After five years of running the Tiki Room, Martin Armendariz Jr. and his wife, Noelle Coley, are adding to their business acumen with a new restaurant, Pearl Divers Oyster Bar.
The oyster bar, located next door to the Tiki Room at 115 S. Durango St., serves as a complementary hangout for customers of both businesses. The name of the oyster bar is inspired by a popular cocktail in Tiki bars, an escapist atmosphere and a popular vibe that started in the 1930s.
Both Armendariz and his wife have been in the industry for several years. Armendariz was the chef at Aurellia’s Bottle Shop & Brewhouse when it opened and made avocado fries a thing, and has also worked at Black Bird and had a food truck. His wife founded Pur Cold Pressed Juice and sold it in 2020.
The couple got the idea for the oyster bar based on their travels through the East and West coasts.
“It’s sort of the same way that Tiki came up. We just like to go to tiki bars when we’re out of town. And we like to go to oyster bars. We like to find fresh oysters in fun cities on the coast,” he said.
Armendariz knows that El Paso is a desert town, but he believes that this city can support a good oyster bar. The oysters, in several different varieties including Kumiai, Gold Rush, and Pink Moon, arrive alive and are shucked at the restaurant.
“There’s no reward without the risk, so as an entrepreneur, you’ve got to take risks. If Phoenix, Dallas, Denver, Austin, Kansas City – any major city that’s not connected to the coast can have a proper oyster bar, why can’t El Paso?” he said.
Open for a few weeks, Pearl Divers is drawing visitors through social media and tourists staying Downtown.
“People have come in saying ‘I haven’t felt comfortable eating an oyster in El Paso in 20 years or whatever’ and they come in here and have tried it and said they are the freshest oysters,” he said. “It’s all about good sourcing, researching and logistics. We get oysters from up and down the East and West Coast, from Prince Edward Island, Canada all the way down to Baja California.”
The bar, inspired by traditional coastal bars, features a long bar where people can sit up close to the action, where Armendariz shucks the fresh oysters. It also has some tables that can be reserved ahead of time for groups.
The menu offers oysters in a variety of ways – the most popular being the $5 oyster shots, raw oysters in their own half shell with a tasty house Clamato mix, and the Rockefeller, which are oysters cooked with a spinach, bacon and breadcrumb topping that is fun to slurp up. The Rockefellers are three oysters for $15, so make sure each person orders their own because they are too tasty to share.
Other good choices are the New England clam chowder ($10 for a bowl), Lobster rolls, shrimp cocktails and Tuna Carpaccio.
Having two related businesses seems like a good business concept.
“One of the most surprising things is that people have been seeing that we have an oyster bar Downtown and they come in here not even knowing about Tiki until they go to the restroom,” he said.
The restrooms connect the two bars via a fun, tropical-feeling hallway. The Tiki Room certainly has its own charm with rounded booth seats, a giant Totem head for decor, and hanging lights.
So next time you need a new idea for a fun night out, start with dinner and drinks at the Pearl, and then slip into the Tiki Room to finish off the night with drinks, tropical music and good conversation.
Pearl hours: 3 to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Closed Mondays.
Tiki Room hours: 5 p.m. to midnight Wednesday-Sunday. Closed Monday-Tuesday.
María Cortés González may be reached at 915-546-6150; mcortes@elpasotimes.com; @eptmaria.bsky.social on Bluesky, and @eptmariacg on TikTok
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Pearl Divers Oyster Bar brings fresh coast shells to desert
Reporting by Maria Cortes Gonzalez, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
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