Cindy and Melinda, two blonde moms from Arizona, were having a girls’ getaway in Grand Cayman, courtesy of their sweet and trusting husbands. Their hotel concierge told them that Royal Palms Beach Bar, on Seven Mile Beach, was the happening place to be on Wednesdays, which is industry night for the hospitality crowd. So here they were at the bar, ordering drinks (see Cayman Sunset recipe). They had gotten a little bit dolled up; Cindy said they were on a mission to “see if we’ve still got it,” complete with air quotes around “got it.”
The spacious bar began to fill with a clubby clientele, lots of leggy young women in short, tight dresses and heels. They were ready to dance, and the South African DJ knew what to spin to get them going. Soon the place was packed with a cosmopolitan mob from Britain, Australia, Jamaica, New Zealand, Trinidad, Canada and Barbados – all drawn to Cayman to work in its bars, restaurants, hotels and dive shops.
“Young Caymanians all want to work in the banks,” said George Dahlstrom, co-owner and chef at the Reef Grill, the fine-dining restaurant upstairs from the bar. His specialty is seafood, his pièce de résistance a honey-glazed lobster with butternut squash risotto and sweet pea vinaigrette. Hundreds of cruise-ship day-trippers flock by day to the Royal Palms Beach Club, he explained, where live bands play on weekends (and Thursdays in high season) and the locals party on Sunday afternoons. “It’s a place where tourists and locals get up and dance under the stars to good-time music,” he said. “That’s what the Caribbean is all about.”
Which brings us back to Cindy and Melinda, who were being told by their bartender that a certain young gentleman wanted to buy them drinks. They were flustered and out of practice at politely parlaying the overture, but thrilled that someone thought they’d still “got it.” But at Grand Cayman’s “It” bar, everyone’s got a little bit.
Royal Palms Beach Bar, The Reef Grill, Seven Mile Beach, West Bay Road, Grand Cayman; 345-945-6358; reefgrill.com
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Last question! Hints are in the Caribbean Travel + Life Drink Recipes Guide.
If you need hints, study the Caribbean Travel + Life Drink Recipes Guide.
If you need hints, study the Caribbean Travel + Life Drink Recipes Guide.
Read the full-length Trinidad article from the May issue of Caribbean Travel + Life.
Comments
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