Last updated on May 12, 2006 at 14:45

Old Fart #666's

A Rummie's Page - Eats

Just a few of the more notable places that we've found to eat downisland.

Toasts & Quotes
(personal ranking indicated by )

5/12/06 - This paqe just now in the process of being built; expect several changes to it daily for the next few days/weeks/months/whatever!

Grenada

Deyna's Tasty Foods - This is a "local" place that's been written up in at least three travel magazines, that I know of. Their lunchtime "FixUp" is a sampler of whatever they've prepared. The helpings are large and inexpensive.

The Aquarium -

Tropicana Inn- I just love their "Grenadian Breakfast"! They also have the best Chinese food on the island. The Inn is a good place to stay, right on the main bus line to Grand Anse Beach and a short walk to the Carenage. If you've got the guts for it, try some "Under the Counter" at the bar- G'wan, I dare you!

Nutmeg - St. Georges on the Carenage - good rum punch, cold Carib beer. Lunch is good, haven't tried here for dinner. Used to be the hangout before boarding for Windjammer passengers.

Carriacou - the Island of 200 Rum Shops and only one gas station.

- Snagg's Place - Damn!!! This place is FANTASTIC!!!

Best lobster I ever had!!! Yes, that includes Sunshine's on Nevis! Rum punch is also incredible! It's about 200 yards to the right of the dock on Hillsboro, just across from the DollarMan's store, behind the old water tank on the right side of the road. Just go through the bamboo door and make your reservations with Jenny or Cuthbert. If you're on the Yankee Clipper, get Sylvester to call ahead for you, he's a friend of theirs. Here's a pic of their lobster supper in the works, and another pic of them ready to serve !

Hardwood Bar - At Tyrell Bay. One half of one of their rum punches knocked my wife,Sandra, on her ***. Really a nice beach here, just catch a bus from Hillsborough.

Callaloo by the Sea - sort of an upscale beach bar in Hillsborough,

Hillsborough Bar - aka: Eddies - sadly, now defunct - made an fantastic Jack Iron Rum Punch. Seems Eddie and his "friend" had a breaking-up and split everything down the middle (including the sailboat - with a chainsaw!). Eddie headed to England!
Alva's Restaurant and Bar - Sadly, now defunct! Had a good time there for supper with Capt. Neil and the Chief Engineer of the Clipper. After supper, a bunch of other passengers stopped by and Neil talked them into doing shots of Jack Iron with us - we knew what was coming, they didn't. NICE!

St. Maarten
GET WET BAR - on the "Boardwalk" between the Holland House and the Pasanggrahan. $1 for a Hieneken! Band on Friday night's. Phil and his wife are GREAT - just watch out for Karaoke Night. I understand that Phil has now sold the place and is headed back to Canada - don't know for sure.
Greenhouse- Twofer Happy hour from 4:30 - 7pm!! Right at the Bobby's Marina dock where you meet the launches for the S/V Polynesia
Reggae Cafe - Used to be right next to the dock where you boarded the Poly. Great place to sit on the balcony and pick out "Poly people vs. polyester people". It has now moved near the new foo-foo terminal.
George's - Heard that it's now closed, due to complaints from neighbors about loudness. - Right on the Boardwalk between the Pasanggrahan and the Greenhouse. It's a hole-in-the-wall type place where the Poly crew hangs out on Saturday nights! Extremely loud on Saturday nights!
Rick's Sports Bar -DEFUNCT! it's a sports bar, I'm not a sports fan.
All of Orient Beach on the French side - wall-to-wall upscale beach bars - lots of "nekiddity"!

Nevis

Sunshine's-Nevis - This used to be the standard against which beach bars were measured. Sorry, it’s been downgraded due to it’s success. Gotten a wee “foo-foo” these days, still the best place on Nevis that I’ve been though.

The multi-megabuck Four Seasons Resort tried to get rid of Sunshine's for years and lost. Now it's in their ads! Improves greatly after every hurricane. Get there early and order the lobster dinner.

I almost had the record on Killer Bees there awhile back; Capt. Casey was the relief captain of S/V Polynesia, and had announced that we were going to be on Nevis until midnight, beach barbecue and the whole bit. Noel Porter and I had started working on Killer Bee's at about 11am. By 5pm I had downed 15 of these libations and was within 1 of the record. At that time, our magnificent captain decided that it looked like rain and that we should return to the ship. I've since forgiven, since he’s been pretty cool everytime we’ve sailed with him since then – even introduced me to the “Get Wet” on St. Martin!!
Next morning, on St. Kitt's, I decided to wander up to the fort. Couldn't find my )*^%$Q shoes, seems that they'd abandonded me on Nevis! Had to hunt up a shoe store wandering around in AquaSox - no fun.

Dominica
B&C Bar - not truly a "beach bar" but Bernadette can still provide cold beers and warm hospitality. Off to the right about a half mile from the Windjammer dock, on the right. Wee, tiny place. It's a four-stooler with a great Tarzan mural on the wall in the back. See if you can talk Bernadette into giving you a shot of Dominican Rum, aka white lightning! Never let 'em see you sweat! We looked for it the last time we were there; sadly, it appears to be no more.

British Virgin Islands

Jost van Dyke

Foxy's Tamarind Bar - supposedly one of the "5 Best Places to spend New Year's" according to Time magazine awhile back. When we were there for FART II, the gift shop next door closed at 5pm and the only way to get a Foxy's souvenier was to hump over the hill from White Bay in the afternoon.
Rudy's Mariner Inn - great lobster dinner (get yourorder in early)!
Soggy Dollar Bar - Just lie in the hammock and sip your rum - AHHH!!! This is the place that invented the "PainKiller".

Tortola

Pusser's - They've even got webcams. Our first experience with decent rum. Get a Painkiller #4 in a giant mug if you dare.
Rhymer's - Great live music from Quito Rhymer.

Anguilla
Roy's Bar - One of Capt. Neil's haunts. Try the "Dollar Beer".
Uncle Ernie's - round to Shoal Bay. Legendary!

Mustique
Basil's - grossly overrated "place for the rich and famous", pretentious as hell! Not worth the trip.

Aruba
Carlos 'n Charlie's - Rocking!!!

Do-it-yourself beach bar - idea stolen from RailBait at "Dangerous Beach" on Isle de Saintes - just a portable cooler filled with cold Carib beer, or whatever.

Rums of the Caribbean

Ahhhh!, now this is sippin' rum! Use as a mixer is strictly VERBOTTEN!!

Sipping recommended, but not mandatory

Sip, mixing's OK with this one

Good for mixing
Mandatory for mixing - pure firewater!

Grenada
River Rum - River Antoine Rum Distillery -- and here - Watch out for their "Slightly Over Proof" rum!! It's an 'agricultural' rum,. made from sugar cane juice as opposed to molasses. Distinct flavor of the sugar cane and VERY over-proof! A "sipping rum", NOT!!!
Westerhall Rum - - this is the one that got me started on good rums.
Old Grog - -Got a couple of bottles in July '03. Very good stuff!

Canne Royale - This is the "top-of-the-line" rum from the new Eastern Caribbean Rum Company. I haven't tried their any of their Cannes Brûlées Overproof rums yet; but love their billboards featuring a scantily clad gal and the slogan "Before you ding-go-lay, be sure to drink your Cannes Brûlées!"

Clarke's Court Rum - Grenada Sugar Factory, Ltd. - Their "Old Grog" is excellent and the explanation of the term "Grog" is new to me - accurate? whoinell knows?

Carriacou
Jack Iron Strong Rum - -(NOT A SIPPIN" RUM!!! - OVERPROOF!!!) AWESOME!!!
This stuff is made in Trinidad and bottled on Carriacou. Note: we spent a week on Grenada and this is the straight skinny from the bartender at the Tropicana, Richard at the Westerhall Distillery (where it's bottled and Linky (taxi driver on Carriacou!). This is the stuff that you get in "Swizzles" every afternoon-greatly diluted. Each rum shop may have it's own label, or none at all! The first that I got came in several different bottles (scavanged from foo-foo ships) and bearing labels of "congnac", "brandy" or whatever. My neighbor loves this stuff, says it's "kinda buttery". Supposedly, this is the only booze in which ice will sink!-it does, I checked. If you're really feeling wild, try "shots" with this stuff-makes tequila seem like kid's play!!
Mary Mack and I sorta overindulged in Eddie's (of the Hillsborough Bar - now defunct) Rum Punch made with this stuff on the 50th Anniversery Cruise and ended up walking back to the Poly late that night. Hmmm! PY was anchored offshore, wasn't she?

Martinique
Clemént Rum - - We went to the distillery on an island tour. At the "tasting", I was the only one of our group who wanted mine "straight" (no lime, sugar or water). After the tour, the fellow in charge of the tasting room motined for me to come back in, where he said that he wanted me to try the "second best rum" that they made. Truly great, although I couldn't figure out why he didn't trot out the "first best". Found out when we got to the store there to buy some rum to take home - "second best" was $150/btl! Best was $1500!!! Needless to say, I decided that "third best" at $15 was good enough.

Puerto Rico
Ron del Barrilito - - Aged in old wine casks from Spain which gives it and unusual flavor. Two star=3+years, three star=6-10 years, unique smoky flavor. Drink the Three Star straight, or with a little water! Too good for mixing! Only about 11,000 cases of both are made each year, hard to find outside of Puerto Rico.

Bacardi - -HoHum, I like the small distilleries better. Their Bacardi Gold makes a fairly good substitute for Mount Gay with Coke.

Guyana
El Dorado - - The absolute BEST finestkind sippin' rum. Very aptly named, this stuff is pure gold! I got turned on to this by Ingrid, Chief Steward on the S/V Polynesia. Last I got was in the grocery store in Phillipsburg. It ain't cheap, but WELL worth it.

Haiti
Barbancourt - Excellent!

British Virgin Islands
Pusser's - - Supposedly, it's named for the Royal Navy pursers of Nelson's day. Kinda funny since the pursers were known for their propensity for getting the cheapest possible stuff and pocketing the difference. Also, the Royal Navy rum ration was 4 ounces (twice a day) of overproof rum mixed with 8 ounces water. (the Pusser's site is wrong on this) This was known as "grog". Sometimes a sailor would clandestinely stash his morning rum ration and drink it at the same time as his evening ration, which might make him a bit "groggy".
Callwood's Arundel Rum -Oldest (400yrs) distillery in the Eastern Caribbean, 200 yrs by the Callwood family-some of the barrels are older than anyone on Tortola - The white rum is not aged and is mainly for local consumption, the dark is aged 3-5 years . Made in the only licensed distillery in the Caribbean that uses a single "Pot Still" at Cane Garden Bay a few hundred yards west of the Post Office. One of only a few distilleries in the English speaking Caribbean that uses the raw sugar cane juice instead of molasses.

U. S. Virgin Islands
Cruzan Rum - St. Croix

Venezuela
Selecto - - excellent
Anniversario - - pure gold!

Cuba
Havana Club -

Barbados

Mount Gay - a great one for my favorite "Rum 'n Coke". On Grand Anse Beach in Grenada, during the Jan. - Feb. "Workboat Races", it's $5EC for a fairly large Mount Gay and Coke, plus you get a Mt. Gay Bandanna thrown in!

Black Label - haven't tried this one., hear that it's pretty good.

Dominican Republic
Brugal - another one that I haven't tried.

Recipes and Formulations
Killer Bees - or at least a reasonable facsimilie! I got this formulation after numerous visitations and conversations with the legendary Sunshine, and the BeeMan over the years.

Rum = 1/3 overproof (151º or higher) and 2/3 "normal" rum
Passion Fruit juice = we have found Looza from Belgium to be pretty good. Don't use the crap with apple or grape juice!

Mix ahead of time:

1/3 rum (above)
1/3 Passion Fruit juice (above)
1/3 club soda
honey to taste - Sunshine's says he doesn't use honey, the BeeMan says that he supplies the honey - who ya gonna believe?
lime juice

At time of serving, add:

bitters to taste
nutmeg to taste

Swizzles - Dean Dey's formula

1-1/2 Gallons Cavalier Over-Proof Rum (from Antigua) - ships use the same stuff as Jack Iron from Trinidad
1 Quart Meyers 96-Proof Rum (from Jamaica)
7 48-ounce cans orange juice
7 48-ounce cans pineapple juice
12 1/2-dashes Grenadine (not the island chain)

Mix well and add lots of ice. Serves 80!

If that's a little too much for one night at your house, here's a conversion:

              6 ounces 151-Proof Rum
              2 ounces Meyers Rum
              10 ounces orange Juice
              10 ounces pineapple Juice
              1/2 shot Grenadine

Add Ice and shake well.

Serves 4 (or one person 4 times).

CinneMon Spiced Rum

to 750 ml. of cheap rum, add 3-4 sticks cinnemon, 5-6 cloves, 5-6 peppercorns, 1/2 nutmeg, bit of fresh ginger the size of the tip of your little finger, 1/2 - 1" vanilla bean. Let sit for a few weeks or whenever. Good rum and cokes, or just sippin'. I've sent some of this stuff to some of my Windjamming friends, and most of them like it better than Captain Morgan (at 1/3 the $$$!!!). Even Captain Neil and Country liked it!!!

"Ninnie" - Rosemary spiced rum - makes a great rum 'n coke

just stick a few sprigs of fresh rosemary in a bottle of cheap rum and let it sit.

Nutmeg's Rum Punch

Serves 1
   1 oz. lime
   1 oz. orange juice
   1 oz. pineapple juice
   1 oz. grenadine
   2 oz. light rum
   3 or 4 ice cubes
   grated nutmeg

Combine the juices, grenadine, rum and ice cubes in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a small
glass. Sprinkle plenty of nutmeg to taste on top. Serves 1

Links

Peter's Rum Pages - This fellow from the Czech Republic has a fantastic collection of rum bottle labels(over 6300 from 97 different countries as of Sept. 2003)! Good information and lots of links!

Ministry of Rum - Lotsa information! The book "Rums of the Eastern Caribbean" has lots of good info.

Royal British Navy/U.S. Navy Rum Cup - the official rum tot! I had a helluva time finding this beastie!

The Rum Portal - Here you will find information about 180 distilleries, blenders and bottlers from the present and the past, producing 733 brands of rum.

Bacardi Rum Cakes - Purity Bakery in The Bahamas is the only bakers of Bacardi Rum Cake.

The Webtender - even more recipes.

Links about Rum - The main site is in German, but, there are a lot of interesting links here.

Rum - photomicrograph of the molecular structure of rum, weird. The "Cocktail Collection" link has recipes, as well as pictures.
Carib Beer - O.K. it ain't rum, but it sure is good! Their website is also being reconstructed..

Contributors (in the order received)
Linda Goodell (Pear8head)
Frank Gleberman (Captain Ahab)
Jill Dougherty
Bob Dreyer (winefrog)
Adele Smith (Dellie)
Sue (Safaree)
Steven R. Becker (SRBCPA)
Fishking
Dale Andrews

The Windjammer Fan Club Webring
This site belongs to Tuck Landry

Want to add your site to the Windjammer Fan Club Webring?

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