OKLAHOMA CITY — Most people think of food in the purely physical sense. What they will eat. How much they will eat. What it will taste like.
Chef Andrew Black goes a little deeper. Taste is still important. Ingredients still matter. But when he talks about his new restaurant, Perle Mesta, inside the historic Skirvin Hotel, the food goes from physical to metaphysical.
“I wanted to do something with the idea of possibility,” he said. “To explore and embrace the endless possibilities of ingredients, techniques, flavors, and ask, ‘How far can we take these?’”
Grab a seat inside the ethereal confines of Perle Mesta and the answer becomes clear. With Black at the helm, there’s no limit.
Take, for instance, the parmesan and truffle fried okra with crisp candied lamb belly off the Tastings menu. Black said he’s not an okra fan, nor is he a big proponent of fish and chips, and yet this dish is his take on both.
The results are addictively delicious crispy okra chips studded with mildly sweet crispy bits of lamb belly. The savory okra are split lengthwise, so when they’re fried, the normally slimy interior disappears, leaving behind a crunchy shell that soaks up all the umami flavors of the cheese and the mild fishiness of the truffle.
“It’s one of our top sellers right now,” he said. “People keep saying, ‘I can’t believe okra can get on this level.'”
While he’s loathe to pick favorites, Black clearly has a lot of love for the butter bean and tomato appetizer, as well. The dish is gorgeous, with whole, tender butter beans and tomatoes that threaten to dissolve on the tongue. Bits of cheese on the top have caramelized, for a touch of that irresistible burnt cheese flavor atop each creamy dollop. Eat it with a spoon or smear it on a piece of Caribbean Indian roti.
These are the results of decades of study, of experimentation and tasting, and the foundations of his food philosophy.
“Curiosity and possibility are cousins,” he said. “Starting this restaurant, I’ve been more curious than ever before, questioning everything about how and why we do things. I want people to say, ‘That’s not going to work,’ because I know that’s when I’ve got their attention.”
And the attention inside Perle Mesta is rapt. While many restaurants aim for turnover, the small main dining room on the ground floor of the Skirvin is a place for people to relax and savor.
Throughout an evening service, tables are rarely vacated. Instead, groups of people talk and taste and mingle with other tables. It almost has the feel of a family reunion.
The Raw menu includes some incredible finds, as well, including super-fresh Prince Edward Island oysters with a strawberry mignonette and a coconut milk scallop ceviche with a perfect balance of acid and sugar that drives diners to take bite after bite until everything disappears.
One big surprise for Black has been the success of the pizzas.
Available at lunch and dinner, the lineup of four pies is incredibly simple and focused, and that approach has been a huge hit, he said. Not only are customers coming in to share a slice with friends, he’s got plenty of guests who get pizzas to go—not something he foresaw in the restaurant’s early days.
“We were just trying to get our feet under us when we added pizzas in the beginning and now they’re a hit,” he said.
Which isn’t to say the rest of the menu is being ignored. The entrees, ranging from $27 vegetarian pasta to $100 wagyu with truffle bone marrow whipped potatoes, bear the experimental feel of dishes from Grey Sweater, the restaurant that helped him nab the James Beard Award for Best Chef Southwest.
But while the tasting menu at Grey Sweater changes constantly, guests are assured to get just what they’ve ordered at Perle Mesta.
The citrus fennel-dusted scallops in parsnip cream are impossible to ignore. Each enormous scallop is seared, but the interior remains so soft it nearly melts as you chew. Bits of butternut squash and a blood orange reduction ensure every bite is a little different.
For those who need beef to live, there are a few options outside of the ultra-buttery Wagyu. The brick oven roast steak (in the feature photo) is recommended at medium rare with a lovely bit of crust around every slice. The way it soaks up the annatto coconut peppercorn sauce is almost a magic trick.
But the real magic, Black said, is the homecoming celebration that is the opening of Perle Mesta. The Skirvin was the site of Black’s first head chef position and returning to the hotel with his accolades and experiences has been unbelievable, he said. Customers who dined with him nearly 20 years ago are returning and, if you can believe it, are still giving him guff all these years later.
And he LOVES it.
“I’m a people person. I never get tired of it,” he said. “I’m bringing something more to this wonderful state that I call home and I have so much more to give.”
Perle Mesta is not an encore, Black said. It’s another step forward and its early success has given him the go-ahead to do even more.
- Perle Mesta by Chef Andrew Black
- One Park Avenue, inside the Skirvin Hilton Hotel
- Oklahoma City, OK 73012
- (405) 702-8547
- perlemesta.com
- Lunch – 11 a.m.-2 p.m. daily
- Dinner – 5-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 5-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Watch for our weekly column by one of OKC’s best food reviewers, Greg Elwell focused on locally-owned restaurants serving great food by neighbors you want to know.
Long-time food enjoyer Greg Elwell writes about food, restaurants, and trends. He has his own blog "I Ate Oklahoma" and has written for The Oklahoman, The Oklahoma Gazette, and others.