New York Post Page Six - “Ohh La Anguilla”
“While some paparazzi-stalked stars and financiers choose glitzy St. Barts as their see-and-be-seen Caribbean island, just a hop, skipper and puddle jumper away is a destination for A-listers looking for a more under-the-radar experience. They’ve traded in their Louboutins for the barefoot-casual vibe of Anguilla — and for good reason.”
Check out the feature -
http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/travel/ooh_la_anguilla_6Iz7S7jnkhVUqmpCpPMzOJ?utm_medium=twitter
Look who is awarded the top spot - Viceroy Anguilla!
I’ve taken up bicycling again for the enjoyment of it, to recapture some semblance of a bygone level of fitness and, as it accidentally turns out, to the amusement of other….younger…staff here at Viceroy Anguilla. So glad I can entertain them….. On an island barely 13 miles long by 3 1/2 miles at its widest point, with absolutely impeccable weather 360 days of the year, it makes perfect sense. Last week on a day-off I opted to ride to mid-island to see my dear friend Carol at ZimZala for a haircut. On the return trip I stopped on Back Street to enjoy a panoramic view of Road Bay and Sandy Ground, the same path guests take on Viceroy island bike tours. It never gets old. Sandy ground is, of course, home to Elvis’ Bar (biggest TV screen on the island), Johnno’s Bar (Sunday Jazz), The Pumphouse (great bar food and LOUD music)….all of which come to life around 11:00pm, as well as The Sand Bar (great tapas), Roy’s Bayside Grill (the lobster soup), Barrel Stay Restaurant,….and a postcard view from up above on Back Street…right across from the Irie Life Store (all things “Anguilla”).
As you may have heard, Viceroy Anguilla is becoming a very popular destination for prospective brides and grooms, but there are also clear indications that girlfriends who used to converge annually on Sullivan Island, South Beach or Destin Beach for a week or so, now seem to be migrating to Anguilla instead.
Island guests often make it a point to relate how wonderful the local tomatoes are on Anguilla, invariably followed by “ARE they really local?” They really are. I stopped by today to deliver an unexpected something cool to drink and found my good friend, Jerome Richardson and his co-workers, ”stringing up” this year’s crop of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, interspersed with sweet peppers, season peppers, lettuce, butternut squash, cucumbers, chives, and various herbs I cannot begin to distinguish. Jerome’s customers include some of Anguilla’s finest restaurants, who frequently prepare their menus to coincide with what’s coming fresh out of his fields. Oh, and freshness on Anguilla is often measured in terms of hours, rather than days or weeks. Jerome’s “Island Greens”-brand lettuce and tomatoes, picked in the morning, often appear in guest’s caprese salads that evening. Want still fresher? He opens his table up to the community on Saturday mornings on mahogany row, next to the ball field…a kind of one-man “farmer’s market”….but you’d better get there early.
Like the Swallows returning each year to San Juan Capistrano, so recent buyers are beginning to arrive at Viceroy Anguilla, taking up their residences for a week, or a month, or more as our little island awakens from its low-season rest. Life is still slow at this point, just prior to the heightened activity of the season, as one-by-one the restaurants….Blanchards, Picante, Jacala, Straw Hat, Veya, The Sand Bar, Trattoria Tramonto, Italia, Tasty’s, Hibernia and….of course…B&D’s Barbecue….hang out their signs, signalling they’re again open for business. There are just too many to list on this acknowledged “foodie” island. 
After traveling across the Caribbean for about a week, storm swells generated by a then-comparatively-mild Sandy, visited Viceroy Anguilla today and yesterday. Fortunately, the venom is gone, but the passion remains as she puts on quite a show for guests and employees.
Affirmation. The academics call it more powerful than any human motivator. Even sweeter when broad, independent and unsolicited. It rivals the sweet sound of Dumpa and Vibes’ steel drums, playing at Viceroy Anguilla’s weekly manager’s reception in the iconic Sunset Lounge as the sun slips below the horizon….or perhaps the sheer expanse of Meads Bay beach…now THAT’s motivation. Number 4 in the Americas and Caribbean, and top 15 resorts in the world….motivation to become still better….
While Anguilla’s abundant sunshine may tend to warm the body (and it does so beautifully), it’s the seamless color gradients which follow the often bold contrasts of sunset, that warm the soul, and sharpen the imagination (could that be the Black Pearl on the horizon). Beaches, famous for their talcum textured sands shine in the light of day, but virtually glow with the later, low-placed dying sunset, my favorite time of day. It is at this time of day that my wife and I relate best, relaxed and unassuming. Any residual tension, irrespective of its source, melts with the green flash of a flawless, cloudless sunset, ushering in….twilght for another 45 minutes or so, with a full moon asserting its command over the evening, emerging above Blanchard’s Beach Shack….the perfect end of today…a low afterglow foretelling just the inverse sequence at tomorrow’s reawakening of the sun after its Caribbean slumber. 
