It’s the first thing you see — the thing your eyes are drawn to — when you walk to the start of the ferry dock on Harbour Island in The Bahamas, a warm white-and-blue sign that says “Harbour Bar.”

But hidden away under the slanted roof, nudged between the Island Company retail shop and India Hicks’ store is something rather exciting.

The Harbour Bar is no ordinary watering hole — it’s the first branded bar by the Island Company, a sleek, terrifically outfitted little bar that is focused around Island Company Rum.

While there’s just a single rum here, the award-winning gold expression from Trinidad — and you can get it for just $5 a cup — the story here is a range of inspired cocktails – and a crisp but breezy place to sip that’s instantly one of the island’s top new places to gather.

The soundtrack is a loop of Island Company staffers’ favorites, the lighting properly dimmed and intriguing, the staff friendlier than any bar we’ve been to on the island.

It feels like it’s been here for years.

Yes, it’s branded, but the design is meant to make it part of the Harbour Island landscape, and it succeeds, with a handwritten menu and dark walls whose only clue to newness (it opened this week) is the freshness of the paint.

The Harbour Bar is a welcome stop in Dunmore Town, a much-needed drinking spot for this section of the harbor and, well, a great little rum bar.

It isn’t just the first thing you see when you step off the ferry dock.

It’s the first place you should go, too.

— CJ