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Discover a Taste of Pure Paradise...
Since 1961, Sandy Lane has been considered the premier address in the Caribbean – a treasured hideaway for the discerning traveler
By: Angela Cobban
Beautiful Sandy Lane has something for everyone - be it walking some of the best beaches on Barbados, playing endless rounds of golf, enjoying the spa or merely eating, says Angela Cobban.
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Sandy Lane also has one of the hospitality world's best chefs. Grant MacPherson - long-time Raffles, in Singapore - had been working for Steve Wynn in Las Vegas for ten years when one of the 112-room Sandy Lane's five owners, Dermot Desmond, said 'come and visit our little property at Sandy Lane'.
He did, and he joined the 470-strong resort team. Looking back, he says it has taken a year to turn round the all day Bajan Blue indoor-outdoors restaurant. He checked every existing supplier and changed many of them. He worked closely with the culinary team, employing a pastry chef from One&Only and setting up an inhouse bakery and butchery. We were there, early January 2009, and we were bowled over, positively.
On the design side, ABA from Las Vegas reconceptualized the restaurant's overall look. Stones, ivory and pale blues blend well with the sandy beach and Caribbean waters. Big bankettes have been formed from heavy wooden sofas set parallel to each other: between pairs, covered with ivory and blue cushions, are glass tables set, as throughout the 150-seat restaurant, with dark brown mats, plain white Bernardaud and silverware that unfortunately tarnishes in this climate. Clear salt and pepper mills have dark brown tops, and butter comes in a silver-topped white china beurriere. Napkins are cream linen with pulled-thread embroidered edging.
Heavy brown overhead fans help keep away the birds that sometimes penetrated before (green sensor lights on trees outside the restaurant similarly repel flies). The fixed buffet area has two parallel mother-of-pearl ended stone display tables facing you, and, at right angles on your left, another display table. At right angles to your right is a long serving station with people carving, or serving pizza from the working oven behind. At the end of this inner serving area is a display, the width of the room, with chafing dishes in front, and a working kitchen, with full wok and stoves, behind. The Berkel slicer is visible through the whole-wall window as come down to Bajan Blue from the lobby above: you also see the chefs-a-working. You know, ahead of time, that this is real food cooked and served by real people.
The printed menu reads 'Our Lunch Kitchen - Saturdays' with dishes under headings, in order, Bajan Blue Classics, Classical Cooking The Modern Way'. Subtitles Salad Bar, Raw (sashimi and sushi, etc), Soup, Cold, Pizza, Curry, Wok, Sauté, Oven, Desserts. Although the buffet is so copious, in fact a lot of regulars, including an eccentric critic, simply order whatever they want. The most amazing thing was that
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Grant MacPherson was actually running the outlet. He was variously cooking at that working kitchen area, and personally carrying dishes to such gourmets as a Russian connoisseur, who had opened Barbados up as a destination for Aeroflot over 20 years ago and has been coming here annually ever since.
The resort's GM, Robert Logan, coincidentally also came from Raffles Hotel Singapore - he too was attracted to the prestigious role by one of its owners. From the moment its first guests were welcomed in 1961 - to a resort designed by architect Happy Ward for retailer Marshall Field's grandson, the US-born writer and British MP Ronald Tree - Sandy Lane has been a premier address in the Caribbean. A choice of royalty, celebrities and many of the world’s leading businessmen, it remains a treasured hideaway for the discerning traveler who likes classic elegance paired with lavish state of the art amenities.
At Sandy Lane you can be as active or relaxed as you wish - a haven of tranquility, a romantic retreat or the perfect location for families wanting endless possibilities for recreation. Take the golf, which offers 45 holes on three courses, the most famous of which is the par 72, 7,343-yard Green Monkey designed by Tom Fazio. The Clubhouse was designed by Johnson Fain, who also did the Opus One winery in Napa Valley.
Golfers at Sandy Lane will also find two special treatments in The Spa at Sandy Lane. Golf Tonic, a pre game preparation, will get the muscles ready, and afterwards the Golfers’ Retreat is the answer to aching muscles. If you want to know what these consist of, the latter starts with a Thai massage to concentrate on opening energy lines and, with yoga-like stretches, open all those tensed and contracted areas. Then, with steaming herbal balls, tension is released with the rhythmical compressions that help to eliminate the last traces of muscular tension. To top it off, a relaxing Swedish Sandy Lane Full Body Massage will encourage a state of total relaxation. One could go on forever. Just go and see Sandy Lane for yourself!
Sandy Lane, St. James, Barbados
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