May 14, 2006 – Lillian Matthews is celebrating the last day of Lillian's Caribbean Grill on the other side of her range. She sits in the dining room Saturday greeting old customers – and taking orders – as she wraps up about six years in the Grand Hotel spot.
Matthews is a landmark institution in the island's culinary community. She opened Lillian's at the urging of her daughters, after a long career in Frenchtown in a tiny enclosure adjacent to the Bar Normandie, called Lillian's Little Kitchen. The kitchen closed when the bar closed. She says she ran the kitchen for more years than she can remember, "probably 23 or 24."
The grill has become a landmark of its own, neatly tucked into the Grand Hotel complex right across from Emancipation Garden.
With its exposed brick walls, pastel table linens and bright local paintings, it has attracted a new crowd of visitors while still retaining its strong local crowd.
"Everybody still comes here," Matthew says. "There's lots of tourists, but we get the senators, people from the legislature, the jails and the justice department right nearby. And, of course, my Frenchtown people still come."
Matthew avoids saying how old she is. "I don't know, 60s somewhere," she smiles. But, she has decided it's old enough to get out of the day-to-day business.
"Oh, I'm not retiring," she says. "I'll still do catering, but out of my own home."
She talks about her upcoming plans in between taking the day's orders – "a mutton, a fish and a kallaloo," she says, handing the boxes to a customer. He asks something. "Is the fish dry fried?" she yells into the kitchen. Virgie Cuffy yells back, "Yes, just like you ordered."
Cuffy and Matthews have been together for more years than either of them can remember, too. "I guess it's 23 or 24," Matthews says.
She says she has travel plans in mind, and Cuffy will be her fellow traveler. "We're going to Africa," she says. "We've already been once, to Nigeria, and we're going back. Everybody was so friendly."
How about the food?
Matthews hesitates. "Well, it was good, I guess, but I don't know. They have some Caribbean things. OK, it was good," she smiles. Obviously, the African cuisine can't beat Matthews' own, though she is not going to say this.
Since her move downtown, Matthews' menu took a dramatic shift. Along with her trademark roast pork and stuffing, fried fish, and kallaloo, a little continental new age crept in with stir fried tofu, garlic linguini and chicken caesar salad. The two cuisines lived happily side by side – the grill received a 2006 award for best ethnic food in the Virgin Islands.
Matthews says the space will be taken over by the business next door, Jen's Gourmet Café and Deli.
For information about Matthews' catering, call 774-7900.
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