Perle raises Montclair’s profile
Perle in Oakland’s Montclair Village considers itself a wine bar, but takes a different direction from the casual, pareddown menus at similar places. Rather, it feels like a fullblown restaurant with an extensive wine list, good cocktails and a large menu that covers all bases.
At the 11-seat bar, diners overlook shelves filled with not wine bottles but spirits. The menu features charcuterie and cheese, as might be expected at a wine bar; however there are also five “pearls,” or raw bar preparations, followed by five first courses, five main courses and three sides.
Perle has an impressive pedigree. It’s owned by Marcus Garcia, who for more than a dozen years was the sommelier and general manager for the once four-star and now closed Fleur de Lys. For the past three years he’s been the sommelier and director of operations for the private Cercle l’Union, better known as the French Club in San Francisco. At night he heads back across the Bay Bridge to Perle.
Garcia’s wine list offers up to 50 wines available by the taste, glass or bottle. The bottle list runs 400 strong and is still growing. Garcia’s list includes many excellent wines at a little over retail, in the $30 to $40 range, good enough for me to brave bridge traffic to come for a glass and a bite. Garcia and his crew are always around to help, providing seamless service.
The kitchen is run by partner Rob Lam, best known as the owner of the Asian-inspired Butterfly on the Embarcadero, where he showcased an East-West menu. He closed the business earlier this year after a 15-year run. At Perle, Lam is cooking French-Mediterranean food, although he throws in a few zingers from time to time.
The wine bar is a homecoming for Garcia and Lam, who both live in the East Bay. They are following the trend of other high-profile owners such as Jen Biesty and Tim Nugent at the Spanish Shakewell, and Rich and Rebekah Wood at Wood Tavern, who found the cost of doing business in San Francisco, and the progressively difficult commute, to be a burden.
Perle also speaks to its location in Montclair Village, where restaurants need to offer a wider variety of options to lure locals.
Lam and Garcia cast a wide net to capture as many different tastes. For the typical wine bar enthusiast, the chef has created an exceptional charcuterie plate with five selections ($7 each), including a lean smoked duck breast and rich, fatty duck rillettes made inhouse. The five cheeses are curated by nearby Farmstead Cheeses & Wines. Then there’s a section for oysters and seafood, and main courses for those who want a more traditional dining experience.
Lam has transitioned easily into cooking a different cuisine. His refined technique shows on such items as the poulet roti ($26), where he rolls the breast and confits the leg. It’s served on corn and squash, a scattering of arugula leaves and Jackson Pollock-like drizzles of balsamic.
The Angus onglet, or hanger steak ($38), is sliced and casually spaced around the plate on a mushroom demiglace with chunks of portobello mushrooms with pommes dauphinoise (scalloped potatoes) in the center. Foie gras béarnaise comes on the side, adding a luxurious richness.
The other main courses include Pernod mussels ($26) with tiny fennel sausage meatballs; and linguine alle vongole ($29) with steamed clams and three clams casino on top — the clams broiled with butter, bacon and bread crumbs. They are good but seem superfluous; the dish would have been better without them.
Lam has created a clever cultural mashup with the hamburger ($16) with caramelized onions. He treats the burger like a French Dip sandwich, adding a cup of broth to the side. I liked the idea, but the milk bun was a little too soft and began to disintegrate when dipped.
The chef sneaks in a few Asian touches on what has become a signature dish: panseared red abalone ($28) arranged over tempura squash blossoms with béarnaise and ponzu sauces. The abalone has an intensity that stands up to the other ingredients. This dish is from the Pearl section, which also includes a caviar service ($39 or $68), oyster shooters ($12) and oysters supreme ($18). The latter piles just about every decadent ingredient onto the shell: uni, salmon caviar, black truffle and foie gras. It’s a little too much for me.
Oysters also show up on the first course: fried ($11) and set atop deviled eggs with smoked trout roe and a bold relish with Calabrian chile. Garcia and Lam have also revived Hubert Keller’s signature mushroom cappuccino soup ($9) with black truffle foam and porcini powder. I can see why it became a signature. Even though Fleur de Lys closed three years ago, this soup is so luxurious it goes down as one of my all-time favorites. It’s rich, elegant and rustic — contradictory qualities that often denote a beautifully conceived dish.
One of the most interesting salads is a mélange of heirloom tomatoes ($14): A whole tomato stuffed with brown butter ricotta is off to one side, and at least four other varieties are scattered around the plate, with avocado, a few sprigs of arugula and a ring of balsamic.
Lam saves his biggest surprises for dessert. The warm baba rum has a soft plastic cylinder filled with rum stuck in the cake, accompanied by roasted strawberries and tangy whipped crème fraiche. Diners squeeze in what they want.
Pastry chef Cheryl Lew also does a great job on the corn financier, two fingers of slightly caramelized cake with huckleberry and blueberry coulis on half the plate, crème anglaise on the other half and a topping of candied corn flakes.
This type of stylish food is a surprise given the more casual space. The open kitchen and bar form an L at the back of the restaurant. The ceiling has an open grid, and the focal point on the walls is a framed design made of thousands of corks Garcia has collected.
The 47-seat space feels cozy and comfortable, with more improvements to come. Garcia says he is changing out the glass storefront door to something more appropriate and adding planter boxes filled with herbs to use in the cocktails.
It’s yet another way this duo is trying to fit into the neighborhood, yet set themselves apart.