Anguilla’s popular upmarket daVida Restaurant & Bayside Grill, at Crocus Bay, in the centre of the island, took much pleasure in hosting a beach party – a day of entertainment and familiarisation – for delegates to the STEP Anguilla 2015 Conference held in St. Maarten this week.
The delightful event, on Sunday, May 3, preceded the two-and-a-half day conference in St. Maarten from Monday to Wednesday.
Mrs. Christine Vida Lloyd-Richardson and her brother, David Lloyd, are co-owners of the cuisine property. She told The Anguillian that they were proud to have been the hosts of the event which attracted some 140 of the 230-odd financial personnel attending the conference in St. Maarten.
“It is a real privilege to host this day in Anguilla, and we know that the goal is to have the visitors coming from St. Maarten experience life in Anguilla – our food, our music and our environment, and so we are working with the conference organisers to accomplish that goal,” Mrs. Lloyd-Richardson stated. “It is a full and eventful day. We have indigenous food from vendors in Anguilla who normally provide it on an ongoing basis. This includes, for example, johnny cakes, baked the old-time way, corn and peas soups and corn dumplings. That is the indigenous section, and then we are doing what we usually do at daVida: our Asian/Caribbean fusion which we have now incorporated in the indigenous foods.”
Mrs. Lloyd-Richardson was told that daVida was a beautiful place, and very fitting for the beach party. “Yes, it is,” she replied. “On an ongoing basis, we try to change, grow and develop our property so that our guests can feel at home in Anguilla and especially at Crocus Bay.”
She was asked about the progress of construction work at the jetty, south of the restaurant, a very useful facility for the business. “It is 90 percent constructed right now and will be completed shortly,” she responded.
Questioned as to how the jetty would enhance the restaurant, she explained: “We often have a lot of yacht activity in the bay. There was one evening, recently, when we had twenty-five boats out there, and it would be nice if they could come in easier into the bay than they are doing right now. The jetty would be most helpful and accommodating.”
In fact, it was originally planned for the STEP Conference delegates to arrive in Anguilla by barge at the jetty in Crocus Bay rather than at the Blowing Point Ferry Terminal. Rather than been transported by bus, they could have simply disembarked from the barge and walk up to daVida – but this was not possible due to the unfinished work at the jetty.
The opportunity was taken to ask Mrs. Lloyd-Richardson about her restaurant’s catering services for the nearby hillside CeBlue Resort. “We take care of CeBlue’s guests on a daily basis – for lunch, dinner and special events – and we make sure they feel at home,” she disclosed.
“You must have a feeling of pride having such a lovely cuisine facility,” the restaurant owner was told.
“Oh yes, we do,” the very congenial Mrs. Lloyd-Richardson quietly affirmed. “The family’s history is hospitality and so we have extended it. As you know, my dad had a restaurant here many years ago in his older years. So we are trying now to do this re-visit of daVida Crocus Bay. My husband and his team built the property and David, my brother, and I, are trying very hard to operate it.”
