Back in the day there was a great bar and restaurant known as Bacchus Wine Bar in the Cayman Islands. Sadly it is now closed, but for a while it was must in Georgetown, the capital.
And I am pleased to say that I was part of this project, in what might be described as the glory days of the establishment.
Why did I work at Bacchus Wine Bar?
I wont go into huge details about my life story, as you can read that here, but suffice to say I sold all my shit in the UK and moved to the Cayman Islands without a job. After almost running out of time I was hired by Mario Iacoviello to be the bartender at his new place. Said new place was a revamp of a place called Maxines, which itself was a bit iconic. It was also centrally located and even next to the Cayman Islands Parliament.
The only problem with my new job was that while I had bartended in England doing so in North America is somewhat different. Picture the scene from the movie cocktail and you will be right there.
But I busted my ass sis lots of busing tables and eventually made the bar very much my own. Thus it ended being a great job on fabulous money and had me living in paradise. With hindsight I was never going back to a 9-5 job.
What was Bacchus Wine Bar like?
The glory days of the restaurant came when Keith Griffin took over. He was a renowned chef on the island and brought with him a more international rather than Italian style to the place.
This is when it became truly fine dining and was for me the place that I got to first try exotic food and drinks. This included real escargot, steak tartare, lobster and of course the drinks. It was here that I got into expensive wine, that guests would sometime share, as well as port and steak.
These two were recently enjoyed in the Argentinian Restaurant in Saigon.
There was though also more to the place than just food, with the happy hour, particularly on Friday drawing in the office working masses. During this time I would barely be able to put my head up and aside from the bar also had to make the drinks for there 4-5 wait staff that were also on shift.
Afterwards and even though there was little time left open we would go hit up clubs, or bars, or simply close the doors and drink in the bar.
How was it to work at Bacchus Wine Bar?
All the bosses I had there were important and tight me lessons that I would take on later in life and indeed as a boss. It was also with hindsight a great job that paid well. Sadly I really did not save as much as a I should have. I did though get to travel to Miami, Little Cayman, Cayman Brac, Honduras and spend one month in Cuba.
Working abroad here also set me up for what would come next, which set me up for everything that I am doing now. My experience here meant that got my next job on cruise ships, which led me to teaching English in China and thus starting Young Pioneer Tours.
And it was not just me that it did this for, with many others that passed through the doors still enjoying the adventure that is life. So, while Bacchus Wine Bar is now not known by that many people, for some of us it was a really very important place.