The Charlottesville 29

There is only one dish that comes to mind every year as a candidate for Charlottesville’s Dish of the Year. Since the award began in 2014, winners have included a fine dining chef’s ode to Autumn Olive Farms, a flawless CVille Ham Biscuit, and ramen that nourished souls during the pandemic. While all are outstanding, there is only one that seems to demand consideration every December. It’s time it got its due.

Great Parts in Harmony

In some dishes, the sum is greater than the parts. Other dishes have great parts but their combination does not elevate them. In the best dishes, not only are the components outstanding, but their harmony creates an even greater experience.

Every component of the Oxtail Platter at Pearl Island Café is delicious. Braised oxtail. Kale salad. Pikliz. Rice with Pigeon Peas. Tostones. Aioli. When made and combined with love, they yield a dish worthy of the year’s best.

For the oxtail itself, Pearl Island owner Sober Pierre starts by cleaning oxtail chops in vinegar and then browning them in a heavy dose of salt and pepper.

Next he removes the oxtail from the pan and, in the salty rendered fat, sautees carrots, onions, and celery.

Next he removes the vegetables from the pan so that he can make a braising liquid.

To build the braise, he adds corn starch, red wine, tomato paste, beef bouillon paste, chicken drippings, brown sugar, Scotch Bonnett peppers, and brine from Pierre’s own Pikliz (Haitian slaw). In recent years, Pierre tweaked the braise with two ingredients from his Haitian heritage: bay leaves and ginger. “My Haitian upbringing inspired me to add an extra layer of warmth and savory-ness to a hearty dish,” said Pierre.

The oxtail and vegetables braise for nearly four hours.

The result is delicious. Beefy and tender oxtail meat infused with aromatics, lacquered in a sauce that reinforces the flavors.

Like the oxtail, Pierre makes all the sides from scratch. Though the same sides accompany all proteins at Pearl Island, they seem made for the oxtail. Kale salad – chopped kale and pan-roasted mushrooms in Pierre’s shallot vinaigrette  – adds earth and texture. Tostones – discs of fried plantains – bring crunch and sweetness. Pikliz – Haitian slaw pickled in vinegar, citrus, and habanero – bring brightness, heat, and acid to counter the richness of the oxtail and its collagen-loaded sauce. Aioli adds creaminess and savoriness. And, rice with pigeon peas not only sops up the sauce and aioli, but adds still more flavor – both from the Carribbean spices in which the rice and peas cooked, and bursts of flavor from capers and olives.

To appreciate the dish requires strategy in eating it: forming a bite that combines each of the platter’s components. Tender and crunchy. Rich and bright. Savory and sweet. Crisp and creamy. Mild and spicy. And loaded with flavor.

Never For Money, Always For Love

It may sound corny, but, as delicious as the platter’s components are, the best dishes share another common ingredient: love. Pearl Island’s Oxtail Platter is a labor of love not just because of the work each component requires, but also the expense. Oxtail’s scarcity and rising popularity make it an expensive cut of meat. (Some even now advocate to “Make Oxtail Cheap Again.”)

Why does Pearl Island offer such a costly and time-consuming dish? In a word, love.

For years, regulars of Pierre’s Caribbean café clamored for oxtail, a delicacy popular throughout the Caribbean. In 2018, he obliged, introducing it as a Friday weekly special. Even then, when oxtail cost $7 per pound, it was a low-margin dish. With oxtail doubling in price since then, the dish is now truly a gift to customers, offering modest financial return for the work it demands of Pierre’s team. Still offering the dish only on Fridays, Pierre has tried to keep the price as affordable as possible to make it accessible to customers, despite inflation and the soaring cost of oxtail.

“Anything that comes out of the kitchen is a labor of love,” said Pierre.  In Pierre’s case, it’s also an act of self-discovery. Like many children of immigrant families, Pierre sometimes feels as though his identity straddles two cultures. Not quite American because of his Haitian heritage. Not quite Haitian because he grew up in the U.S.. “Because of my background,” said Pierre, “through my food I am trying to showcase a part of who I am and also a part of me who I am trying to discover.”

In doing so, he says, it must be well represented, which means caring about every last detail. “It comes from a place of love,” said Pierre. The work required to maintain consistency. Tight processes. Constant tasting. Being particular about every step.

For all of the love that goes into it, the payoff comes in the customer experience. When they enjoy it, Pierre says, he feels it too. But, “when you don’t meet the bar, it doesn’t feel good,” said Pierre. “If you don’t feel that, then what are you doing it for?”

A labor of love, the 2024 Dish of the Year is the Oxtail Platter at Pearl Island Café.