Tale Tuesday: What a Pearl

In the oyster of life, Susan Eichholtz has found her pearl. After a science degree and a decade as a medical research biologist, Susan bravely cracked the shell of making her passion her profession by giving up the lab for culinary school in Kentucky.

With her cooking degree and lots of dreams, she returned to her hometown Indianapolis where her mother was battling cancer. Tragically, her mother lost that fight in 2008 but not before sharing one more pearl of wisdom with Susan: act on those dreams before it's too late.

Three months later, Susan was behind the stove in her own Pearl Bistro, named with a tributary nod to the national symbol of lung cancer, a pearl ribbon. As a casual lunch spot and eclectic dinner cafe on Indy's northside, Susan keeps the seasonally changing menu focused on local products and always comforting but interesting, familiar but deliciously surprising.

Between grilled brioche, Susan spreads PB's special sweet and tang sauce that buffs up the glimmer of swiss and Smoking Goose Smoked Turkey Breast. Pearl Bistro's BLT gets lettuce and tomato along with Susan's rosemary-mint mayo and Smoking Goose Lamb Bacon.