The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Pearly’s Farmhouse Cafe revitalizes town center
Open in former Wandering Moose building
WEST CORNWALL — It’s early morning next to the famous bridge spanning the rolling Housatonic River as it passes through West Cornwall. A stone’s throw from the most photographed covered bridge in New England, a lone diner sits inside Pearly’s Farmhouse Cafe enjoying breakfast and working on his laptop.
Behind the counter, keeping a close watch on a delicious-smelling batch of home fries, cafe owner and head cook Sean Alymar flashes a smile as he greets a visitor. The ex-Marine is a gregarious sort, clearly at home with an apron tied around his waist, and fashioning various plates he offers up at his eating establishment.
Pearly’s Farmhouse Cafe, which opened in late summer, has taken the place of the former Wandering Moose Cafe, which served locals and tourists alike for almost 20 years. The Moose’s owners decided to close up shop and put their restaurant on Craig’s List, where Aylmar, who harbored a lifelong ambition to open his own eatery, spotted it and told his wife, Justina, about his find. The couple was living downstate, about an hour and a half away from West Cornwall, too far, they believed to make Sean’s culinary dreams a reality via a commute. He had decided to take a divergent path from his corporate career (which he shared with his wife), and was hoping to find the right spot to do business.
“We didn’t think it would work, given the distance from where we were living and the commute, but we decided to take a ride up here on a nice day,” says Aylmar, as he took a break from the home fries. “When we saw the building and where it was located, we fell in love with it. We decided to go for it, and we moved to a house in West Cornwall and opened the restaurant.”
That still left Kathleen Aylmar with a commute to her job, but that all changed when she decided to also step away from her career temporarily (rejecting an offer from her company to move with other employees to Boston). “Now, we live eight minutes away from the cafe, so it’s perfect.”
Aylmar is a self-made chef, having learned much from his mother as a child and young man, some at Johnson and Wales College in Rhode Island, and a bit while in the Marine Corps.
“I’ve always loved to cook,” says Aylmar, who was stationed in Japan during his Marine Corp days. “I like to put my own twist on things, like seasoning the home fries with a Tuscan marinade. If you are serving breakfast, you have to have great home fries and I think ours are great. I also like to give our steak a little Mexican flair with chipotle, and we use flank steak in our western omelets as opposed to pork. When did you ever see a pig drive in the Old West. They were herding cattle,” he says concludes with a laugh.”
When Aylmar took over the former Wandering Moose Cafe, he renovated the interior of the building. ”We revamped inside some, put new flooring down, changed the kitchen around and basically cleaned it up. We have a nice, laid-back, warm feeling. I want people to enjoy a meal as I would if I was sitting at my home.”
Pearly’s Farmhouse Cafe is open six days a week (closed on Monday) for breakfast and lunch. The doors swing open at 7 a.m. and close at 3 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 5 p.m. on Sunday, and 9 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday when dinner is also served.
“I get here early, so if the lights are on and someone wants breakfast at 6:30, I’ll accommodate them,” says Aylmar. “We also cater to people on their way to work and we’ll do orders to go.”
Aylmar calls his restaurant’s menu “modern American,” and it features an interesting assortment of dishes. His omelets are a big hit (there are five listed on the menu and diners can also build their own. The cafe’s bread is baked fresh daily, there are pancakes of various flavors, and obligatory bacon, sausages and other sides.
Aylmar also spent a good deal of time and effort into selecting the coffee he serves.
“The coffee for me was a big deal. It took me testing quite a few brands and blends to find the right one. We didn’t want to be a Starbucks and we didn’t want to be a Dunkin’ Donuts. The one I settled on I believe is a delicious selection from Ashlawn Farms in Old Saybrook.”
For lunch and dinner, Pearly’s Farmhouse Cafe offers soups, salads, burgers, sandwiches, Panini’s and wraps. And there are several entrees on the menu, including: seared salmon served with a Tuscan sauce, roasted peppers, corn, carrots and oven roasted potatoes; seared Tuscan chicken served with roasted peppers, corn, carrots and oven roasted potatoes; a shrimp and asparagus risotto that includes seared shrimp, roasted asparagus, grape tomatoes and parmesan risotto, and a chicken pasta rosa, which is grilled chicken, bacon, roasted mushrooms, baby spinach, tomato cream sauce on a cavatappi pasta. The Cafe also serves a tempting array of desserts.
Pearly’s Farmhouse Cafe does not serve alcohol, although diners are allowed to bring their own wine or beer, with the house charging a $10 cork fee.
“We have established a nice following thus far,” says Aylmar. “There are a lot of locals that come in and I’ll see the same people sometimes five days a week. We also have attractions in the area, like the river that brings people through. and we hope to tap into the crowd that frequents the Mohawk Ski Area. The one thing we want people to know is that we are our own restaurant with our own menu and are not the Wandering Moose. We are building our own identity.”
Oh, the Pearly’s moniker? Alymar explains, “When I was a kid my mother told me about an old farmer by the name of Pearly who cooked one thing all year long, and that was browned turkey skin. I thought it was a great story and from then on my restaurant was always going to be Pearly’s when I finally opened it.”