Pearla & Co is Scott Bridger’s (Bib & Tucker) seafood restaurant. It’s contemporary, but not in the fussy, over-handled sense. This is food shaped by tide, season and technique. The menu is ever-evolving, changing depending on the catch of the day and the proteins in the venue’s dry-aging fridges.

Drinks are no afterthought; Pearla’s Martini contains an oyster-shell gin. Or you might find a Basil Smash riff made using Australian bottlebrush gin. Seasonal sodas make use of bar and kitchen offcuts, too.

You’ll find Pearla in the former Al Lupo site. The interior is an intimate space anchored by a 10-metre marble bar, with an open kitchen that allows indoor diners to glimpse the craftsmanship on the pass.

The restaurant feels like the product of someone coming home with a clear head: a small room, a tight menu, a relationship to suppliers that can only be honed over many years. A coastal restaurant that isn’t trying to define the beach but to cook in step with it.