Banana Deck, Lilly's and Love's Market

[AquaGirl]

My husband and I had a wonderful trip to STJ in May and have booked our next trip in April 2007 at Bayview villa (thanks to recommendations and pics on this forum). Friday night was cold and rainy, so we had a little mental vacation to STJ. We sat with our coffee and talked about all the things we didn't do this year and plan to do next trip. Questions for the experienced forumites:

- Is there still a restaurant called Banana Deck? If so,is it good and is there a view of the water? We seem to recall walking upstairs somewhere in Cruz Bay and seeing restaurant that looked like it might have view of the water. I thought it was called Banana Deck, but there aren't any recent reviews of it.

- We will be closer to Coral Bay than Cruz Bay, so we were wondering if Lilly's or Love's market have any fresh produce and fresh meat/chicken? We bought most of our groceries at Starfish this year.

Thanks!
Bill and Jeri

[liamsaunt]

I can report on Lily's market in Coral Bay: John and I stopped in and toured it last trip thinking that we were going to be out in Coral Bay next trip (we keep saying that!).

Yes, they do have produce, but a very limited selection. There was some chicken that looked decent. They had some salumi type stuff that looked good. Their wine was even more overpriced than Starfish. Their cheese/dairy selection was acceptable, and I remember seeing some bread that looked OK.

We were overall surprised by the prices. We thought it would be cheaper than Starfish, but it was not.

We stopped into Love City also, but just for batteries--I don't remember seeing meats/veggies there. I recall it as more of a convenience store--but again, I went in looking for batteries, so I may have missed something good.

[silverheels]

The Banana Deck is just as you described it and it is still there. I do remember that it was closed for a while in Aug. But it is probably open now. Ruth can most likely fill us in on it as she and Ron do like this place. I've shopped quite a bit at Love City and Lily's as we are headquarted in Coral Bay. Love City has very little produce and only frozen meats. Lily's has a better selection of produce but it does tend to get old quickly. I've had their boneless chicken breasts and they are pretty good. At times they have wine sales but I usually buy my wines at Mixology or Dolphin before I head out to Coral Bay. I do most of my shopping at either Starfish or Dolphin but when I need some items I will go to either one of the Coral Bay stores to fill in my gorceries. Love CIty is very accomodating and are anxious to please. I find Lily's to be a little less customer oriented. IMHO

[Eric in NJ]

You're on vacation!! And you know the island isn't THAT big. I'd just drive over to the Cruz bay end and get what I needed. Just my opinion though.

[Diane]

Maybe we just stopped by Lily's at a good time when we stayed in Coral Bay in July, but we thought they had a good selection of fresh produce and their wine prices seems comparable to Pine Peace Market. In fact, Lily's was the only place we found fresh bread and hotdog buns. We thought they were friendly; much friendlier and more helpful than Starfish or Dolphin.
Lily's also had whole bean coffee and a grinder. We stopped by every morning for ice on our way to the beach. Very convenient and we wanted to support the Coral Bay merchants.

[Steve S]

You may be thinking of "The Balcony" which is upstairs in Wharfside Village in Cruz Bay. Never eaten there, but you do look out over the water. The Banana Deck is across the street from the Beach Bar, and serves a nice menu, reasonably priced, and makes probably the best BBCs on the island. You can often find live music there. The one downside that has taken the Banana deck off my wife's list of places to dine is that once the sun goes down the lighting is limited to candles and some low watt "Christmas tree" lights; sure it's romantic but you really can't see your food, especially if you have over 40 eyes like ours. Hopefully, customer feedback about the lighting will prompt the owners to dial up the lumens just a tad.

[Bob & Anita]

We thought the Banana Deck had the best tasting Mahi-Mahi sandwiches of the places we tried and they have wonderful rum drinks. There is a view of the water but is partially obscured by the vegetation on the lower deck. We've never sat on the upper deck/bar area, where the view might be better since you are higher. Here is a picture on the lower level of the Banana Deck in 2005 with the water in the background (Bob might have a BBC and Anita with a Lime-in-d’Coconut):


Their menu is posted on St John Spice's website: http://stjohnspice.com/bananadeck.htm

Enjoy the Bayview, it's a great location and fantastic views; we are going back to the Bayview for our 3rd time this coming June.

[crickett]

We loved the Banana Deck... went once for dinner and once to just sit by the upper deck bar with a drink (VI Pale Ale... mmmmmmmm, yummy... and I just bought a case in Providence, RI to bring me back to STJ) and listened to the steel drum!
Can't wait to be back there.

crickett : )