Planning an incentive trip in the tropics for a hungry group? Honduran luxury property Las Verandas Hotel & Villas will open its new Las Pergolas restaurant at the end of this month.
“Pergolas” is Spanish for “beams” and much of the structure is wooden and open-air, with large glass doors that can be opened to let the sea breeze blow through.
Located on the Caribbean island of Roatan off the South American mainland, Las Verandas is one of first high-end lodging options on the small island. Accommodations and amenities include 60 guest rooms, 32 free-standing villas, a 6,000-square-foot spa and a private white sand beach.
In the restaurant, guests will be surrounded by Honduran-inspired decor. Groups can book the 40-person private dining room overlooking the pools and beach or buy out the full restaurant for up to 140 guests, with indoor and outdoor spaces. Catering for private events is available, and an underground wine cellar seats 20.
Executive Chef Javier Kee Ham trained at the Culinary Institute of America’s Hyde Park campus and worked as the specialty restaurant chef at the Tegucigalpa Marriott Hotel’s Cocina Latina restaurant, in the country's capital city, before joining Las Verandas.
“Our menu will focus on Caribbean fusion,” Kee Ham explains. “If you follow the Tropic of Cancer around the globe, you cross through some very distinct cuisines.” He plans to gather inspiration from the foods of India, Vietnam, the South Pacific, the Philippines, the Middle East and Polynesia, which all fall along the same latitude line.
As many dishes will be seafood- based, the restaurant plans to adhere to sustainable fishing rules and locally source as many ingredients as possible.
Some produce will come from Blue Harbor Plantation, an organic/hydroponic farm on Roatan that grows crops that are otherwise hard to acquire in a tropical climate. (Both the plantation and its associated tropical arboretum offer tours.)
