Lisa carefully places tiny purple flowers on the top layer of ice in a Big Major Smash
She slides over the drink, served with jeweled ice inside a pink porcelain pig, a new twist on’ iconic Goombay Smash cocktail.
It isn’t the sort of cocktail you may not be used to seeing in the Caribbean; and here at the Dilly Club, that’s precisely the point.
This is the newest watering hole at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort on Paradise Island in The Bahamas, a colorful, vibrant, high-level bar that has, in just a few months’ time, quickly become the best new cocktail bar in the Caribbean.
The Dilly Club Cafe and Cocktail Bar is equal parts cocktail bar, tiki bar and rum bar, one that spends its days as Marina Village cafe and by the afternoon morphs into a mixology destination.
Named for The Bahamas’ popular Sapodilla fruit (“dilly” for short”), it’s the brainchild of the team behind the popular Bon Vivants cocktail Bar in Sandy port area of Nassau, Kyle Jones and William Young, the team behind the popular Bon Vivants cocktail bar in the Sandyport of Nassau.
From the moment you walk in at the edge of the Marina Village, you know you’re somewhere special; the build-out is impressive, a bright, fun aesthetic that marries tiki-cool and speakeasy intimacy, with eclectic, comfortable seating along with a compelling bar counter.
The drinks menu itself is, in the tradition of the best tiki bars, a leather-bound tome, with a diverse range of cocktails accompanied by recipes and playful descriptions.
The aforementioned Big Major Smash is a “twist on the Goombay Smash with a little swimming piggy magic.”
Then there’s the Chuck Norris: a “Moscow Mule with a killer spin, kick of spice, served in a not-so-little mug.”
The results are outstanding: these are not sugar bombs in playful glasses: it’s immediately apparent that the team of mixologists here are as exacting as they are passionate, and it shows in the glass.
Atlantis Paradise Island has been raising its culinary game in the last several years, a push that’s led to new Michelin-starred eateries (Michael White is debuting his Paranza here) and even Danny Meyer’s first Caribbean Shake Shack.
The Dilly Club is a major part of the equation, a new world-class outlet for the Marina Village and a signal of the resort’s dynamic food and beverage movement, of a new phase of innovation on Paradise Island – and part of Nassau Paradise Island’s buzzing culinary scene.
But there’s something else here, too: a real, robust, extraordinary rum bar with one of the best selections in the Caribbean.
You’ll find almost 200 rums behind the bar, with an astonishing level of geographical diversity: there’s a bit of everything here, from Cuban classics to rare Samarolis to a broad offering of Plantations (the 2004 Grenada is a great choice).
It would be a terrific rum bar all on its own.
At the Dilly Club, it’s a bonus; it just means you’ll have to stay for another hour. Or another pink porcelain pig.
For more, visit the Dilly Club.