Barry Cohen: Hello Evelyn.
Evelyn: Hi Barry.
Barry Cohen: Great to have you with us.
Evelyn: I’m so great.
Barry Cohen: Of course, you’re at the Waterlot Inn.
Evelyn: The moment I walked in here, I was just amazed at all these amazing artifacts and like this great mat over here.
Barry Cohen: But what you’re looking at is a great piece from the 1800s and you know that just helps set the tone and the feel for the history that you’re at Waterlot Inn. I mean, we’ve had so many people through history, shares memoirs with us or stay here while we’re an inn, the list is so long, that’s just amazing.
Evelyn: So this place used to be an inn?
Barry Cohen: Yeah, that’s correct, all the way from 1670 to 1949. It was on the same family line—the Darrell family and they ran this until the surviving member, her name is Claudia Darrell passed on in 1949. After that, people who bought it stayed in the inn, keeping business and then it generate over time, it became a restaurant when Princes’ Hotel took it over in 1970.
Evelyn: Was this stuff originally here. I noticed some really cool artifacts, a compass on the stairs, and some of those things upstairs.
Barry Cohen: Upstairs, we have some great old wooden tables that were brought over by ship from the orient. You know, that probably date back again to the early 1800s. The part of the room that we’re in right now as added on, this was an outdoor patio and as it became a dining room and needed more space, we obviously closed it in and uh gave ourselves more ceiling to accommodate our guest’s needs.
So with a beautiful view that you’ve seen, looking out at the Jew’s Bay, it’s just a perfect setting, the suns sets right out here. So, it’s a spectacular place for cocktails, a spectacular place for dinner, and it’s the second oldest restaurant on the island.
There and you’ll fins, as you said, the compass on the stairs. Some great pieces—the bull’s eye glass, to the left, to the fireplace, that whole fireplace, the Bermuda beams in the lounge. It’s just a perfect setting and people just want to be here and want to be a part of this history.
Evelyn: Barry, thank you so much.
Barry Cohen: Oh, it’s my pleasure. It’s great to have you here. Now we’re going to get you a little of food so you could see experience and taste it for yourself.
Evelyn: Oh perfect.
Barry Cohen: That’s this way.
Evelyn: Thank you, what a service.
Chifford Crawford: Everybody seems to want the same sort of comfort food. So the contemporary part comes from the things that are little bit more adventurous on the menu. I’d like to think it was contemporary a little bit but it’s a lot of old classics. So, I had one who still love steaks but people love fish as well. So one way that we’re doing is with the Steakhouse concept of serving side dishes as opposed to just serving composed dishes. So, if they want a steak or if they want fish or if they want chicken or if they want duck, you know, it’s all here. And then they can pick and choose for their side dishes so that way we can individualize their meal and it’s even better when they have more because everybody can share amongst themselves.
Evelyn: So what is distinctively Bermudian about the Waterlot.
Barry Cohen: Well, it’s the building itself. The building stands for about 130 years. What I do love about the restaurant is the old historic feel about like—I love modern contemporary restaurants as well, just a feel of this restaurant, like what you feel at home and you feel relaxed. When you come and sit down for dinner for a couple of hours, you go feel it easily and it never feel like you’re different.
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