This is mainly a Food Trip Report!
July 5-11
We flew Jet Blue out of Worcester connecting through JFK, which was a breeze. We are 20-year visitors to the island and have always stayed at GCBC but after this trip we’re mulling a villa rental, mainly for the privacy that it affords. We normally stay in June but this was a July trip and there were definitely more loud kids at the pool in July. Plus we saw how much Eric & Carol enjoyed Villa Canoa, so we might take the leap.
Lunches- since Grand Case Beach Club no longer offers free continental breakfast (a disappointment for sure), we decided to just skip breakfast and treat ourselves to nice lunches off site. GCBC is missing a huge opportunity by not posting their restaurant menus online or around the property. Fortunately I requested that the hotel email me the menus in advance of our trip. Not terribly exciting and we decided not to dine there during our stay.
Nice SXM - new restaurant on Grand Case Blvd. Nice setting facing the pier and beach. Mostly French clientele. The only thing that took away from the enjoyment of our meal was the cigarette smoke. Every single person around us was smoking. For this reason we wouldn’t go back.
Telegraphe - new restaurant in OV only open 2 weeks, by the owner of Calmos Cafe in Grand Case. Best lunch of the week. If they have the grouper with passion fruit special, get it! We went back for dinner, which was great too, but preferred the lunch vibe. Very friendly service, great prices, the place is hopping.
kko (Kakao Beach) - Orient Bay. We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in one of their beach huts. There was some miscommunication when ordering. I specifically asked if the salmon in the salmon salad was cooked to which the waiter answered yes. When it arrived it was clearly raw. Manager promptly replaced with a crab salad which was very good. My partner enjoyed his burger and fries.
L’express by Bacchus - Hope Estate. Picked up some decent croissants and sandwiches here one day. Plain croissants were the best choice with a great buttery flavor. They ran out of chocolate so I opted for chocolate almond.
Little Jerusalem - we always hit this place immediately after we land and promptly devour one of friendly Abe’s special schwarmas. He doesn’t mind if you share which we always do so as not to ruin our appetite for dinner. He will split it for you. Not to be missed!
Tropicana- Marigot. Attempted for lunch only to find out they are closed on Mondays. Tried again on Wednesday and enjoyed their lunch specials including a really nice red snapper in leek and butter sauce.
Grocery stores: new Super U in Hope Estate was great (puts Leader Price to shame) but we mostly ended up at Hope Market to get my partner’s Coke Zero which he can’t live without.
Dinners:
Perennial favorites Spiga, LaVilla, L’Auberge Gourmande 2x (pork filet Mignon and stuffed quail was our best dinner all week), Bistro Caraibes for Lobster Thermidor.
Le Cottage is closed all of July through September, so we missed out this time.
We also missed out on Le Piment in OV as we didn’t realize they were closed Monday.
We did a lot of nothing on this trip, and really the only time we left the hotel was to drive somewhere to eat. Traffic seemed very heavy for this time of year but we attributed it to road construction in and around Marigot. The construction noise at GCBC is definitely noticeable at certain times of the day but not unbearable. Another great trip in the books.
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