Best of St. John

A crowd of several hundred locals, snow birds, and transplants partied well into the night Saturday at the annual Rotary Club fundraiser, Flavors.  The event supports college scholarship funds awarded by the St. John organization.

Dozens of the island's restaurants and bars are the centerpiece of the evening, competing for honors by serving appetizer-sized samples of their best offerings.

Flavors is a nearly year-long project for its Rotary Club members and organizers.  The effort is lead by Katherine Steinborn of St. John's Katie Lady Catering with lots of help from Paul Kessock Jr. of the West Indies Corp. on St. Thomas, the major spirits distributor in the territory.

The photographs and information about the award winners accompanying this article are all courtesy of wedding photographer-par-excellence Bob Schlesinger.  He and his wife, Karin, operate Tropical Focus Photography and you can see samples of their work here (weddings) and here (family portraits).

Flavors' prize winners in the various categories represented restaurants both new and old.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Asolare, the People's Choice Award winner, with a 'close second' by the Westin.

On the other end of the spectrum, a Bar Food award went to the island's newest place, Castaways, which opened recently in space formerly occupied by Duffy's Love Shack and Crazy Crackers. It was honored for a grilled tuna with coconut curry conch confit.

In one of the new categories, Mixology, Happy Fish won, followed by Asolare and High Tide.  All three of the winners' entries featured Kettle One vodka.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• But, wait.  Flavors is about food, right?  Click here to see lots of pictures of plates, courtesy of Bob Schlesinger and Tropical Focus Photography.

The evening's winners:

Appetizer:

• East West Catering – Lobster and shrimp potsticker with Japanese ponzu sauce and sweet Thai chili sauce
• Westin – Pan seared sea scallops with wild mushroom risotto , white truffle crème fraiche and local greens
• Tap Room – Duck Confit – purple potato chip, cherry port reduction, blue cheese

Entre:

• Asolare – Beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes, asparagus with lemon grass and soy demiglace.  Seared scallop with local pumpkin puree, house cured bacon with port and chili emulsion
• Banana Deck – Chili rub grilled shrimp with barbeque hollandaise sauce (served with chilled cucumber soup)
• Happy Fish – Red curry duck, braised in a red coconut curry sauce with white rice

Bar Food:

• Tap Room – Pulled Pork Sliders – bacon savory succotash, parsnip crème. They cheer their winning by doing beer shots
• Mojo’s – Hummus, chicken and bacon slider, chili
• Castaways – Grilled tuna sashimi on brioche with coconut curry conch confit

Desserts:

• Westin – A large selection including a lemon grass crème Brule and raspberry Chambord (sp chocolate truffle with choice of coconut, macadamia nut, heath bar, pecans, roasted tri-citrus almonds
• Café Roma – tiramisu

Mixology:

• Happy Fish – Summer and Spice: Kettle One with fresh tamarind, lemon and chai featuring a citron Kettle One agave nectar reduction.
• Asolare – Wild Card: Kettle One with lemon grass, coconut, cardoman (spice gives the drink its name) with ginger bear
• High Tide – Maho Mule – Kettle One with lemon grass, tamarind, lime juice all shaken then some ginger bear