This past Saturday while dining at Stern & Bow in Closter, Anton and Sheryl Schermer stumbled upon a pearl during their meal. Seated at the restaurant’s oyster bar, Anton felt a tiny object rolling around in his mouth and pulled out a small, pea-sized pearl.

The white gem was found in a Taylor Kumamoto, a small oyster from Washington state. Stern & Bow’s resident oyster expert Kevin Joseph said, “I’ve shucked hundreds of thousands of oysters in my career and have never found a pearl while shucking. Although rare, I’ve heard of pearls discovered in warm water Gulf oysters but never, ever have I heard of a pearl found in a cold water Kumo. It’s a once in a lifetime event.”

According to experts, natural pearls — which are formed in free-range or wild oysters — are extremely rare. When irritants such as shell fragments or parasites get lodged inside an oyster, it gets coated with layer upon layer of nacre (ie. mother-of-pearl) and creates a pearl after the process repeats over and over again.

The Schermers chose to gift Stern & Bow owner Russell Stern the pearl as a good luck charm and memento. Stern is currently looking into a way to frame or mount the pearl and display it at the raw bar.

Stern and Bow
171 Schraalenburgh Road
Closter, NJ
Website