Pearl Café
| Where | 599 Church Street, Richmond, 3121—View map |
Contact | 03 9427 1307 |
Website | — |
Open | Breakfast Monday to Sunday 7.00 am to 11.00 am |
Payment | EFTPOS, Visa, Mastercard, Diners, AMEX, Cash |
Diet | Check with venue |
Seating | Inside |
Kids | Get a baby sitter |
Pets | Unwelcome |
Elegant sufficiency
Ellie Parker 22 June 2008
Never has a café been so anticipated. I certainly bolted there when it opened.
Pearl Café's opening had enough hype, anticipation and reputation to ensure that it was the hottest new kid on the block.
The good news is that it is the hottest new kid on the block. The bad news is that it's the only kid on the block. This is a frontier outpost that is guaranteed a following, if only because there is nothing else to follow.
Operating on the cusp of Richmond's semi-industrial end, Pearl Café is the saving grace for couples reeling from the purchase of a Poliform couch from nearby Space Furniture. Calibre suits hail en masse from neighbouring advertising and marketing agencies, giddy with the possibility of real coffee, Alessi pepper grinders and the absence of a Paul's Milk sign out the front.
Gravity coffee, daily baked muffins, custard tarts or toasted Cape Seed Loaf with Hank's Jams have the makings of a morning ritual. The BELT (being a baby ciabatta filled with bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato) is a perfect mouthful. Order two with your latte and you will be good to go.
Pearl Café's Bircher muesli is one of the best in town. Served in a Riedel ‘O' series glass, it is a very civilised way to start the day. The fresh fruit salad is equally appealing. Also served in a Riedel glass, the fruits (all the ones you like and none of the ones you don't) are marinated in ginger and spearmint and served with yoghurt and honey dip.
Pearl Café operates on the quality not quantity theory. The coddled eggs ($15), served in baby ramekins, are a bit of a tease. Upon their arrival, a woman next to me exclaimed, ‘Oh, look how darling those little eggs are!' Indeed.
These little darlings are Pearl's hit. Great combinations make for great marketing. Each coddle comes with its own personality. Coddled eggs with chorizo, roasted tomato and melted Manchego cheese are irresistible. The spring onion, chilli, ginger, course white pepper and oyster sauce version is zingy and spicy, although the toasted rice cake (dry bird food) can be given the flick.
There is also a version with wild mushrooms, double smoked bacon, sage and burnt butter with toasted multigrain. Or try the sublime favourite with buttered English spinach, little lamb fennel sausages, spicy tomato jam and Pearl bread toast.
Pearl Café is all about elegant sufficiency. Don't go there with a hangover and a hankering for a big greasy with the lot. It is just not that type of place, nor should it be.
Expect exquisite little gems from mother Pearl.