If it's true that four out of five bars close within the first year, then Dicky's, the now-defunct Southwedge-neighborhood dive bar on the corner of Meigs and Caroline that lasted nearly 80 years, certainly beat those odds - and so has its successor. The Black PearlCafé celebrated its one-year anniversary just last week. And, if Dicky's run is any indication, The Black Pearl should be in good standing for many years to come.

"I figured," says Dave Alfieri, owner of The Black Pearl Café and previous owner of the Big Apple Café on Park Ave, "if it's been open for that long, how could I screw it up?"

And so far, he hasn't. In fact, Alfieri has some tricks up his sleeve to build both the bar's clientele and a new identity - quite a challenge for a place that has been virtually unchanged since it opened in the 30s. Initially, Alfieri envisioned a restaurant/bar offering high-class menu items like steak and seafood, but has since switched to more of a pub grub menu. Along with changing the food, Alfieri is now reclassifying The Black Pearl as a club rather than a restaurant-bar, offering live music and plenty of room to dance.

While doing some soul-searching for the establishment, Alfieri placed an ad on an Internet bulletin board looking for bands to play at "a Southwedge bar." He was surprised to receive 27 responses in just two days. Since then he has booked bands playing genres as disparate as country-western, heavy metal, and Beatles covers.

"The fun of owning a business is in that first year, when you are identity building," Alfieri says. "That's when you get to watch it get up off its baby legs and start to walk a little bit."

Alfieri has also started a clever membership program to draw new clientele. For a $30 annual fee, members receive a free t-shirt, mug, lanyard, and, the most popular part, their first drink free every time they come in.

"One of my members always drinks beer, but now he knows his first drink is free, so he always gets a scotch on the rocks first, and that's like a $7 drink for free," Alfieri says. "I also had some college kids figure out that if they came here a couple nights a week, they could save like $300 in a year."

Alfieri also believes in offering competitive drink prices to keep patrons happy. After starting with a different special every night of the week, Alfieri found it confusing and decided instead to just offer consistently low prices: Drafts of Molson and Labatt's are always $2; all bottled beer (except Corona) is $2 and cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon are only $1; well drinks are $2 5-9 p.m., and $3 after 9 p.m.

For the record, the bar's name has nothing to do with Disney, Johnny Depp, or the Pirates of the Caribbean. But much to Alfieri's chagrin, that doesn't stop patrons and delivery people from walking in the door and loudly proclaiming, "Argh!"

The Black Pearl Café is located at 791 Meigs Street. It is open Monday-Saturday 5 p.m.-2 a.m. For more information, visit myspace.com/blackpearlbng or call 442-5440.