Fed up of the national debt discussion and the trouble with our southern neighbor? The Oranjestad waterfront has a fix for that.
On Monday, we ventured into town for a fast lunch, at a new eatery. As a rule, one should never try any place on inaugural week/month, it is wiser to wait until they iron their kinks out before handing cash over.
But that rule did not apply on Monday.
We’ve seen this place coming up on the main traffic artery and needed to check it out, asap.
Lucy, Retired Surfers Bar & Restaurant.
Their surfboard and curling wave is already an Instagram hit.
We were recommended the Serious Nachos but ordered the Pao Pao Shrimp Taco and the Tropical Pork Sliders. Our waitress said they were Da Bom.
We thought so too. The food was crispy, tangy, sassy, sweet, and salty at the same time. We loved it. The Key Lime Mousse is worth a return trip. I hope the espresso machine is on order.
Lucy comes to us from New Orleans where the business exists for almost three decades, in the warehouse district. Then it was sold to a group of investors with global ambitions and over the past few years they opened Key West and Costa Rica. This week the Oranjestad Waterfront, the former Carpe Diem location, turned on its charm.
The place features a dance floor and an extensive bar with fun drinks. Their Shark attack reportedly offers a bloody ritual where a plastic shark, filled with grenadine is dunked into a mix of Vodka, Gin, Rum an Tequila. The menu warns: Mermaids beware.
We met Jamie, a cool dude, on the management team. He looks and sounds casual, but shared he has a solid food & beverage background, having worked for legendary Ruth’s Chris steakhouse in NOLA and other famous places. He certainly knows something about this tricky biz of mixing drinks and serving food.
The group heard about Aruba via Wind
Creek Hospitality (WCH), an authority of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians whose
subsidiary acquired the Aruba Renaissance
Resort & Casino and the Curacao Renaissance Resort & Casino.
Wind Creek invited Jamie and his group to look/see. It was love at first bite. Jamie has been to Aruba before and is a fan!
Special staff mention: Jennifer and the servers we had the pleasure to meet, are all personalities, with character and pedigree. I met Jennifer at Screaming Eagle where she was restaurant manager. Michele the bartender hails from Moomba. They are just adorable, interactive, chatty and fun.
Good food quality, reasonably priced, I will return, I will recommend. The view is priceless, but that you know already.
Suggestion: Get off your beach chair for shopping and lunch in town. The experience is worth it.
Perhaps Lucy’s dance floor marks the return of nightlife to Oranjestad, tip the scale in favor of dancing and drinking on the waterfront instead of squeezed in on Palm beach, with no view, and no parking.
