At a New Jersey restaurant, two customers got a big surprise with their meal. And no, it wasn’t A McDonalds’ Happy Meal surprise. The new eatery called Stern & Bow served an oyster to a couple and out came a pearl!
Anton and Sheryl Schermer are the husband and wife who were lucky enough to witness this on their plate. The two ordered a couple of oysters on Saturday evening and were enjoying their food. Suddenly, Anton felt that something pebble-like was rolling around inside his mouth.
When he took it out, it turned out to be a shining pearl instead of a stone. The Tenafly couple were quite surprised and showed it to the restaurant staff. The Closter town place bistro had been open only for a month when it happened and they too were shocked.
Suffice to say, this is a very rare occurrence. A spokesperson for Empire Oyster service – a company that sources oysters to Stern and Bow – said it was especially hard to find in the particular type of Oyster that was served to the couple.
The employee Kevin Joseph said that he has seen close to hundreds of thousands of oysters in his life and still never found a pearl inside it. The oyster served to Anton was a Taylor Kumamoto oyster sourced from Washington which makes it even rarer. According to him, it is a ‘getting-struck-by-lightning’ occurrence.
The couple donated the pearl back to the restaurant Stern & Bow. The owner has decided to give it a place of pride – hanging in a frame over the bar.
This isn’t the first time that something like this has happened in and around New Jersey. Just last year, a New Jersey customer had the same experience across the Hudson River at the Grand Central Oyster Bar in NYC. But his pearl was even bigger and according to reports worth thousands of dollars.
Something really magical is in the Atlantic waters.