TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Calmos Cafe?

A while back there was a post claiming that the Calmos Cafe in Grand Case was going to be rebuilt--with a target date for the reopening in December or January. Has anyone seen any evidence of construction work there? Does it appear it may actually open? Does anyone have any information?

I too would love an update. When we were there in November there was a lot of active construction going on.

When we were there in November they were working on it and construction was moving right along. The projected opening date was December 2022. Since we left mid-November I don't know if they opened on time.

we drove by today coming back from Orient…the front still had construction fencing and what i could see still looked rough.. i would assume they still have a ways to go

pics taken yesterday, Monday

Thanks for the pics. Hopefully it will get done of these days!

C’est la vie

I've still got an old "C'est la vie" shirt! It looks like they will be keeping the original building footprint, with the narrow path to the bar/beach area. That was quirky.

Zanshin--looks like that is the case, although they probably didn't have a lot of choice. That is a very narrow lot. I never got one of those shirts, although they certainly were cool!

I walked past the Calmos Cafe construction site yesterday and met the owner. I got a sneak preview of the new layout and I'm impressed! The entrance looks the same, with that narrow opening, but after that it all opens out and everything is bigger and roomier than before. He said they would be opening in about 2 or perhaps 3 weeks and since the kitchen equipment is already in place that actually might turn out to be correct. He preferred that I didn't take any inside pictures, so here's one of the new sign

Sign looks nice. Looking forward to it re-opening. It's been a long time!

Last week we had lunch with a local couple at Aloha. The young man, who I won't name, is working on the construction at Calmos.
His best guess of an opening date was the first week of March.

This is super exciting. Can't wait to check it out in April.

Calmos re-opened this Month!

The owners live close to me. She’s very nice. Haven’t met the hubby.

Went there years ago and they had a really bad attitude towards Americans. Not just us....we saw the same attitude given to other tables. I know one bad employee can give someplace a bad name......Hopefully this has changed.

We have been there several times over the years and always felt welcome. But you're right, sometimes one employee having a bad day can make you not return.

We went there years ago based on all the good reviews on this site. There were 3 other tables occupied so we made 4. Plenty of wait staff standing around. After 20 minutes with no service , never even once seeing a waiter at our table, we departed never to return. The other tables occupied by French speaking customers had wonderful service. Draw your own conclusions

I'm with you, St Martin Fan--we always had lovely service there.

We were there last week. Food and service were both very good

They can’t afford to give anyone bad service now, given the current economic reality.

Should never be an excuse for bad service.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience there. We have been going for 20 years but did skip a couple of years when Covid hit. We have never had rude servers. We have on occasion had to wait for food, when Camos was packed but with music and drinks and good friends we did not mind. We are thrilled to hear they are open again and looking forward to enjoying and supporting them after these very rough hurricane and Covid times.

We have always greeted the people on the the French side with a greeting in French ( Bon Jour) it goes a long way. Learn a little more and then ask if they speak English and the experience is exponentially better

Bonjour is the key!!!

Comment alley-vous

Bien

Enjoy your great service

Parlez vous humma humma

Maybe your evening will have a happy ending.

"Learn a little more and then ask if they speak English and the experience is exponentially better"
You shouldn't have to do that to get good service. Should come automatically as part of a dining experience.

Same. Never went back. Hopefully things better this time around.