Elvinas Famous Bar on Eleuthera

Elvina's Bar and Restaurant on Eleuthera is one of those unique travel destinations you never forget. As with any number of the more popular bars I've been to throughout the Bahamas, the unique ones have some common characteristics; one of the prominent being who of the rich and famous has patronized the place and who has entertained there. Elvina's fits this M.O. to a Tee.

Every Tuesday and Friday night, Elvinas has "open mike" night. The stage is typically occupied by a variety of local musicians, many that are quite good, and some who are infamous to the locals and the "sometime locals" of Eleuthera. I don't have any names to drop, no offense to those that perform there -- I'm horrible with names. But I can remember when I've had a good time and I've been to enough live concerts to have some say about whether the music was good... maybe.

I do know every time I visit Eleuthera, I check to see if Lenny Kravitz is on the island, and if so, if he's gigging at Elvinas. I can only imagine what an experience it was for those who were lucky enough to be at Elvinas when Mr. K. decided to drop in for an impromtu jam session. Just had to be special -- especially if you like his music.

To put it another way, I'd have to turn the plane around enroute to Eleuthera if I couldn't find Lenny's "5" disk on my Nano. Something about those tunes match the ambiance of the island... just sounds like "island". Fave tunes? "Thinking of You" and "If You Can't Say No". And don't forget "Eleutheria" from his "Are You Gonna Go My Way?" CD.

I've spent several or so evenings in Elvinas and thoroughly enjoyed myself. One of the best attributes of "famous Bahamas' bars" is the people that visit them; they come from all over the world, and many of them have been to a number of the other Bahama islands. You can spend mucho hours with these folks talking island travel. And then you mix in the semi-famous locals and you have a very spicy crew very capable and ready to P-A-R-T-Y.

Okay, so I never got to see Lenny Kravitz, at least not yet.

I dropped in on Elvina's in Gregory Town one afternoon as I was headed towards Palmetto Point after having stayed in Lower Bogue and Current Settlement for so many days. The place was empty with exception to Elvina and "Chicken Ed" being there. Elvina was doing chores around the bar while Ed was dutifully sleeping off last night's entertainment on the stage. What a perfect composition! A year later, I had the opportunity of showing Elvina and Ed the virtual reality photo and they thoroughly enjoyed it.

Yo, Lenny! Missed seeing you.

pj

P.S. Check out my other blog entry on Lenny Kravitz -- if you're so inclined.

Eleuthera Restaurants Mapped

Dining is definitely a high priority for us whenever we travel. We're old school diners. Whenever we visit a restaurant, we want to take our time and savor the atmosphere and the food. Unlike today's culture where the 10 second Big Mac rules, we get perturbed if our food is served too fast. We like to give up our meal order in bits and pieces so we don't wind up on the curb an hour after arrival. The restaurants on Eleuthera, as well as the many other Bahamas restaurants we've visited over the years, cater perfectly to our Greek eating style where dining out is an event, not a chore.

Over the years of checking out the various Eleuthera restaurants, I've recorded the geo locations of these restaurants with my Global Positioning System and now list them on my interactive satellite map of Eleuthera and list them again with their telephone numbers on a new Eleuthera restaurants page.

If there's one point in particular to share about restaurants in the Bahamas it's about their service. If you're used to using drive-up windows and intercoms, you need to think in terms of shifting into a slower gear. For our friends who flop on the floor from food deprivation within 10 minutes of giving up a food order, we tell them in advance they need to relax -- “This is the Bahamas, Mon! Chill!”

Another element to dining island style is knowing the servers are geared differently than back home. A 15% gratuity is most always built into the bill so it's not like they're worried about getting tipped. In the same token, they're not setting the world on fire trying to get that extra 5%. We've found it's sometimes helpful to drop an extra $5 bill early on if we think we feel the need for speed.

And then there's the element of price. I've seen some reviews where people complain about how much food they get relative to the price, or simply bitch about higher prices in general. For them, I say let's get real, folks. You're on a freakin' island where everything has to be shipped in by boat or grown / raised on the island. It's a real challenge for the islanders to keep the right foods fresh and in stock to satisfy our whims. It's not like a refrigerated tractor trailer pulls up every Tuesday to drop off a load of tomatoes.

With this in mind, it's highly recommended to call in advance, even days in advance, to be sure your choice for a restaurant on Eleuthera is going to be open and will meet your expectations. We usually ask if there are any specials, sample a price or two, and sometimes ask whether a particular dish we like is going to be available. Some examples of this would be conch, lobster and fish. On occasion, we've asked the restaurant to set aside some delectable we want when we make our reservation. The restaurants appreciate this too since it helps them with preparing their daily grocery list.

While I'm at it, I'll throw in a recommendation for our fave Eleuthera restaurant DolceVita (now closed) at Runaway Bay near Palmetto Point. We love this place, the food and the owners, Paolo and Flipper. Talk about yummo food!

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention a few others like Mate and Jenny's in South Palmetto, known for their pizzas, and Captain Jack's near North Palmetto, known for their Louisiana style cooking and their excellent view of one of the better Eleuthera beaches. In fact, one of my more favorite Eleuthera photos is from there.

Are there more restaurants than the ones I listed? Of course! Just ask around when you get there. The islanders are very friendly people. Have a suggestion of your own? Just drop it into the comment box.

Bon Appetit!

pj