A once-popular Cruz Bay nightspot that had taken a turn for the worse in recent years is now being transformed into a St. John version of Red Hook's Duffy's Love Shack.
Construction crews have been seen sawing, hammering and drilling away at the site of what used to be the Backyard Bar. St. John residents climbing the stairs at the corner building near Nazareth Lutheran Church to pay their electric bills are already getting a glimpse of things to come — a treetop shack with ersatz crooked clapboard and a tiered, thatched roof.
"That's the deejay's booth," said owner Tim Duffy, a robust 46-year-old with silver curls, conducting an impromptu tour with a pause on the second-floor outdoor deck.
As was the old Backyard, the new Duffy's is obscured from streetside view by a trio of shops in an elegant stone storefront. A seashell-studded walkway leads to Duffy's. In the midst of the sawdust, ladders and work stations are Duffy and wife, Liz, arranging letters for signs.
Life has been busy for the coupld since 1995, when Hurricane Marilyn wrecked the original Love Shack in Drake's Passage in downtown Charlotte Amalie. They transplanted the whole operation to the Red Hook Plaza parking lot in 1996, and have "been doing really well from the day we opened," Duffy said.
Although housed in a single-room "shack," the Red Hook Duffy's swings its doors open to reveal a thatched cocktail bar and bistro tables which fill up quickly every day around happy hour, when coconut shell cocktails come out to play.
Duffy's at Red Hook built its reputation as a meeting place for party animals, in part through creative advertising. Weekly flyers and newspaper ads feature photos of their regulars dressed for their weekly theme parties — in paper boat hats or turbans, togas or Hawaiian leis, or all bedecked in sunglasses.
For New Year's Eve they celebrated the midnight hour by lowering a silver basketball studded with Christmas lights down a pole, Times Square style. Sound like fun? "That's why we do it," Duffy said, adding that he hopes Duffy's Cruz Bay will be just as much fun.
Fun and entertainment has been part of Tim Duffy's life in the Virgin Islands since his father ran Creque's Alley on St. Thomas in the 1960s. In those days, the headline act there was a folk-rock group that later found fame as The Mamas and the Papas.
As he grew into adulthood, Duffy said, he took up the night life in Cruz Bay. "My wife and I met here at the Backyard 19 or 20 years ago," he recalled. "Back then, that was the spot in Cruz Bay."
In the '90s, as other night spots appeared, the Backyard went into decline, replaced in popularity by Woody's Seafood Saloon, Fred's, Pusser's, the Purple Door (later La Tapa), Quiet Man Pub, Cap's Place, Patrick's, Mongoose Junction Restaurant, Club Eclipse and Morgan's Mango.
Now the Love Shack is about to make its debut on the Cruz Bay nightclub scene. The owners are hoping to attract the familiar Red Hook mix of lunch and dinner diners, happy hour drop-ins and dance music club hoppers.
Duffy said the construction flurry, to produce a ground-floor bar and dance floor with a second-floor restaurant, outdoor deck and state-of-the-art kitchen, should be over in two weeks. Opening day is still up in the air, he said, but it's looking like March.
