Dec. 28, 2008 — Sweet Plantains owners Rose and Prince Adams hark back to their Caribbean roots to conjure up sophisticated island-inspired fare at their Coral Bay restaurant.
"We've always been into food and wine," Prince says. "We've been cooking together for 20 years."
Rose's parents came from Haiti, while Prince's mother hails from Jamaica, and his native New Yorker father's family tree extends to Antigua and Portugal.
The restaurant's menu reflects this diversity. While you'll always find a few standards such as mahi mahi, new this winter season are nightly themed specials. Wednesday and Thursday are Latin nights, with Friday and Saturday featuring Indo-Caribbean curry dishes. French-Caribbean dishes are the specialty Sunday and Monday. The restaurant is closed Tuesday.
Sweet Plantains also features a rum-tasting menu to give restaurant-goers a chance to sample a broad range of rums.
The diversity of dishes calls for some special ingredients. While the local suppliers do a good job, Rose says her mother ships ingredients from Brooklyn.
"She buys it on the street," says Rose, 38.
They're also growing some of their own in a garden behind the restaurant.
Both Adams were born in Brooklyn, where they return every year for a three-month hurricane-season sabbatical to recharge their culinary batteries. They met at Sheepshead Bay High School.
Rose landed on St. John via Virgin Gorda. A graduate of the New York Restaurant School, she was working in New York when Little Dix Bay Resort went looking for someone to run its gourmet food store at Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbor.
When Little Dix Bay closed the store, she took a job as food and beverage manager at Cinnamon Bay Campground, a sister property. That led to a job as restaurant manager at Caneel Bay Resort's Sugar Mill restaurant.
When the opportunity came to lease the Sweet Plantains building — which, in one of its many incarnations, was the Sea Breeze Bar — the two jumped at the chance. Prince, 39, moved south to rejoin his wife, and in 2005 the two opened the restaurant.
When asked what makes a restaurant successful, Prince quotes his mother: "It's pot magic and elbow grease."
Four years ago the couple's son, Jacob, was born, and he spent his early days in a cradle behind the bar.
With Rose making her magic in the kitchen and Prince tending bar, the flow of hungry folks keeps coming. However, Prince says there's a difference between those on vacation and those who live here: Those on vacation want an experience and entertainment.
"People who live here are looking for consistency, good service and friendship," he says.
For more information, call Sweet Plantains at 777-4653 or visit sweetplantains-stjohn.com.
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