Earlier this month, the owners of New York's Fatty Crab opened an outpost on St. John.
Now, uber-restauranteur Mario Batali is on the prowl in Cruz Bay. Is Mario working on a Caribbean expansionist strategy to go with his existing operations in New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Singapore?
Probably not.
What one of the most recognized and respected chefs working in America today is doing is what other people do on the island. Chilling out.
Evidence of Batali's visit was self-revealed. Using the Twitter handle @Mariobatali, the gastronomic Guru of all things Italian alerted followers to his cool drink at Caneel's Turtle Bay …
And a morning fishing trip. "GREAT DAY! Woohoo!," he said.
Batali's also sampling the finest food the island has to offer. Using Foursquare, he's checked in at both La Tapa and the aforementioned Fatty Crab.
At La Tapa, he tweeted a comment and a picture
"Love the octopus salad here!! Food rocks. Here's the runner crudo!!"
Same at Fatty Crab, which gets his rave just weeks after opening
"Unreal pulled pork and fatty duck Wow !!"
We spied Mario and his family that night at Fatty Crab. I saw him playing with his phone. Who knew he was tweeting! I figured it was business. We had a great meal at Fatty Crab as well (twice in one week, actually). We’d seen Mario on previous visits to the island, once or twice at the former Balcony.