San Diego doesn’t suck: Our guide to your city’s less lame side
The Pearl Hotel will make you feel posh without forcing you to feel too much like a douchebag trying to fake class. You’re really just a regular old gal or guy barely making it from paycheck to paycheck who likes to be surrounded by beauty every now and then, even if it means paying a few extra dollars for the garlic and rosemary-infused vodka swirling at the bottom of your Bloody Mary — The Pearl Hotel gets that and gives you what you want.
The new Point Loma, postmodern throwback to mid-century hotel and poolside lounge invites you to take a step up from your favorite uptown dive without setting foot in a Downtown glitz fest. It’s stylish, but not too stylish, and a definite yearning for action and fun floats through the open air — a carpeted section invites patrons to dis-shoe themselves and settle in for a game of checkers or chess while ridiculously over-sized beach balls bob longingly in the pool.
The action and fun part of the place, though, hasn’t quite gained full speed. On a recent Wednesday night, CityBeat slid into a nice white vinyl barstool for a poolside viewing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, part of The Pearl’s weekly Wednesday night poolside screenings of American classics. While the young staff entertained us with their callow charm — at one point in the movie, when Jack Nicholson is getting a good dose of shock therapy, a waiter asked the bartender, “What are they doing to him? Electrology?” — the quiet crowd with heads turned toward the large outdoor screen seemed to be mostly older Point Lomans just dropping by for a bite to eat.
But The Pearl’s got potential. When the sun starts shining longer and later into the night, the hipsters who pollute the pool at The Lafayette Hotel in North Park every summer will likely catch on (they allow you to swim in the pool, they’ll say, and all you have to do is buy a beer). Those with interest in being on the cusp of cool should beat them to the punch, or The Pearl as the case may be.
