Basil's Bar

Basil's Bar is a wooden structure on a jetty jutting into Britannia Bay, and it has been the social hub of Mustique since 1977. The owner, Basil Charles, is one of the island's true characters — known personally to most long-term visitors and many famous guests, and present most evenings to make introductions and pour rum punches.

The bar serves food throughout the day: breakfasts, grilled fish lunches, dinners that lean toward seafood and Caribbean staples. What makes it worth visiting at any hour is the setting — the deck over the water, the light in the bay, the relative informality of a place where rock stars and royalty have sat on the same barstools as sailors and dive instructors. On Wednesday evenings during high season, the bar hosts a jump-up that occasionally features impromptu performances by whoever happens to be on the island.

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A story
Basil Charles opened his bar in 1977 in a decommissioned storage shed on the Britannia Bay jetty. He built it on stilts over the water himself. It has survived two direct hurricane hits and the attentions of several generations of celebrities, and Basil is still there most evenings.