Exxon Lago Oil Refinery,The bar, founded by Dutch-born adventurer Charlie Brouns in 1941, on the main street of the then booming oil town, became a gold mine of sort, serving visiting seamen and the ladies of the night, sweating to entertain them, in the neighboring red light district.
The bar had a bank across the street for an added touch of respectability, and the motely clientele kept the proprietor and his wife Marie, busy, serving modest food items and a well-stocked bar menu. They worked downstairs, and lived upstairs, traveling a steep wooden staircase, in between.
(I just read they got married by proxy, having been teen-lovers — he was 18, she was 16, in their home town near Rotterdam, maintaining a long distance affair, Netherland-Curacao- Aruba, for their first years together.)
During, and after the war, San Nicolas was a hub of commercial activity, and Charlie became a prominent businessman. The Lago Oil & Transport refinery, the second largest in the world was a major producer of petroleum products for the Allied war effort. It processed a large portion of the British and French oil needs. Apparently, both the Aruba and Curacao refineries fueled 70% of the American struggle in the Pacific, so imagine how hectic main street San Nicholas had become, and how demanding, the bar.
Late columnist Donny Lacle, wrote a book about the bar’s first 45 years, which probably ran out of print. Alas, I never got to read it.
I experienced Charlie’s Bar for the first time in the 80s, when it was the highlight stop on my weekend island tours. Charlie Brouns Jr. was in charge, the second generation, charismatic, outgoing, an expert schmoozer and a colossal PR force, not just to benefit his own business, but also to push his hometown to the forefront in sports, politics and economy, tirelessly promoting the Sunrise Side, as a must see for every tourist visiting the island. Charlie Jr. put San Nicolas on the map, when it threatened to slide completely off, with the decline of the then Exxon Lago Oil Refinery, and its gloomy closing in 1985.
I had the privilege to listen to Charlie Jr., around the Millennium, when one of my friends had the brilliant idea to create a new souvenir, a bottle of local rum, paired with a booklet of Charlie’s stories. I was asked to collaborate and as a result I heard many of Charlie’s entertaining anecdotes first hand. He was an exceptional story teller, with 100% recall, dates, names, places, he had it all filed away in his head, or perhaps he made it up on the spur of the moment, but anyhow it all sounded genuine, accurate and fantastic!
The bar décor, the visual effect, has always been one of its main draws. Remember Charlie’s retirement fund? A dusty, giant, ball of paper money notes from across the globe; The anchor of that ship, the propeller of the other, hazard signs, tossed badges, the Happy Hour bell, license plates, flags, ancient baseball caps and hard hats, posters, pictures, 80 years of mind-blowing knickknacks, left behind by patrons, to join the endless gallery of junk, floor to ceiling, three deep, with the commissioned relief sculpture of Charlie Jr., by artist Maritza Erasmus, in the middle.
He wears his eternal broad grin, just the way he did in real life. The work was commission by Charlie III, who inherited the bar from his father, when the later died in September 2004, after celebrating the bar’s anniversary with family members and friends, from all over.
The décor remained the same. Don’t touch a thing. So did the menu, but Charlie III is a bit more of a disciplinarian, and much-less laid back, as he insists his clients order, not just hang around to gawk at the walls.
Charlie’s honeymoon sauce is still on the menu, so does the Hoere Hap — the special of the day, someone would need to translate that for you! Steamed shrimp? Bite off their heads, suck their tails – they are still on the menu. Relief. Somethings never change.
Remember Gus the eternal bartender? And Roy?
And Big Roger, of the welcome committee.
Their ghosts still hang around, reminiscent of all the good times we’ve had.
I spoke to Montsy on the occasion of the 80th anniversary. The next generation consists of three kids, I heard. Maria, 6, Charlie III’s daughter, named after of great-grandma, Vincent-Charles 14, and Charlize Marie, 9 – the last two are Montsy’s.
Monsty became a clinical chemist and works at the Hospital, supervising lab activities there, while still being partly involved with the bar. Charlie Jr., was always very proud of his brainy daughter.
This past weekend was celebrated at the bar on a low scale, Musicians, friends of Charlie III dropped in, he has a special friendship with the Connor family, famous Steel Pan players.
Go ahead, take a trip, for old time sake. Open from 11am to 6pm.
