The former A Tavola storefront in Over-the-Rhine is getting a new occupant. Nashville restaurateur Terry Raley is opening Pearlstar oyster bar in the coveted location this summer.
Pearlstar will offer both East and West Coast oysters and other raw delicacies including crudo, ceviche and tartare. The kitchen — overseen by former Senate executive chef Leroy Ansley — will also feature a wood-burning grill to create (non-raw) burgers and steak sandwiches. A release says the bar will “pour old-school martinis, frozen drinks and Lone Star Beer on tap.”
“Our group is incredibly pleased to be expanding into Cincinnati,” Raley says. “It has been a top priority since I traveled here for the first time in 2018…(Pearlstar’s) concept has a very specific combination of indoor-outdoor elements, and 3CDC was supportive of bringing a large, vibrant courtyard that vastly contributed to the sense of leisure and respite that we were hoping for.”
The 2,000-square-foot interior will be complemented by a 2,000-square-foot outdoor space, with bocce ball courts. 3CDC’s Senior Commercial Leasing Officer Lindzie Gunnels says that the courtyard will add to the “vibrancy being created from the recently completed streateries.”
Pearlstar will be one of two restaurants Raley’s Amaranth Hospitality Group is opening in Cincinnati this year. Royce, a French-style brasserie, is coming to the the former Tiffany’s space at Fifth and Vine streets downtown in “late 2021,” says 3CDC.
Royce will feature both a raw bar on the Vine Street side and a kitchen and dining room on Fifth Street. The menu will include pâtés, terrines, rillettes and saucisses, along with wood-fired meats and fish. Parisian-style outdoor cafe seating will be placed along the corner.
The former jewelry storefront encompasses 4,700 square feet. Royce is the first tenant 3CDC signed for the Fountain Place location, which they are renaming “the Foundry” and revamping to include “150,000 square feet of Class A office space, 35,000 square feet of street-level retail space and a 164-space underground garage,” they say.
For more on Pearlstar, visit pearl-star.com.
This article appears in Jun 1 – Jul 6, 2021.