Elm City Eats: Seafood and … Did I hear you right? … Cheese?!?!
The Blue Pearl
130 Court Street @ Orange
Street
About a 5 block walk from the Law School
Location and décor: Downtown, but on a relatively quiet
(dare I say deserted) street. Inside,
the restaurant looks like an uber mod nursery – all blue and pink and white
(ugh). And yet the furniture is modern
white plastic and leather, no armrests on the couches, very loungy. “The Shining” was playing on the TV screens
behind the bar. For a Thursday night, it
was awfully empty inside.
Items Sampled:
-Savory fondue (artichoke, parmesan, and crème fraiche)
-French fries
-Wine and champagne (of course)
So I have to admit, I was skeptical of this place whose
signature seemed to be seafood and cheese.
I don’t know, something about the idea of dipping a jumbo prawn into a
vat of blue cheese just sounded wrong.
But, after scanning the menu, I found lots of items that sounded good –
steak, salads, macaroni and cheese, fondue and french fries. (Halfway through our meal, we overheard the
bartender talking about how much she wanted the macaroni and cheese so I’ll
have to try that next time.)
In the end, I picked a “savory fondue” (as opposed to the surf
and turf fondue or the sweet fondues) of artichoke, parmesan, and crème fraiche. Provided for my fondue-rific dipping
pleasure: carrots, cucumber, chunks of bread, crackers, broccoli, grapes, and
apples with fennel. Armed with my little
fondue spear, I dug in.
Though it looked like a stomach ache waiting to happen, the
fondue was surprisingly light and the chunks of artichoke really broke up the
cheesiness of it all. Okay, so as
expected, the chunks of bread and crackers dipped in cheese tasted good. I think the problem came when someone thought
that cucumbers or carrots dipped in boiling cheese would be a good idea. We decided that fondue really hinges on the
porousness of the food you’re dipping.
Bread, porous, good. Crackers,
porous, good. Broccoli, well, everyone
can appreciate broccoli and cheese. But
cucumbers and cheese? The hot cheese
just slips and slides right off the cucumber.
Same with the carrots. And,
cucumbers and hot cheese just sounds, well, about as appealing as the jumbo prawn
and blue cheese that I had envisioned before.
The grapes, I confess, I ate all by themselves. But I think the real winner of the night was
the apples sprinkled with fennel. The
fondue adhered well, and it was a surprisingly good combination. Overall, I’d say the savory fondue thing was
a hit. Remember – just stick to the
porous foods!
The french fries were good, not steak cut, but not too
thin. Served very hot with a side of
ketchup and garlic mayo (which we didn’t try).
I hear that the best side for french fries is champagne.
If you’re not all fondue-d out, you can try a sweet fondue
for dessert. They had everything from
s’mores fondue to white chocolate to espresso.
Personally, by that point, I was leaning toward the key lime pie or the
strawberry shortcake.
The service was good, friendly, and quick and it was a
comfortable, loungy place to chat. The
fondue thing is fun, and if nothing else, good for laughs and entertainment!
