Pearl Street Caviar, by Brian Abate

On Commerce St., right off of Van Brunt St., there’s a black door that says Pearl Street Caviar. I’ve passed by many times without ever paying attention to it, but Pearl Street Caviar product specialist Monica Olivares and founder Craig Page were kind enough to talk to me about their business and take me on a tour.

Though I didn’t know much about caviar, Olivares reassured me that before she worked at Pearl Street Caviar, she didn’t know too much about it either.

“I actually met Craig, our founder at my other job, and he was there helping at a fundraiser,” Olivares said. “I just happened to be placed at the caviar station and I guess Craig really liked the way I bonded with people and he landed me a job and I’ve been working here ever since.”

Olivares also told me what a typical day is like at Pearl Street Caviar.

“We come in, we review our orders, and we process them,” said Olivares. I get to meet a lot of new people and experience a lot of events that I never thought I’d be at. It’s pretty great and it’s a whole different world when you’re in the caviar business. It’s so bizarre and I never thought I’d be here but I really like it here.”

During my tour of Pearl Street Caviar, I got to see where they keep the caviar and I learned that they taste every batch themselves before sending out orders. I always thought of selling caviar as a big business but Pearl Street Caviar feels like a homegrown, local business.

Their mission is “to make quality, sustainably-sourced caviar accessible to anyone who wants an experience that is indulgent and healthy, new and timeless, elevated and affordable.”

Additionally, Olivares and Page take pride in making sure that their caviar is nutritious. Olivares said that their caviar has six times the amount of Vitamin D as the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) average for caviar and twice the amount of zinc as the USDA average for caviar. They focus on being environmentally friendly and sustainable.

The Pearl Street Caviar website says, “For every domestic sturgeon we use, eggs are fertilized to revive the wild sturgeon population. From farming to transportation to packaging we focus on minimal impact.”

“We use Woolcool for our orders [to keep them cold],” Page said. “They’re made from the wool on the side of sheep’s coats that would usually be wasted.”

Page also wants Pearl Street Caviar to reach more people and they’ve partnered with NBALAB to do just that.

“It was really exciting having [our caviar] in Scotia Bank Arena [The Toronto Raptors arena] during the NBA playoffs,” Page said. “They were available to people in any seats in the arena during the NBA Finals, which represents one of our larger goals. We want caviar to be something that younger people are excited about. We want it to be for people in the bleachers, not just those in suites.”

While the coronavirus pandemic prevented fans from attending playoff games in 2020, fans are back at games now and so is Pearl Street Caviar.

One of the fun parts of getting a tour of Pearl Street Caviar was getting to try a little of the caviar myself, and it went really well with potato chips.

“It’s not a combination I expected at first but now it’s one of my favorites,” Olivares said. “And we want to show people that caviar doesn’t just have to be served at big events. It’s also something to have at home as a treat and something that goes really well with crackers or potato chips. We’ve been working towards that and I’m excited for the future of Pearl Street Caviar.”