NASSAU — For greater than a half century, Nassau’s Graycliff has been the premier restaurant within the Caribbean (and the house of the area’s largest wine and spirits assortment).
Greater than that, it has set the usual for meals and beverage within the Caribbean, beneath the stewardship of the Garzaroli household and its unwavering dedication to gastronomy.
On Tuesday, Graycliff acquired one other singular honor within the Caribbean — the first-ever Blue Plaque from the federal government of the UK, honoring that very gastronomic excellence.
UK Excessive Commissioner to The Bahamas Tom Hartley offered Graycliff proprietors Enrico and Anna Maria Garzaroli with the plaque in a traditional English backyard party-style setting on the Nassau resort on Tuesday, accompanied by a powerful number of British wine, spirits and cheeses (and, naturally, scones with clotted cream and jam).
It was British meals and wine that was important to the plaque, largely as a consequence of Graycliff’s place as the primary restaurant within the nation and the broader area — to completely function English wines and glowing wines (just like the marvelous Gusbourne), a part of an nearly impossibly lengthy listing of wines and spirits on the property — one which numbers within the a whole lot of 1000’s.
The plaque celebrates how Graycliff’s “ardour for positive wines and spirits has not solely enriched the Bahamian group but additionally helped strengthen the ties” between The Bahamas and the UK.
It’s not simply the primary time the UK authorities has awarded a Blue Plaque within the Caribbean – however anyplace on this planet, modeled on the longtime custom of adorning blue plaques on buildings of import in London.
“In my pursuit of bringing Britain and The Bahamas nearer collectively by way of meals and beverage, we couldn’t have discovered a greater accomplice than Graycliff, with an award-winning wine cellar, probably the greatest on this planet, and with a few of the world’s greatest gins and whiskies, additionally from Britain.”
“Graycliff,” he stated. “Have set themselves aside for the standard of their merchandise, for his or her discerning clientele, and their dedication to glorious service and workers coaching. There isn’t any extra becoming venue in The Bahamas to obtain the Excessive Fee’s first-ever Blue Plaque Award, the primary Blue Plaque Award anyplace on this planet.”
It’s not the primary time that Graycliff has discovered its method into UK historical past, nevertheless.
The property has a deep and lasting connection to the UK; Sir Winston Churchill is claimed to have visited the property a number of instances within the first half of the twentieth century when it was a personal residence; and within the late Nineteen Sixties it performed host to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, when its residents had been Lord and Girl Dudley, The Third Earl of Staffordshire.
Extra broadly, the accolade is one other endorsement of the booming meals scene in Nassau and Paradise Island, a vacation spot whose culinary may has solely been rising in recent times.
“I believe it speaks to the better choices that we’ve got from a culinary standpoint in that we’re positively acknowledged because the culinary powerhouse on this area,” stated Pleasure Jibrilu, CEO of the Nassau Paradise Island Promotion Board. “Whether or not you’re on the lookout for the highest worldwide eating places, worldwide delicacies by international cooks or the perfect Bahamian cooks, it’s the proper combine.”
