In 1993 Christopher James and his colleague James Vaughan left their jobs in the UK and flew to the Caribbean with plans to open a bar. Now, 15 years later, they own two hotels and a restaurant
My name is Christopher James, and I’m 46 years old. In 1993 I moved to Tobago to open a bar, Bonkers. I chose the name because that’s what my colleagues called me when I told them of my plans. But 15 years on, with two hotels and a restaurant to my name, it doesn’t seem so crazy.
I’d always liked the idea of running a bar somewhere sunny, but dithered for years. However, when I hit my mid-30s I was offered voluntary redundancy, and I started planning my escape to the Caribbean. Shortly before I left my job, a colleague, James Vaughan, decided to join me.
We were both single, so we booked two tickets to the West Indies and left almost immediately. Our plan was to work our way around the islands in search of the right spot for our bar.
We loved Trinidad, but eventually settled on Tobago. It’s a popular tourist destination, and wealthy Trinidadians also spend their weekends there, so it made good business sense for us to open our bar on the island. We paid TT$5,500 each (£475) for our work permits and bought a plot of land near the beach on the south-western tip of Tobago.
It took us six months of hard work to build Bonkers from scratch, and we financed most of it ourselves. We started out with £125,000 – enough to buy the land and the building materials. Today you’d need £500,000-odd.
Bonkers finally opened its doors on 1st April 1994. We couldn’t believe it when over 150 people turned up. The bar was seriously understaffed, but locals who had got to know us during the building process helped out.
From then on we were open every night from 6pm to 2am, serving drinks and simple bar food. James paid the bills and looked after the orders, and I did the cooking. I’d trained in a kitchen for a couple of years when I was younger, but it was still a very steep learning curve – I found myself looking at breadfruit and yuccas in the local market and wondering what on earth to do with them! Eventually, as Bonkers became busier, we hired a proper chef.
Word got round the island, and soon large groups started coming in, so we put in more tables and built an outdoor terrace. Then we added a pool. On busy evenings guests would sit with a drink in one hand and their feet in the water.
After two years we decided to build some accommodation, which became the Toucan Inn. Having made some money from Bonkers, we talked the bank into giving us a loan. Tobagonians respect people who work hard, and they went out of their way to help us.
We’re now planning to open a nightclub that we’ll call Bonkers 2, and would also like to start producing rum and chocolates. We’ve even talked about establishing a fish farm.
I think we’ve been successful here because we have the right attitude. Some Brits try to recreate England in Tobago, but you have to go with the flow and do things the Caribbean way.
For info on properties in Tobago, contact Tobago Properties: 001 868 635 0479; www.tobagoproperties.com
This article is taken from issue 60 of A Place In The Sun magazine, on sale now, or to subscribe click here...
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