Sounds great so far...
We have been coming pretty regularly for the past several years, and definitely have our favorite places. As soon as I land, I am trying to make plans to go to Red Dragon. My favorite food in the world, period. I just love their pork. So damn good. And really, it may be my favorite bar, as well. Just a great way of spending an afternoon. Gordo, the bartender, and most of the regulars are just great to hang out with. No one has ever tried to sell me anything there. No one tries to bum a cigarette. Just good food, good drinks, good people.
Connie, of C&D Country Western Bar, is one of our favorite people in the world. Nice, and genuine, and a friend. We have spent many nights on the picnic table outside of C&D for hours on end. We were curious to see how things were now that she had taken over Jenny's, her Mom's old place, and combined it with C&D. We were not dissapointed. There still is a nice picnic table outside, and a nice hang out area, so still the same kinda place. A couple of expat musicians were holding a little jam session out there the first night we were there, that was a lot of fun. So the fun of the old place seemed to still be there, now I wanted to try the food. Whoa. The absolute best Mac and Cheese I have ever had. The fried chicken was excellent as well. We ate there twice, wish we could have more. Ordered the same thing both times, so didn't try anything else. But damn, I'm still craving Connie's fried chicken and Mac & cheese. Oh, and the special cake is wonderful for breakfast. Nice, relaxing day on the beach!
Back on the Beach, Sun Beach has always held a special place for us. I first remember this from a few years ago, when my hockey team, the Capitals, were the best team in hockey. Huge favorites, playing Montreal in the first round. We were in Negril. And for games 6 and 7, we were at Sun Beach. And we took over. We had the entire bar, Jamaicans included, getting into it. C-A-P-S- Caps! Caps! Caps! Cheering, Yelling. Fun crowd, fun times. Until the end, when all hopes of a Stanley Cup ended with a first round loss to the eighth seed. I am still remembered at Sun Beach, years later, as "that crazy french-fry throwing guy." Anyways, we always have fun at Sun Beach. Neil is one of my favorite people to see, as well as Sophia, Dennis, and the rest. And this is the bar that we usually find our old friend Andrew sitting in his usually corner bar stool, waiting for a challenger. He will take on all comers in a game/wager for a Red Stripe. It only works on the smooth bar at Sun Beach. Each person gets on the opposite side of the bar, and a new Red Stripe is opened. The object is to slide the Red Stripe accross the bar, with its edge landing over the lip of the bar. If you throw too hard or too soft, the other guy catches it, and now its his turn. Back and forth until someone wins. Winner keeps the beer, loser buys. We've had some epic battles over the years. This yeah, it went in streaks. He couldn't lose the first night, to anyone. But my wife went on a nice streak near the end to just about even things up for the trip. And really, the best way of ordering a Red Stripe anywhere.
And if I am talking about our favorite places, White Sands is home, of course. All of the people are just wonderful, from Francis, to Ledon, to the whole staff. And the bar is always fun. Tony and Paul are two totally opposite personalities, but I really like both of them.
One place that I might be adding to the list, from this trip, is the soup stand accross the street from the jungle. What a great deal! The have full meals, baked or fried chicken when we were there, very good and super cheap. I got the small fried chicken for I think 250J, and it was huge! The large for 400J must have been crazy. But very good. I'm not a soup person, but others said the soup was very good. I did finally get to try the Mannish Water, which I had been wanting to try. Also called Goat Belly soup. Not bad, but I just had a small taste, more just to say I have tried it. But the standard soup, chicken noodle or something like that, got rave reviews. And we swore we would wake up to get porridge from there in the morning, but always overslept passed 9:30, when they move on from breakfast. Next time!
My Wife with Neil of Sun Beach
Tony at White Sands
Fried Chicken from the Soup Stand. Pictures of styrophone boxes don't do it justice. My favorite meals are served in styrophone boxes, but pictures for "food porn" really work better with a nice plate. But either way, it was delicious!
Mannish Water (Goat Belly Soup) - Not as bad as I was expecting!
Our Favorite Security Guard
Wow! Great report! I have to try the One Love Bus Crawl. I been in all those bars and I've ridden of the bus with Lenbert. But never did the crawl. LOL!
Johnny Cakes from Catcha. Yum! We stay at Catcha Gardens so We eat breakfast at Ivan's or LTU a lot . Tough life on the cliffs.
If I were you, I'd be very careful of late night chickenChicken dinner on the night stand. LOLOL!
You must have met Bill and Elmer at C&D. Some of my long time friends in Negril. Interested to see what changes Connie has made by combining Jennie's and the Bar.
Thanks for the Report!
Feb.1 - 16 Xtabi
[https://www.TickerFactory.com/]
bravo, thanks for the report
My wife, winning a free beer in "Redstripe Football" at Sun Beach
One of those crazy nights at Best in the West...
Time is just flying by, and on Friday we welcome in a new set of friends. Our other friends are leaving the next day, so we have one day together as a big group. We do the usuals. Best in the West for a quick bite, Sun Beach, White Sands. Another fun night with good friends in Negril.
Saturday, time to storm the castle! We were a little nervous about this. RastaRich posted a message inviting everyone to a pre-sunset happy hour at the Blue Cave Castle penthouse. But, that was about a month before. Nothing since. Never met the guy. Do we just show up and crash the place? Our friends thought we were crazy. We decided to play it by ear. We took a taxi to the Spida Bar, across the street from the castle. That way, if others showed up, we would join them. If not, we'd just head to Pee Wee's for sunset. Well, after a few games of Dominoes at Spida's, we saw a group heading to the Castle, all with big insulated beer mugs. I think we found our crowd! I send the wife over to confirm that we aren't the only crazies, grabbed a few drinks from Spida's, and we head up to join the party at the Penthouse.
What a great place! There was a nice group there, friendly people, with King Richard himself presiding over the fun. The view from the top, the tallest point in Negril, was amazing. I had always wanted to check out the Castle, and was not dissapointed. This may be on my list to stay on a future trip. Had a great time, met some nice people, and definitely glad we decided to show up. Thanks again, RastaRich!
From there, walked up to C&D/Jenny's, where we had one of our delicious Mac & Cheese / Fried Chicken dinners. So damn good. And after a nice meal, off to Seastar for the show.
Seastar is becoming a 50/50 thing for me. I like Steven West and Fernando, and the drummers are good. A little too cheesy and touristy at times, however. When they start doing the reggae version of the Electric Slide and crap like that, I just want to throw up. But the good generally outweighs the bad, and we had a nice time. Got to meet some boardies, my friend discovered the Purple Rain, and all was good.
What a view from the Castle!
Happy Hour with the King of the Castle
My wife and I on top of the World... or at least Negril
Exploring the cave a bit
Sunset
And darkness descends on the Castle
Thanks for the Castle pics! Gonna be there the end of next month.
Feb.1 - 16 Xtabi
[https://www.TickerFactory.com/]
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