Location: Le Phare Bleu, Egmont
Style: Casual/Tavern
Drinks to try: Tropical G&T, Gin Gin Mule
Food to try: Flatbreads
Night to check out: Trivia Tuesdays
Points to note: There’s always something going on at LPB as it has a small village feel with plenty of action
Le Phare Bleu is its own little village-like destination. With a marina, restaurant/bar, grocery store, spa and more its a well self contained venue.
It also happens to be the birthplace of Caribbean Gin and where we got our distillery name from. Le Phare Bleu translates to “the blue lighthouse”, of which there is a blue lighthouse in the marina (also on the back of our gin bottles).
We caught up with Devin Nelles, the manager of property to talk about his passions, cocktails and good times.
“Le Phare Bleu is a funny creation. It was built about 15 years ago by a Jana and Dieter, and they just wanted to make a marina. All of a sudden they built this whole village around the place. Christina and I got involved a few years back and had a lot of fun with it.”
It really has developed over the years, and even the surrounding area is becoming a hotspot with new villas popping up all over the place.
“There’s a lot of things you can come and do here. We’re one of the few places you can come to buy a drink, grab a bite to eat, and use the pool. We don’t do day passes or any of that. It’s super casual. We’re a Tavern by design. So, we want it to be super casual. I mean, you’ll have people coming in here and doing work on their computers and stuff. Just hanging out, having a coffee.”
It is very much a day time hangout as well as an evening spot, however, does not general go late due to the residents on the resort and marina. The most popular time is around sunset/happy hour.
“We have a butcher, a baker, there’s no candlestick maker, but we have a gin distillery so it’s even better. And, there’s a chiropractor, there’s an Asian spa with a Thai therapist and you can just come here.”
Which means there is a little bit of everything for everyone.
“We’re very seafood centric, comfort food. So you know, you can come here, have a whole grilled fish. And then you can get a lot of, a lot of things that you’re familiar with.”
One of the mots popular things on the menu is their variety of flat breads, but they also have weekly specials including dollar wings and rotisserie chicken night.
The founder of the property is a keen musician and the venue has strong ties to Grenada’s music industry.
“We also do events with Sabrina Francis. We do these tree house concerts every four weeks.
Up at Yann and Dieter’s farm. Before the pandemic, we had a lot of entertainment going on, delight ship, and I, and I think we’re, we’re getting to that point where the world is coming back to normal. Again, we’re going to have some, some things going on there, perhaps with like some karaoke nights, perhaps some movies on the lawn.”
As you can tell, the place always has something going on. The exist way to keep up to date is to follow their social media channels.
While the venue feels very seperate from the rest of Grenada it is only around a 15 mins drive from town.
“It’s super close. It’s so close yet. So far away because there’s nothing else really in this area. Um, there’s a lot of little neighbourhoods on the Southern peninsulas of Grenada and we’re tucked away in a, in a kind of enclave and you just come here and you look out at the water.”
Be sure to keep an eye out for events on the lightship! The lightship is an iconic destination. Once a floating operation lighthouse ship it now stays moored in the marina and has a bar on board with gin on tap!
“And you know, because that’s the legend of the lighthouse. You, you kiss at the top of the lighthouse and your love lasts forever.”
Happy hour specials are pretty great here.
“Four to six is happy hour. So we got, beer buckets and, your rail cocktails and stuff like that. We have a pizza night on Tuesdays, which is buy two, get one free pizza.”
“We have wing night Wednesdays. It’s dollar wings. So you just come and get some platters of wings, have some drinks come for happy hour. Enjoy it. Um, Thursday we have rotisserie chicken.”
Then we got talking about cocktails which is where Devin really shines.
“Well, you know, we all have to eat and we all have to drink and. If we’re going to eat and we’re going to drink, we should probably try to do it well. And, really it’s just about enjoying life. And the story of cocktails is kind of interesting, you know, whether you’re talking about a Mojito, where it comes from Cuba, or you’re talking about a mule which actually comes from America. And then we make our twist with it. It’s, it’s just sort of, it’s a story, it’s a lifestyle, it’s a feeling.”
There is a range of classic cocktails at Island Fever, however, there are some great twists.
“We’re in the Caribbean. You know, what do you imagine when you think about Caribbean cocktails, do you think of Pina Coladas, daiquiris, all that kind of stuff. We have daiquiri Hemingway’s here, which is kind of a nod to, Hemingway and his, his time in Cuba. And then we have things, things like Gin Gin Mule, which we’re talking about in house gin, blue light. And, and what can we do, to highlight this amazing Caribbean gin and have fun with it.”
Devin has been in the Caribbean for some years and loves celebrating it though his food and drink menu.
“Being in the moment and the Caribbean is really all about, you know, we’re, we’re not living the city life. We’re living, we’re living the dream. So let’s go for it. Yeah.”
Check out their social media @island_fever_tropical_tavern or @lepharebleugrenada
Gin enthusiast and Caribbean Dreamer.
