Pearlz – A Fun Place to Party and Dine!

During our visit to Charleston, I can say that we were consistent… We consistently dined at restaurants that I hadn’t researched and listed for our trip! 

On our first day of walking around the historic old town section of town, our dinner choice ended up being a place that we’d walked past and noted the menu at the start of our explorations for the afternoon.  Bonnie and Bill had noted that this place had a Happy Hour Menu that we needed to take advantage of…

This is Pearlz Oyster Bar.  It’s located right on Bay Street in downtown and it’s the original location for what is now a 4-retaurant ‘chain’.  It turns out that Pearlz is owned by Home Grown Hospitality Group, a company is based in Charleston that operates 8 different restaurant concepts as well as a 14 room Inn that is located in the historic area of town.

The restaurants are all in the South Eastern USA, primarily in South Carolina.  Besides Pearlz Oyster Bar they also operate: Rioz Brazilian Steakhouse (2); Tbonz Gill and Grill (5); Liberty Brewery and Grill (2); Liberty Tap Room and Grill (5); Capriz Italian Feast (1); Flying Fish Public Market and Grill (1), and; Kaminsky’s Baking Company (2).  There will be more about Kaminsky’s in a future posting…

The interior of Pearlz is what I would term ‘oyster bar’ casual with a big bar, a blackboard, white tile walls and colorful decorations… It is definitely a friendly place!  When Pearlz opened for Happy Hour, there was a line waiting for the opportunity to partake of the restaurant's offerings.

When it came to the Happy Hour menu, we only took advantage of 2 appetizer offerings and the special bar offerings.  The first of the Happy Hour items was this order of Corn Fritters. ($2.95) They were a very positive start to our dining experience… 

Laurie went for a half order of Oysters from the Raw Bar. ($7.95) She had ‘discovered’ oysters during our 2014 trip to New Orleans and she was happy that she’d gotten on that bandwagon! (I personally think that it would have looked better on a smaller serving dish)

I ordered the Fried Shrimp with sweet and spicy chili citrus sauce. ($11.95) They were excellent but at $2.00 per shrimp, they were a little pricy…

The House Cocktail Menu included this ‘loaded’ Pearlz Bloody Mary complete with a large shrimp, okra, olives, lime and lemon. ($6.00) This was a good deal for the money and both Laurie and Bonnie loved this over-the-top libation!  Bill and I focused on the Homegrown Draft Beer Menu…with the beers at $3.00 each.

Bonnie and Bill skipped the appetizer menu per se…and went with this giant Seafood Deluxe Plateau that was loaded with goodies! ($65.00) When you consider the shrimp, the multitude of oysters, lobster, mussels, clams, tuna tatar, etc. that comprise this creation, it’s a heck of a deal for 2 people for dinner!  It was also very, very good!

Bill and Bonnie were very happy campers!  There was so much food on their ‘plateau’ or tower that we got to sample a bit as well.  You might have noticed
that the presentation was excellent too!

It was no surprise to me that Laurie ordered a Lobster Roll for her dinner. ($16.95) Lobster is either #1 or #2 on her menu…with bacon filling the other top slot!  She was very happy as she hadn’t had a good lobster roll for a long, long time. 

Following up on the seafood theme I started with my appetizer, I ordered the Shrimp Linguine for my entrée. ($11.95) This was a very tasty dish especially after I added extra Parmesan cheese and sprinkled some Tabasco on the linguine!  The shrimp themselves were seasoned and cooked just right…

We should consider ourselves to be very fortunate if we had a fun restaurant like this with quality seafood in the Knoxville area!  The ambiance, service and good food combined for a great experience…even if I hadn’t originally had this restaurant on my ‘Charleston to do list”!

Pearlz Oyster Bar in historic downtown Charleston is at153 East Bay Street. Phone: 843-577-5755.  Its website is found at:  http://www.pearlzoysterbar.com/location/downtown-charleston-sc/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a fun dining experience!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave