Considering that it is supposed to be the "off season" why am I working so much? Seems that the summer season is turning out to be pretty good so far! A few summer weddings have or are being planned here and they are helping to keep all of us busy and out of trouble! The island is still green and lush as we are having some regular rain showers, avoiding a drought so far. We have had a bumper crop of mangoes and if you were reading these articles for the past year you know that there are several varieties of mangoes. They are juicy and delicious and have found their way into many recipes for the summer. It is just a shame that they all ripen in about a 2-month period and that we can't enjoy them year round.
There are lots of new things happening on the island and new summer schedules. I will attempt to list some of the restaurant updates however I want to stress that even though it is the slow season please make dinner reservations at all of the restaurants. They need to know how many people to expect so they are not running out of food. If you are like me I hate getting my heart set on a certain entrée and then be told they just ran out! All of us want to be able to offer great customer service but we need your help too!
First on the list of new things is the opening of Island Café and the resurrection of the Tuesday Night "Happy Hour" at Crow's Nest. Liz O'dell had made the Tues. Social a must attend event here on the island. Many locals are in regular attendance and it is a nice time to catch up with many we do not see regularly and meet some new people. There is talk about some "guest bartenders" making an appearance for Tues. nights and also some appetizers are provided for the crowd. If you want to stay for dinner you must have a reservation as it is a busy night in the restaurant. The group from the Oasis have taken over the restaurant at the Crow's Nest and have come up with a wonderful menu of Caribbean foods. We had dinner there last weekend and it wonderful! As of now Owen is handling the kitchen at Island Café and Jason is holding down the fort at the Oasis. Seth, the new chef arrives soon to help them out with the new restaurant. They have more friends from Texas coming to help Mary Alice hand the bars and the floors of both restaurants. Reappearing in Vieques soon is Layla, she was here to open Oasis a few years back and she has been missed! You might be thinking that with the opening of a new restaurant that the Oasis will take a back seat, not true! The Oasis will be closed Tues. nights and every other Wed. night. They are still doing their famous theme nights every other Wed. and July 4th will feature Soul Food, I understand that the staff will be in costume for the evening! On the 18th there will be a Mexican night and Tapas on August 1st. Island Café will be closed on Wed. nights. I wish I had that much energy! Hope that all of you have a chance to try out both restaurants. News flash just in, Don Campbell will be guest bartending on July 17th. Don had worked at Banana's years ago and then worked for The Inn on the Blue Horizon when they opened their restaurant. He left Vieques a few years ago for a change and is currently working at the Ritz Carlton in San Juan. We have not seen him for some time so it will be a packed night at Island Café on the 17th.
Café Media Luna is scheduled to reopen the weekend of the 6th. If I am not mistaken they will be open Fri., Sat., and Sundays through the summer. I just got off the phone with Monica and beautiful Gabriela is in the kitchen with her while she is making ice cream for their reopening this weekend! I was lucky enough to meet Gabriela last weekend at a party, she was the youngest guest at age 3 weeks and was very well behaved! Okay so she slept most of the time but she is gorgeous and I am sure that by the time she is 4 she will be working the floor with her father! There will be music at Media Luna on Sat. July 28th and as you know if you are on the island make your reservations for that night. The music is always great and tables get reserved early.
Also in July is the Patronales Weekend. This is very popular with the locals and even main islanders. The Patronales Festival is held in different towns all over Puerto Rico through out the summer, it is I believe the Patron Saint celebration. There is live music nightly, some craft vendors, food vendors and rides for the children and lots of alcohol! The event is held in the Plaza in Isabel II and runs from July 18th through July 22nd. The Plaza is not very big yet somehow they manage to get a few thousand people in attendance and this is your chance to learn to Salsa and Merengue with the locals! The entertainment usually starts around 8 or 9 PM, and on Fri. and Sat. night will last until about 3 AM. If you don't like crowds then stay home but if you love Latin music attend, it can be lots of fun!
Just an update on some of the restaurant schedules not mentioned above:
La Campesina is opened Tues. - Friday nights
Trade Winds is open for breakfast and lunch Sat., Sun., Mondays 10 - 2.
Dinner is served Fri., Sat., and Sundays from 6 - 9:30.
Bananas is opened for lunch and dinner daily
Mar Azul, bar open daily, kitchen open Thurs. - Sundays
Café Blu at the Inn on the Blue is serving dinner by reservation only Thurs. - Sunday.
Amapola I think has the bar open daily and serving food on the weekends.
Crabwalk Café I think is still serving lunch and dinner daily.
Tropico open for dinner I believe Wed. - Sat. and Paella (for 2) has become quite
Popular on Friday and Saturday nights!
I think most of the local restaurants are on their regular schedules, when in doubt call first! Just an FYI, some of the local restaurants in Isabel II, like Richard's Café, Shaunna's Restaurant and El Patio have $5.00 lunch specials, lots of food for not much money! These are a great deal!
Another fun event is Bingo at Sombrero Viejo in Isabel II. Okay many of you would not consider Bingo to be a fun thing to do however the crowd gets pretty competitive and the drink prices are very reasonable! Bingo is played on Tues. - Fridays starting at about 5:00 and usually over about 7 PM. Mr. Kuhn has a regular following of Happy Hour Bingo players and it really has been lots of fun.
Lyman still is offering Karaoke but it is not on a regular schedule, usually every other Friday night. I suggest that you stop by and check the schedule while here. I have missed the last 2 nights and understand that they continue to be lots of fun and quite popular. Everyone is attending to see Trelvis and Owen in action as well as the other regulars! There is quite a lot of talent on this little island!
I have been working on the results of the survey and was quite surprised by some of the answers and others I expected to turn out the way they did. It is a lot of information to go through in one newsletter so I think I will highlight some of the results this month and then add a little more information in upcoming months. Also I will attempt to add some pictures to go along with the names for futures articles! I recently was presented with a digital camera J and when I find the time to really play with it will get some pictures together of the people and places that you read about. We had about 75 responses to the survey and it was a cross section of one-time visitors to full time residents. Not everyone answered all of the questions and some of the questions were more for my benefit as far as what things I need to cover more. I am happy to report that the vast majority of you found this website to be the best in regards to Vieques! I was also pleased to see that every restaurant received high marks from some of you whether for best value, or favorite or most romantic but for the sake of space will only mention the top 3 in each category. Below are the results for some of the questions and this month we will be dealing with mostly just the restaurants and the bars.
Favorite Breakfast: Trade Winds won this hands down, Crabwalk and Amistad tied for second
Favorite Lunch: Banana's won this honor, second was Crab Walk and third was a tie between Trade Winds and Mar Azul.
Favorite Dinner Restaurant: Oasis won this by 3 votes! Second place was a tie between La Campesina and Café Blu and 3rd place also a tie between Media Luna and Trade Winds. These were all very close in the number count!
Most Diverse Menu goes to Oasis, Café Blu comes in second and Trade Winds comes in third.
Friendliest Staff goes to Oasis again! Banana's gets second place and Trade Winds gets third.
Best Service was a tie between the Oasis and Café Blu at the Inn on the Blue Horizon. Media Luna, La Campesina and Trade Winds all tied in the vote!
Most Romantic Restaurant goes to Café Blu! Coming in second was La Campesina and third goes to the Oasis.
Food Prices: I have to admit that I was surprised by this, overall the dining prices were considered to be reasonable and more people voted them inexpensive rather than expensive! Good news when planning your vacation.
Best Value Restaurant: Crab Walk won this one, Oasis place second and Mar Azul placed third.
Favorite place to drink: Mar Azul won this hands down! Banana's gets second and Café Blu gets third.
Best Bartenders on average: Mar Azul gets this one with Banana's coming in second and tying for third are Trade Winds and Crab Walk.
Favorite Bartender: Judy at the Mar Azul beats out Lyman from the Crab Walk and also Reenie from the Mar Azul. I am not sure if all of you know that I am the same Judy and so to be fair the forth best bartender on the island is a tie between Tully of Trade Winds and Richie at Banana's. If the votes were truly impartial then I really thank you for your support! I have some really good company in the
bartending category!
Place where you have or had the most fun again goes to the Mar Azul! Crab Walk comes in second, they got lots of votes due to Karaoke nights and Banana's get third place for that.
I want to stress again that all the restaurants on the island got votes in all the categories. It just goes to show you that any of the restaurants here could become your favorite! Make sure you try Chez Shack, Mucho Gusto, Taverna Espanola, Posada Vista Mar, Tito
Blóques and others. It could be where you want to dine on your next visit!
Thanks for reading and hope you all have a pleasant summer. Come back and see "What's Happenin'" in August, I'll have more survey results!
Judy
PS: If there is anything you would like to see in the newsletter or have any feedback please email
Ask Judy. Thanks.
askjudy@enchanted-isle.com
If you have read some of the past letters by Peggy you will be familiar with the "must do" things here. If you have not read them I suggest that you take a few minutes to browse through them to become better acquainted with life here on the island. She has filled her columns with lots of "things you need to know" and I don't want to pass on the same information month after month! <click here for the archives>
Thanks everyone for bearing with me through all this but there is just so much happening that I wanted to share with you. Again thank you too for telling me that you have been reading and chose Vieques because of
www.enchanted-isle.com . We are so happy that you are enjoying the site and that you are visiting our island. Hope to meet more of you soon!
If any of you would like to see something specific in this newsletter please contact the webmaster and I will do my best to investigate for you.
Email: whats_happenin@enchanted-isle.com
