Cocktail – Basil’s Mango Sling
Vodka, mango, apricot, lemon, sugar, soda
Date Visited – Apr 2016
Well this one was a challenge! There’s a reason it’s so popular with the celebs, unless you’ve got a few spare dollars to charter a plane it’s very cut off from the rest of the Grenadines, oh to be rich and famous! Thankfully you get to intrude on the celebs as a day tripper, only once a week though, and as long as there’s a minimum of 10 people, I only got the go ahead the night before! With a mere two hours to play with I skipped the island tour and headed straight to the bar, a short walk from the jetty in Britannia Bay (not Macaroni Beach as specified in the book). There was no Mango Sling on Basil’s Tropical Menu, and none to hand, they don’t get many deliveries on Mustique, they were all out of bananas too! So I accepted bartender Sarj’s suggested substitute of papaya, and ordered a tuna salad while I sat and waited for the famous Basil.
Having enquired about his whereabouts, bartender Delroy told me he was down at the Mustique Company office, and that if he didn’t arrive in the next half hour he would call him for me, but in he soon strolled. Introductions were made, print outs were read, “We’re not on Macaroni Beach”, and then he pulled up one of the super high bar stools to sit beside me. Oh the stories this man could surely tell, but I wasn’t prying for celeb gossip, and he was far more interested in hearing about my bar stories. He asked which three were my favourite, so out came the video of Tequila’s Don Javier. I did however ask the bartenders which celeb last visited, I missed Jude Law by a couple of months, but I’d have been far more gutted to miss out on Basil. Turns out I was just a little bit lucky with this one, after 40 years of ownership Basil has sold the bar to The Mustique Company, it closed the very next day, to re-open two months later. However it has sadly since been bulldozed to make way for a completely new bar. Lucky number 60, Lady Luck obviously likes a cocktail! Bill paid, cocktail on the house, I could have stayed much longer but it was time to board the boat for Bequia, with skipper Ken, and some Soca!
The World Is My Cocktail 