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Dining then & now
WELCOME BAHAMAS - NASSAU, CABLE BEACH & PARADISE ISLAND - 2007
Dining then & now
Times and tastes have changed
The quality of dinner at a first-class restaurant in The Bahamas has not changed much through the years. But the manner in which vacationers enjoy a memorable meal has undergone a complete transformation.
Back in the 1930s, when tourism was just getting started in The Bahamas, patrons would ?dress for dinner,? which meant floor-length gowns and elbow-length gloves for the ladies and tuxedos and crisply starched collars for the men.
It was a day when oceanfront rooms went for a scandalous $18 a night and when dining out in the hotel dining room was an evening-long event as structured and formal as a four-act opera.
Now, in the 21st century, the grandchildren of those diners are enjoying dinners in classy, laid-back restaurants wearing ?resort elegant attire,? which calls for ?dress T-shirts or polo shirts, slacks, sundresses or skirts.? At the apex of the dress code today is ?jackets required? or ?jackets recommended,? meaning button-down shirts, evening dresses or skirts. Ties, de rigueur even a decade ago, are usually optional today, even in the fussiest restaurants.
Dining as an experience
Back in Nassau?s Golden Age (1940s to 1960s), dining was a much bigger deal than it is today.
Chef Ronny Deryckere, owner of the Sun and... restaurant, remembers the days when people dressed to the nines for dinner. ?Back then the experience itself was very formal. People started with drinks and moved on to dinner and dancing. The evening out was an experience.?
Sun and..., located on Lakeview Road off Shirley Street, was previously owned by an eccentric Englishman named Pete Gardiner (he sometimes hosted guests barefoot in a tux). Belgian-born Deryckere and his wife, Esther, now provide elegant dining at the same location, with three indoor eating areas and an outdoor courtyard where guests dine under the stars.
?People still want good food and good service. They want higher quality foods and unique dishes but there is more of a rush these days. A lot of people come to dine earlier. They want to be home and in bed by 11 or midnight. Before, people used to spend more time with the meal,? says Deryckere.
He emphasizes some things can?t be rushed. A dish such as sautéed lobster with cognac cream, glazed with a crabmeat mornay sauce, takes time to prepare. Most guests would agree that the lobster or his signature tropical guava and cinnamon Tia Maria soufflé are well worth the wait.
Vernon (Boy) Wilkinson, a former maître d? at the original version of Café Martinique, smiles whenever guests remember him from a night out on Paradise Island 20 or even 30 years ago.
?They remember the night, what they ate and what they did after leaving the restaurant. We had a chef from Spain named Gonzalo. People still talk to me to this day about his signature shrimp De Jonghe in creamy garlic sauce.?
Wilkinson worked for 33 years at the famous restaurant that once provided a location for the James Bond movie Thunderball. He remembers the evenings moved slowly with patrons savouring every moment.
?Times were very different then. Now things are at a faster pace. When you sit down you get a menu right away. Very few restaurants prepare meals tableside. Back then, the show was in the food preparation and service. A whole duck was carved tableside. Cherries jubilee flamed at the table. It gave the staff a chance to show off their skills.
?The atmosphere was very relaxed. People came into the lounge for drinks. We wouldn?t even show them a menu until they were comfortable and ready to be seated. Cocktails started at 6 o?clock. Dinner ended somewhere around midnight.?
The servers wore white gloves at Café Martinique and the dining rooms at the old Royal Victorian and the Nassau Beach hotels.
Today?s casual dress is a far cry from the days when men were turned away for not wearing neckties at the Lyford Cay Club. At most fine dining restaurants the entire waitstaff wore tuxedos. Wilkinson recalls seeing parties of five or more turned away because the men in the group were dressed inappropriately. Some refused to adhere to the code but most went back to their rooms and changed.
?Jackets were a must. The dress code had to be upheld. Even the hotel owners knew they had to dress the part,? said Wilkinson, who now works at Luciano?s of Chicago just across the harbour from where the original Café Martinique once stood.
Turning night into day
A night out on the town in Nassau back in those days stretched into the wee hours. When diners finished dessert, they turned to dancing at such places as the Royal Victorian, Nassau Beach, Windsor Inn and other downtown hotels.
And when the last waltz was over, they moved to lounges and clubs in a section of town known as Over-the-Hill. At one time, Nassau had more than 40 nightclubs where local fire dancers, limbo dancers, musicians and singers performed all night long.
These clubs were a showcase for Bahamian talent and American entertainment giants?including Sammy Davis, Jr, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra?who came to take part in the festivities.
Among those long-departed venues, still talked about today, were The Drumbeat, owned by famous Bahamian drummer Peanuts Taylor, the Zanzibar, the Cat & Fiddle and Chez Paul Meeres. Club hours ended when the last guests headed back to their hotels.
?A lot of the native entertainment doesn?t exist anymore. Not on the level it was back then. There isn?t a lot to do after eating out, so people tend to head back to the hotel and be entertained there,? said Wilkinson.
A new generation
According to Chef Deryckere, just as times and tastes have changed, people?s attitudes toward food have also evolved.
Thanks to TV food shows, extensive travelling and the Internet, diners know more about food, preparation techniques and exotic ingredients than their parents and grandparents did. And when food lovers travel, where they eat is just as important to them as where they stay. In other words, guests are checking in with higher food expectations than ever before.
New generations are drawn towards other forms of entertainment, too. Late night shopping at high-end resort boutiques, casino tournaments and other in-house entertainment keep guests on property at the larger resorts. Specialty restaurants like the trendy Nobu, Dune, Carmine?s and the new Café Martinique, all at Atlantis, also appeal to the modern traveller.
?This is not a jacket generation,? says Deryckere, perhaps with a touch of nostalgia. But people are still concerned with the quality of food being served, he says. ?They want healthy food and they want authentic food, along with a high level of service.?
As with all high-end restaurants, Deryckere?s Sun and... has had to relax its dress code to appeal to younger visitors. Jackets are still preferred but a dress shirt and slacks won?t get you turned away.
Large business and family groups checking into hotels have also contributed to the shift in dining styles in The Bahamas. Five-hour dinners for each reserved table are simply not feasible today.
In the 1950s, visitors to The Bahamas topped out at 50,000. Fast-forward 50 years and more than five million tourists now visit each year. Quick service is demanded by the guests and it?s necessary to keep busy hotels running.
Seeking exotic food
Being adventuresome is also a part of vacation dining today, more so than days gone by when most tony restaurants offered variations of the same thing: French cuisine.
More and more visitors want to try different kinds of food, including local Bahamian dishes.
Guests are travelling outside the hotel to mingle with locals and try native cuisine. This is one reason for the growth of locations such as the Arawak Cay Fish Fry, where Bahamians and visitors meet and mingle to enjoy traditional island fare.
Crack? conch, peas ?n rice, fried snapper and Bahamian-style macaroni ?n cheese may sound heavy to health-conscious diners, but for those seeking a culinary experience, only the native way will do.
Above all, whether you are in a fancy restaurant or the Fish Fry, the formality that once characterized dining out, is out, perhaps forever.
Today?s vacationers want good food in a relaxed setting. For Bahamians, with their easy-going and friendly style, that?s a good thing.
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