Snacks at the Tourist Trap
It’s a long stretch of road from Shipwreck Landing to Salt Pond. One can get very hungry and thirsty. Here’s a new place to stop for a cool drink and a hot dog. The Tourist Trap.
Cheryl Geller and her partner Larry have set up shop by the entrance to Concordia with their new snack shack. Larry, who bartends at Aqua Bistro, is a gourmet chef and is using those skills to make some mean sandwiches.
Cheryl wants to keep you entertained while you wait too.
“I just got the Lite-Brite I ordered off E-Bay in the mail,” she says. “It’s one of the toys we’ll have out for our customers.” (Remember Lite-Brite? You’re already singing the Jingle, aren’t you?)
Tourist Trap also has a Website (check out the address.)
And here’s the artwork for the outhouse.
September 26th, 2008 04:53
Had lucnh there yesterday, wonderful! The losber is to die for. If you don’t know everyone when you get there, you will before you leave.
September 26th, 2008 06:43
Thanks for the heads up guys! Our villa rental is right by Salt Pond so this will be a great pit stop on our way to the beach next week!!
“Light Bright making things with light,
out of sight, making things with light bright!”
September 26th, 2008 06:51
The “b” is upside down. Looks like it says CRAP.
September 26th, 2008 07:14
Home of Casual Friday… hhahaha. don’t know why but that cracks me up!
September 26th, 2008 07:21
Okay, is it me or does the sign read “Crap Shack”? Sounds like a fun little pit stop. Maybe one can open up by the North Shore beaches!
September 26th, 2008 07:36
I thought the same thing, aroobagirl! But, it looks like the bottom ‘bubble’ of the ‘B’ made with wood pieces in the logo is falling apart; turns it into a ‘P’!
BTW, class, we need to focus; we were to have been able to figure out the purse riddle by Thursday……
September 26th, 2008 07:38
Guys. It’s the outhouse sign.
September 26th, 2008 07:40
Oops, not enought coffee yet….the sign makes sense…just reread: it’s the artwork for the outhouse…..
September 26th, 2008 07:53
looks like crap to me!!!
September 26th, 2008 08:02
Best of luck. That’s a much needed addition in the area. Wish you’d been there in July!
September 26th, 2008 08:03
it IS crap, guys…..it’s the OUTHOUSE sign!!!! Drink more coffee! (or add some rum!!)
Happy Friday!
September 26th, 2008 08:08
What a colorful and happy looking place! Can’t wait to try it in December!! Good luck to you! I must be too old for the Lite-Brite jingle…I guess I was done playing with toys by the 1970′s…except for my Etch-A-Sketch which I still have!!!! Maybe they’ll have one of those too!
September 26th, 2008 08:17
Fun! Love the website address.
September 26th, 2008 08:59
The St. John john…the Crap Shack….very appropriate, I like it! I’m not sure I understand the crabs at your feet and not on the street part tho……..
-Bert
September 26th, 2008 09:37
Oh Bert!
It says seat not street! Did you miss the 70′s and 80′s too! Crabs-toilet seats, they went together back then…maybe more than we would have liked! Geez people it’s only 7:35am where I am right now and it all made perfect sense to me! Now sit back and read it all again, it gave me a great giggle!
September 26th, 2008 10:06
If they put that outhouse sign on t-shirts they’ll make millions…
Is the store on some sort of wagon…or is the wagon used as a sign for the shack? I just don’t see any wires leading to the shack to power the Lite Brite!
September 26th, 2008 10:09
I’m crackin’ up here!
September 26th, 2008 12:04
Everything about it is a total laugh riot! YAY for them!
September 26th, 2008 12:28
Getting
very
thirsty
This reminds me of Rudy’s on Tortola. All you need for a bar is a board, two stacks of rocks and a cooler of beer. I’m ready.
Cheers, RickG
September 26th, 2008 12:44
DOH!
September 26th, 2008 14:52
We had a bar like that on Gibney Beach before John died. Called the Tarzan Bar. Anybody remember that.
September 28th, 2008 07:30
We went there yesterday and ended up staying for hours. Had a great time, good food, good company. Reminded me of the feel of the old “Kite”. A bit of a drive for us but we’ll make it a regular run.
September 28th, 2008 16:43
I think I see a Field Trip in my future.
See you there.
September 28th, 2008 20:58
They have battery-operated Lite Brites now. I sold one today at the Big Toy Store.
September 30th, 2008 09:19
Hello all this is Cheryl from The Tourist Trap! Thanks for all your support, especially Jeffrey who was very patient with me and wrote his awesome report of our new venture.
Many folks out there may not realize that I started “The Beach Bar”, here on St John, with Allan and ran it for it’s first 3 years. Almost all the t-shirt, hat, & coozie designs they still sell are my work. I also worked on the launch of, and did all the design for, Tage. I’ve got lots of experience in the restaurant world of St. John. Remember me from Skinny’s, four years ago? I was the waitress who would carry like six baskets in each arm and glide across the crowded and crickety wooden deck without dropping any.
Well now my latest brainchild has been born. I have been waiting seven years for the right opportunity to come along so I could open another bar/restaurant. That wait is over now that I and my partners, James & Larry (the Brothers Grenier), opened The Tourist Trap last week.
James has lived here over the last 20 some years and is as good of a St John story raconteur as you will find. James is an accomplished fisherman, free diver, carpenter, rock-star, surfer, and dad. James is out there, under the water somewhere, hunting down lobster for us as I write this. With his bare hands and borrowed tools, James built and brought to life The Tourist Trap. Without James all we’d have is an idea and fancy Photoshop mock-ups of what could be.
Larry, James’ older brother, is famous with visitors for his 20 some years as a bartender here. Larry has groupies, visitors who season after season go to the bar he works at and who hunt him down if he changes his employment venue. I’ve never seen a server with such devoted customers. Last season his many acclaimed blues-harmonica jams, at all the Coral Bay hot spots, means he now has “Bluesy Groupies” in addition to his “Boozy Groupies”. Amongst locals, Larry is famous for his amazing cooking. Larry calls it “Gourmet Peasant Food” I call it magic. I don’t know how he does it, but Larry can make a common and ubiquitous dish, like a hot dog, and it will be the BEST hot dog you ever had. True too of his tuna salad, meatballs, sandwiches, red sauce, Mexican, everything. It is as a place to showcase Larry’s food that the Tourist Trap was conceived.
The three of us love what St John was years ago. Out here, at our house near Salt Pond, we saw a unique opportunity to create a place that’s as relaxed, local, and kooky as this entire island used to be. The fact that the Tourist Trap is in our side yard, with tables right up against the side of our house, means that a couple of times last week James had to jump up from conversations with customers to add fabric softener to the load of laundry he was doing in the washer right behind their table. That’s ambiance y’all can’t “create” folks. And, as if ambiance that authentic wasn’t enough, our location has a historical background as a hospitality hot spot to boot. This was one of two places in this part of St John where social gatherings took place years ago. One of those locations was where Miss Lucy’s is. Our location, high on the south ridge of John’s Folly, with panoramic views of the East-end of St John and the BVI’s, was the other gathering spot. It was know as “The Pasture”. I only recently found out the history of our location when I asked my friend Vincent, whose family has lived here for generations, why there were hundreds of rum bottles piled up in our yard. So it is with incredible pride, reverence and gratitude that we have the opportunity to bring “The Pasture” back to life! Our current dining area is not in our backyard where the best views, and where the rum bottles, are. But everyone is welcome to wander back there with their beers to take some photos and just ask and we’ll show you where the rum bottles are hidden.
Game Update: Our current Lite-Brite is a new fangled “battery operated” one, but I am awaiting the arrival of an original plug in one. Of course we have an Etch-A-Sketch. Yesterday our “Shut the Box” game arrived (very cool game I only just discovered). Connect Four, Scrabble, and Backgammon are in the house. And I’ve got an AWESOME, AWESOME game called Snatch, this game ya GOTTA play. Soon come: 2 Labyrinth games, a Shoot The Moon and some Trivial pursuit box cards (“yawn” right? But, au contraire mon frere, just like at the Beach Bar we’ll be playing “Trivial Jeopardy”, you read the category and the answer the player has to state the question, word for word. In all the years we played “Trivial Jeopardy” at The Beach Bar, only one person ever got the question correct, the indomitable Craig Butler. The category was people, the answer was Elvis Presley. I don’t remember the question… but Craig got within two words of stating the question word for word, ergo he goes down in the annals of “Trivial Jeopardy” as the one and only winner known to man. James, Larry and I channel the mojo of Gordon Ramsay, Steve Zisou and Graham Norton (respectively) everyday which means our Ouija Board is a critical piece of business equipment and is off limits to customers. Maybe, if you behave, we’ll let you take our Magic 8 Ball for a spin…
THANK YOU THANK YOU AND THANK YOU, ST John, for once again giving me and my partners the opportunity to share the beauty and fun of St John with all of our customers and giving us the ability to support community causes through fundraisers and charitable contributions this coming season.
I’m off to the website to post the picture of James and the 7 pound he caught yesterday that Larry has cooked for our Lobster Rolls today.
I guess it’s because of all the controversy our little ole’ outhouse sign caused that no one spotted the reverent nod that the type layout gives to The Beverly Hillbillies…
October 6th, 2008 13:04
My wife and I stopped at TTT (The Tourist Trap) one day on our way back from Lameshur. We passed it by initially in favor of something in Coral, but decided it was exactly the kind of place we would enjoy. We were right!
Larry, James, and the rest of the locals sitting under the shade welcomed us as if we were old friends. There was no more “lobstah roll” available, but the hot dogs were good, and the company was better.
James et.al. were planning their “road trip”. I asked how the hell you have road trip when you live on an island? It was clarified that they were headed via sail boat to the Dominican Republic to drink a lot and hang out with Russian girls. My wife almost lost me that day.
TTT ranks as one of our most fun meals during our week in STJ, and we will absolutely go back.