A New Yorker ordered lunch at a restaurant and accidentally received a gift of several thousand.

A 66-year-old New Yorker met at lunch with a school friend in an oyster bar. At first, he decided that in his favorite dish he had caught a hard ingredient, which he supposed had broken a tooth about. But it turned out that the tooth is all right, and the man got out of his mouth ... a real pearl.

Фото: Depositphotos

Rick Antosh met a friend at the Grand Central Oyster Bar 5 in December and ordered his favorite pan roast dish for $ 14,75. Inspired by the pleasant taste of a dish similar to a stew, which included six Blue Point oysters, Rick noticed that he had something hard on his tooth, wrote New York Post.

“For a split second I was scared,” admits Antosh. - Is this a tooth? Or the filling?

It turns out that it was a pea-sized pearl, which, according to Eddie Levy, the owner of DSL Pearl on West 47, could cost thousands of dollars.

“Value is based on brilliance, clarity and roundness,” Leavy said. Looking at the photograph of Antosh's pearl, he noted its shortcomings. “It's not very round and there's a black spot on it that may or may not be washable. For such pearls, a dealer who is really willing to buy it can pay up to $2000 to $4000.”

“This is not Joe's Steakhouse. This is the most famous oyster restaurant in the United States, said Rick, who said he wasn't particularly surprised by the find. “I assumed it didn’t happen often, but I thought it did happen from time to time.”

Returning home, Antosh nevertheless called the restaurant back to find out how often this happens. The employee who answered the phone was shocked—as was chef Sandy Ingber when he heard the news.

“I’ve been here 28 years,” Ingber said. “This is only the second time I've seen this.” We sell over 5000 oysters on the half shell every day.”

He explained that the oysters used in the pan roast are from Virginia and arrive at the restaurant after being shaken, so leftover pearls are rare, interesting and exciting, the chef added.

John Turcott, CEO of Glidden Point Oyster Farms in Maine, agreed with him. “This very rarely happens in a natural way. For the formation of pearls it takes time, and it is usually taken and sent to the market before [the pearl] becomes so big. ”

Harvesting pearls from eastern oysters is a quest, according to Matthew W. Gray, an oyster specialist at the University of Maryland.

“Among pearl producers, some species can form pea-sized pearls in less than a year; however, environmental and genetic factors play a role in growth rates. The formation of natural pearls in oysters is not fully understood, but its probability is estimated to be 1 in 10 thousand,” Gray added.

An oyster forms a pearl when an irritant, such as a grain of sand, enters the shell.

Antosh, who has not yet evaluated his prize in monetary terms, does not yet know how he will use the pearl. But now the interest of the researcher appeared in him.

“I will definitely go back and try to find more pearls,” says the man.

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