St. John’s, Antigua – The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority will kick off May with the second annual Antigua and Barbuda Restaurant Week (ABRW). From Saturday, May 4 through Sunday, May 19, a total of 65 restaurants featuring diverse cuisines will offer prix fixe menus and special dining experiences to restaurant and food lovers. This year’s celebration also includes events with local and celebrity chefs as well as the “Eat Like A Local” campaign that encourages guests to support the country’s small, casual cookshops.
Prix Fixe lunch and dinner menus will range from $25-$75USD, with more affordable “Eat Like A Local” options available around the island. “The event was designed to encourage locals and tourists to enjoy old favorites and also explore new restaurants and cuisines,” said Shermain Jeremy of the Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority. “We look forward to celebrating great flavor with great value.”
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This year, ABRW will feature a lineup of celebrity chef and beverage professionals exclusively of Caribbean heritage, including Chef Angel Barreto, Chef Shorne Benjamin, Cookbook Author Althea Brown, Chef Kareem Roberts, Chef Digby Stridiron, and Sommelier Nadine Brown.
Coinciding with the run of ABRW is the Pepperpot Rum Shop, a 100-day pop-up destination created by The Antigua and Barbuda Tourism Authority, Treehouse Beach Club, and British chef, television and radio broadcaster, and former singer Andi Oliver. The concept came from Oliver’s successful recipe book, The Pepperpot Diaries: Stories From My Caribbean Table. From May through August, the pop-up will host curated experiences featuring Caribbean food, music, art, and film. For more details on events at the Pepperpot Rum Shop, including a book Q&A with Oliver, rum tasting with global rum ambassador, Ian Burrell, and more, visit the events section of the pop-up’s website here.
Special event experiences open to all throughout the two-week-long celebration include:
- Sunday, May 5: “The Food & Art Experience,” at Dow’s Hill Interpretation Centre
- The historic site overlooking Nelson’s Dockyard will be transformed into a food and art village where guests can be the first to collect ABRW Food passports, sample fare from participating restaurants and local food brands, and explore art from local artists and makers. Guests can watch demonstrations from visiting celebrity chefs, in a private lounge where Brydens will pair wines and cocktails with samples from the demos.
- Tuesday, May 7: “Destination Food Forum: Nourishing the Future” at the John E. St. Luce Finance & Conference Centre
- The Food Forum, presented by Grace Foods, is a one-day immersive event designed to gather chefs, food enthusiasts, tourism experts, hospitality leaders, and sustainability advocates. Experts will lead insightful panel discussions on issues such as sustainability in food, supporting local producers, innovation, food trends and more.
- Wednesday, May 8: Caribbean night and bonfire on the beach at Wild Tamarind
- Guests will enjoy steelpan music, live entertainment, sundowner cocktails, passed appetizers, and a casual cookout prepared by two guest chefs: Shorne Benjamin of Fat Fowl, who’s based in Brooklyn, New York and originally from St. Lucia, and Chef Angel Barreto of Anju in Washington, DC, who is of Puerto Rican heritage.
- Thursday, May 9: Roti master class at Loose Cannon beach bar’s School of Cooking
- Cookbook author Althea Brown, based in Aurora, Colorado and originally from Guyana, will host an intimate cooking class that covers the history of roti, how it came to the Caribbean, and differences in preparation throughout the region. A copy of Brown’s cookbook, Caribbean Paleo, will be included with each ticket, which also includes a family-style lunch, rum punch and wine.
- Thursday, May 9 and Saturday, May 18: Six-course Antiguan tasting menu from Chef Kareem Roberts and Head Chef of Weatherills Hotel Omar Nicholas
- Antiguan chefs Omar Nicholas and Kareem Roberts, who is visiting from Cambridge, United Kingdom, will use local bullfoot, tamarind, black pineapple, lionfish and more in a meal that reimagines national cuisine at the historic estate house-turned-hotel. The collaborative six-course tasting menu will be available on two nights, with optional cocktail pairings.
- Friday, May 10: Six-course tasting menu experience at Cove Restaurant at Blue Waters Resort
- Guests will enjoy a six-course tasting menu featuring dishes from visiting Chef Kareem Roberts alongside Blue Waters Chef de Cuisine Ronald Wilson and Pastry Chef Tameka Hamilton. Hand painted chocolates and local bush tea will finish off the meal.
- Saturday, May 11: Multicourse Korean dinner with wine pairings presented by Carlisle Bay and Premier Beverages.
- This dining experience will feature dishes from Angel Barreto, acclaimed chef behind Anju, a Washington D.C.-based restaurant renowned for its contemporary Korean cuisine. Angel, recognized as a Food & Wine Best New Chef and a James Beard Award finalist and semifinalist, will curate a four-course Korean dinner at East, the premier restaurant of Carlisle Bay Antigua. Enhancing the experience further, D.C.-based Sommelier Nadine Brown will pair complementary wines with each course. As a special treat, Angel will also introduce a signature dish to East’s menu, available for guests to savor throughout the month of May.
Back for a second year is the “Eat Like A Local” experience, which highlights casual island cookshops from Antiguan and Barbudan restaurant owners and cooks. Throughout Restaurant Week, guests can explore these local eateries via an interactive map on the ABRW website. The Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority encourages visitors to sample pepperpot and fungee, national dishes that are beloved on the island. Fungee is a cornmeal-based dish, variations of which are found throughout the Caribbean and believed to have been brought to the region by enslaved Africans; it is similar to fufu or foofoo, popular in many West Africa nations. Other local dishes to be enjoyed include goat water, ducana and saltfish, and much more. Visitors and locals alike are also encouraged to book one of the many personalized cooking classes and food and rum tours, which are available throughout the island. A comprehensive list is available on the ABRW website.
A final schedule of events, how to book and a roster of participating restaurants is available at www.antiguabarbudarestaurantweek.com.
