comfort

It takes time to make a Pearl.

A A A Comments By Jason Sheehan Thursday, Feb 16 2006

The fish was black bass, that night's not-so-local catch du jour, and it arrived slightly overdone, with the head and backfin meat almost too crisp to eat. But the skin was delicious and the center filet tender and crunchy with pin bones. The sautéed spinach on the side was all bacon-jacked and garlicky, a soul-food standard done with such cool confidence that it didn't occur to me until a couple of days later how out of place it was beside an essentially Chinese entree.

Black Pearl is a place best approached when you're hungry for precision flavors and discursive, academic combinations -- not a steak, not a cheeseburger, certainly not clam chowder, but maybe the essence of clam chowder, a beef digression. It's a place that takes time to love, that requires a yen for a different kind of comfort.

Mark Manger

At the right time, in the right mood, Black Pearl can be a gem.

Location Info

Map

Black Pearl

1529 S. Pearl St.
Denver, CO 80210

Category: Restaurant > New American

Region: South Denver

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Details

1529 South Pearl Street, 303-777-0500. Hours: noon-2 p.m. Monday-Friday; 4 p.m.-close Monday-Saturday

Seared tuna: $10
Chowdah: $8
Boring salad: $8
Mussels: $17
Gnocchi: $17
Whole fish: $22
Dessert: $6
Cheese: $4/piece

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I finished with a cheese course -- a Dutch gouda, chopped from the block with both rind and label intact, but served with a blob of gritty eucalyptus honey that was amazing -- and dessert, forgoing the pot de crème and housemade milk and cookies with white-chocolate martini in favor of old-fashioned comfort: gingerbread pudding. The pudding was warm, subtly sweet and gingery, everything it should have been, but now I was disappointed that the kitchen hadn't cut loose just this once and gotten crazy with the dish. It wasn't that I didn't like it; I just wanted more.

Which, all things considered, is a good way for any restaurant to leave a customer: wanting more.

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