Sharp ideas, sharp knives, sharp service: local fish and seafood are the stars of the
show at this polished coastal debutant.
Seafood$$
Fishermen and seafarers can be a superstitious lot.
Understandable when you consider how dangerous their workplace is.
Renaming a boat calls for a formal ceremony, lest you displease the
sea gods. Shakers of salt are never passed between passengers but placed on
tables for others to pick up. Bringing bananas onto a ship? Huge no-no.
I don’t know if The Big Book of Sea Lore explicitly mentions ministerial intervention, but it’s safe to say that the controversial demersal fishing ban is one of the worst hands that WA’s seafood industry has ever been dealt.
Not only has the ban robbed many commercial fishers of their livelihoods; it’s also impacted anyone that enjoys cooking and eating dhufish, red emperor, nannygai and other prized southwest fish species.
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Scott Bridger is someone that ticks the boxes for both of the above.
He also, sadly, ticks the box for “opening a polished seafood restaurant on the exact day that the ban was announced in early December”.
Yet despite the comical badness of such an omen, Bridger chose not to throw all the toys out of the pram, but to roll up his sleeves, take a deep breath and stick to the plan.
The result is a restaurant that, two months into its innings, looks set to become a key WA coastal dining destination.
If you’re familiar with Bridger’s cooking story, you’ll know that the Freo-born chef counts Rockpool Bar & Grill and, for the past 13 years, Bib & Tucker as previous postings.
And if you’re familiar with the latter’s primetime address at Leighton Beach,
getting to Pearla & Co – Bridger’s new gig – will be a cinch.
It’s an easy walk away at the one-time home of designer boho small bar, Al Lupo.
Gone are the timber riches and sunken front bar of the former. In their place are sleek black furnishings, chain mail curtains and understated nods to the ocean. Starkly set tables are offset by coastal plants. Walls are hung with elegant Japanese gyotaku art, the whole-fish equivalent of fingerprinting.
Real-life whole fish hang in dedicated dry-ageing fridges, their flesh intensifying in colour until they, to quote a dining companion, “almost don’t look real.” (He meant it in a good way.)
Dry-ageing doesn’t just make fish look better: it makes fish taste better too and does the right thing by the fishermen – the “and Co” in the restaurant’s name – that work hard to catch the good stuff. (Pearla, meanwhile, is a nod to Bridger’s grandmother, Pearl Bridger.)
Supple red dominoes of aged Rottnest Island tuna loin are arranged alongside their cured watermelon doppelgangers. Thick steaks of swordfish are
crumbed in panko and carefully fried until they bloom into pearlescent-centred
cotoletta.
Prior to the ban, Busselton fisherman Anthony Heslewood of Revolution Fisheries supplied line-caught pink snapper and other fish to Pearla & Co. He’s since started fishing in Albany which requires more time and more fuel to catch things that, naturally, diners need to pay more for.
A bit of hapuka, grilled over charcoal like most of the seafood here, plus accoutrements? That’ll be $75, thanks.
While high-end ingredients should, understandably, command high-end prices, my belief is that a great (seafood) chef has the skills to make the not-so-premium ingredients pay their bills. I’ve yet to dine when special cuts such as tuna collars or hapuka livers have made the menu: all hail the joys of whole fish butchery.
I have, however, admired shredded confit swordfish belly turned into a spicy and bitey nduja; a meaty fillet of grilled leatherjacket – a by-catch fish – afloat in a sharp beurre blanc; plus I’ve also enjoyed barbecued prawns flanked by a fun “prawn cracker” made by frying the creatures’ legs.
All these years, have eaters been throwing away the best bit of the prawn?
Trim from portioning fillets gets upcycled into various tartares.
While seafood is the name of the game for Bridger and his head chef Pablo Gosteli, Pearla & Co is a well-rounded operation.
Golden frites are precisely the waxy fried potato texture that everyone loves, they just don’t know it yet, while the house fougasse with smoked butter is perfect for wiping plates clean.
We have bar manager Parker De Foe to thank for those classy cocktails while the
wine list packs plenty of interest into a tight space. (Red wine drinkers, thought,
would probably like one or two more approachable by-the-glass options.)
Bridger has also leaned on his little black book of contacts and assembled a Seal Team 6 of service pros that clearly know and love what they’re doing. Understandable, perhaps, when you think how enjoyable their workplace is: not just for employees, but for diners looking for a luxe-casual seafood meal.
Pearla & Co has come out of the box already fully formed. I can’t wait to see – and taste – how it evolves.
The low-down
Atmosphere: a coastal seafood restaurant that’s a pearler by both name and nature
Go-to dishes: chargrilled Exmouth tiger prawns ($26), Rottnest swordfish belly nduja ($15), house frites ($13)
Drinks: great signature and classic cocktails plus a compact vino collection that’s in cahoots with both the all-seafood menu and the restaurant’s coastal setting
Cost: about $200 for two people, excluding drinks
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.
Max Veenhuyzen is a journalist and photographer who has been writing about food, drink and travel for national and international publications for more than 20 years. He reviews restaurants for the Good Food Guide.
