Crab martini at Pear Street Bistro

A fancy lunch at Pear Street Bistro just for the hell of it.  When Matthew and I are together we tend to spend a little more on meals than we should.  Today we thought we deserved to give Pinole’s Pear Street Bistro (2395 San Pablo Avenue) a shot, after having seen the place reviewed on a local television show.  They showed a blue crab cocktail served in a martini glass worthy of further investigation. 

Pear Street Bistro's lunch plate

Pear Street Bistro is a modern, comfortable, loft-like space with stained concrete floors and some of those trendy polished aluminum chairs lining the front bar area.  The dining room is open and inviting — plenty of windows on one side and an open kitchen on the other.  Service was friendly and prompt.  I felt as though the server actually enjoyed working with us.  We both ordered the $16 fixed price lunch, which comes with a small appetizer or soup and entree (served together), dessert and beverage.  We added the blue crab cocktail to start.  Matthew loved the cocktail, which consisted of loads of loose blue crab meat atop a little guacamole at the bottom of the martini glass.  It was served with tricolor nacho chips, which may have been a little cheesy looks-wise, but worked with the dish in terms of flavor and contrasting texture.  Matthew inhaled the Cajun catfish with bruschetta before I had a chance to taste it, but he seemed quite happy with the affair.  My sliced rare ribeye over mashed potatoes was fancy-pants comfort food that hit the mark.  The potatoes were creamy good and hot.  My personal gripe is being served mashers that are cooling off into a lump, which renders all those butter and cream calories a waste.  Dessert was a simple dish of rich vanilla ice cream.  We walked out full and $55 lighter with no leftovers for the akitachow, unfortunately.  The photos here are a bit blurry, I know.  Bad cell phone camera!  Bad me for forgetting the real camera!