ROCKLAND — The Pearl Restaurant is as infamous as famous and has occupied the space that’s just a short walk on a long pier off the Rockland Harbor front at 275 Main Street for many years. Larry Reed, a Rockland native, has decided to reopen the landmark establishment on May 17.

“We’ve been in the building now for about two months and we will definitely be ready to open,” he said. “I wanted to get in here early so we could make sure we did things the right way. We’ll be completely ready to open next week and that will give us another week before our grand opening.”

Born and raised in Rockland, Reed began his restaurant career at 16 in the Samoset Resort.

“I worked there seven years, starting out as a bus boy, did room service, waited tables, bartended, worked at the clubhouse, pool house and banquets, wherever I could make a dollar, I worked there,” he said.

After the Samoset he chose a more professional route and worked for MBNA as a manager for seven years, but he said he missed the restaurant business.

“I went to work for the Landings Restaurant for four years as an assistant manager,” he said. “I bought the Waterworks and ran that for six years and most recently I’ve been over at Archers on the Pier for the last five years.”

Reed said he would look over at the Pearl from Archers and think it was such a beautiful spot. And he would think that if it was done right it could enjoy the success it had back in the day.

“The thing is, we want to attract our local friends too,” he said. “We don’t want to be known as a tourist restaurant.  We want everyone in town and the surrounding towns to feel comfortable coming in here.”

A picture hangs on the wall of the restaurant that Reed is very proud of.

“If you look on the far left of the picture, that’s me standing there with the bad hairdo,” he said. I started out coaching basketball at Rockland High School now Oceanside for 12 years. This picture is from last year when we beat Medomak Valley in the Class A Championship.”

Reed said that both Oceanside and Medomak Valley kids are coming in from their\prom night the second Saturday they are open, so he’ll be hanging a Medomak Valley jersey beside the picture so they feel welcome too.

Reed says they will feature a lot of seafood on the menu.

“Predominately seafood,” he said. “We’re going to have a lot of fresh seafood from our local fishermen friends and steaks too. Healthy salads and some sandwiches too, so everybody can find something less expensive as well.”

Reed said the May 17 opening is going to begin at 4 p.m. for dinner service.

“We’ll operate lunch and dinner Saturday and Sunday,” he said. “We’ll then close Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to figure out what we did wrong. As of Thursday after that we are seven days a week. We’ll open for lunch around 11 a.m. and serve through 9 p.m. with the bar closing around 11 p.m.”

Reed said he encouraged everyone to stop in and try the Pearl. He thinks everyone who does will be glad they did.