Dining in the Boonies
Pearl in the Grove
31936 Saint Joe Road, St. Joseph
352/588-0008
![]() The restaurant, in a cinderblock house, was once a kumquat souvenir shop and features whitewash walls and concrete floors. [Photo: Stephen J. Coddington/St. Petersburg Times] |
Curtis Beebe has reversed the current farm-to-fork trend: He's taken the fork — knives, spoons, wine glasses and pasta-making tools — to the farm.
Technically, he took them to the grove, for tiny St. Joseph, 40 miles from Tampa, has been planted almost entirely in kumquat trees for almost a century and is now the largest U.S. producer of the sweet little Japanese fruit.
Getting to Pearl in the Grove is a journey for city folks, and a long trip for Beebe career-wise. He spent an entrepreneurial life in IT before moving from Tampa to eastern Pasco County more than a decade ago. His love of food and country living led him to embrace the dream of local eating.
Pearl is a case study in the effort and rewards of brave new restauranting for a generation of diners beginning to see the connection between farming and food. It's a challenge in a state where hot weather, big farms and big crops cater to the winter market more than city-slick gourmets.
Beebe took over the kitchen and dining hall of the village's Catholic church last fall for a series of trial dinners. Then he and wife Rebecca took over one of the only commercial spaces at the crossroads, an old cinder block house that was once a kumquat souvenir shop.
The outside is modest; the interior is as hip and artful as a New York loft, with whitewashed walls and concrete floors.
Dining tastes of the country. The local accent includes kumquat in the vinaigrette. There's a clever crop of fresh vegetables on every plate, crisp squash, julienned okra and, like 'em or not, bright purple beets, from Magnolia Farms, a young market farm down the road.
Beebe has steak, too, and is searching for more local sources for other meat and poultry. He's also got from-scratch ravioli, fresh-baked bread and double-dark chocolate cake from a new artisan baker in nearby Dade City.
It's a short menu of uptown country cooking with a dash of Southern and Cajun. Don't miss fried catfish beignets and smoked tomato grits — or gulf shrimp.
Despite its remote location and limited service (dinner Wednesday to Saturday and Sunday brunch), Pearl in the Grove draws a crowd, so much so that reservations are a must.
To go with dinner, Rebecca has assembled an affordable wine list. Wine and white tablecloths are new treats for St. Joseph, but country vegetables at their freshest deserve parlor manners.
![]() Fried beignets of catfish with smoked tomato grit cake. [Photo: Stephen J. Coddington] |
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