MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A New Jersey man who frequents the Grand Central Oyster Bar was surprised during a recent trip to the famed Midtown restaurant when he found a pearl in his meal, according to reports.

Rick Antosh, 66, who lives in Edgewater, ordered his usual pan roast — a type of stew featuring six cooked oysters — while meeting a friend for lunch, but soon found the unusual ingredient in the dish. At first, Antosh thought the hard object was a detached tooth or a filling, but soon found out it was a small pearl, the New York Post first reported.

A pearl dealer told the Post that the gem could be worth between $2,000 and $4,000, but Antosh has no intentions of selling it. The New Jerseyan told CBS New York that he believes the pearl will bring him good luck for the coming year.

Antosh simply pocketed the pearl and brought it home, but later contacted the restaurant to see how rare his discovery was, the Post reported. Grand Central Oyster Bar Executive Chef Sandy Ingber was shocked when word got back to him of Antosh’s find.

“I’ve been here 28 years,” Ingber told the Post, “This is only the second time I’ve seen this happen. And we sell over 5,000 oysters on the half shell every day.”

An oyster physiologist told the paper that, while the growth of pearls in oysters is “not well understood,” the odds of pearl growing naturally in an oyster is about 1 in 10,000.

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