The Bar Normandie isn't dead after all, at least not entirely. A piece of it has a new lease on life in the historic heart of downtown Charlotte Amalie.
The brand-new Lillian's Caribbean Grill is neatly tucked into the Grand Hotel complex right across from Emancipation Garden. With its exposed brick walls, pastel table linens and bright local paintings, it's an upscale successor to Lillian's Little Kitchen, an integral part of Frenchtown and the late Bar Normandie for more years than Lillian Matthews can remember.
"It must be more than 23 — let's see, Monica is 23 now, and I was pregnant with her when I was at Normandie," the proprietress said, thinking it over. No matter; it was long enough to make Lillian's food famous – not only in Frenchtown, where she had a devoted local following, but even on St. Croix, where Judge Edgar Ross and a few cohorts wouldn't dream of coming over on a Saturday and not having some of Lillian's roast pork with rice and beans and potato stuffing.
For years it was difficult to walk by the Normandie on a Saturday morning without following your nose right into Lillian's, where she would be padding around her tiny work space managing a stoveful of pots and pans, bending over the oven to pull some stuffing out. Looking over her shoulder at a window full of customers, she would straighten up with a smile, rearrange her apron and fetch some pork or souse or kallaloo or boil fish or, if you were really lucky, a pumpkin fritter.
She operated what literally was her little kitchen in a few square feet of space under the Normandie roof and just outside the bar. She had a menu board, a few oilcloth-covered tables outside and — most important — the help of her ever-faithful Vergie, who also is with her at her new digs, too. Vergie Cuffy and Lillian go back too far for either of them to remember.
The move downtown is much more than mere geography – it crosses generational, technological and cultural gaps involving Lilllian's five daughters and one son. Sharon Simmons, a middle daughter who is now an attorney in New York, and her siblings Arlene, Monica, Denise, Stacey and Devon got together and decided to do something nice for Mom.
After the Normandie shut down, Lillian (journalistic conventions notwithstanding, it just doesn't work to call her "Matthews") had moved to another Frenchtown location where the rent was too high and the charm was too low, among other obstacles to success. "We knew she wasn't happy where she was," Simmons said, "so we all decided to go looking for a location downtown. When we saw the spot in the Grand Hotel, we fell in love. We knew this had to be it."
Simmons and her siblings then worked with Etienne Bertrand and Christine O'Keefe of the Lockhart Corp., which owns the Grand Hotel property, to make the grill a reality.
McClean Matthews, Lillian's husband, did the design, and everybody pitched in painting, scraping brick, doing whatever was needed. "Those who had money put in money, and those who didn't put in labor," Simmons said.
O'Keefe, fresh from a red peas soup lunch at the grill, had praise for all the collaborators. "Isn't it wonderful?" she said. "They were so good to work with, and it's great for the hotel."
Also on the menu: stir-fried tofu, chicken Caesar salad, garlic linguini – cheese an' bread! The offerings are eclectic, to say the least. Yet, tofu and seafood salad live side by side with curry goat and fry fish. Quite happily.
"Even though it's not in Frenchtown," Lillian said, "my old customers, they follow me and it makes me feel so good." To call some names: "What's the name of the tall fellow in Government House? Oh yes, Lee Vanterpool, that's him. He came in for cereal this morning, and Jimmy O'Bryan, too. All of them."
She said the grill was "full to capacity today, and no ships in."
Lillian's youngest daughter, Stacey, is general manager of the business, and Denise is vice president.
There's service inside in the air-conditioned dining room and outside in the Grand Hotel courtyard. The menu changes daily and has all Lillian's old favorites — the famous pork on Saturday, saltfish on Wednesday and stew chicken on Tuesday, along with sides of sweet potato, fried plantain, rice and beans, fungi, green banana, coconut dumplings and linguini. Linguini? Yup.
Lillian's Caribbean Grill is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. now, Monday through Saturday. But there are plans to add a happy hour and dinner soon. The restaurant even has its own web site, ourculture.com, where one can find the current day's menu and even an electronic image of Lillian.
Asked about the web site, Lillian said, "Oh, my daughter handles all that. But did you see me there dancing and having fun?"
