Island Roots Café in Road Town on Tortola

This "shabby chic" restaurant and gift gallery is absolutely charming. The restaurant is located in an historic building (built sometime in the latter part of the 1700's) known as the "Customs House".

Prior to several land reclamation projects that took place beginning in the early 1960's, the building once sat less than 30' from the water's edge in Road Harbour.

It is known that the building was once used as a barracks to house several Africans brought to Tortola after 1807, when it was first declared illegal to sell or trade human beings into slavery. The might-have-been slaves had to be housed and cared for, so the Customs House was put into service for that purpose.

Today, the Customs House serves a much happier purpose and is home to a very busy little café that serves up wonderful coffees, breakfast and lunch items. Their salads are fabulous and I love their jerk chicken!

Suzanne Ricketts (below) and all of the staff are very helpful and friendly ... but they are often run off their feet at lunch time as tons of hungry people file through the door. When I asked for a photo I was chasing a moving target as Suzanne performed a little dance ... but I managed to catch her just the same!

Inside the café is a nice little seating area surrounded by various display cabinets offering various hand made gift items (made locally) including wood carvings, jewellery, artwork, maps and other bits and bobs that make lovely gifts to take home for family and friends.

I met and briefly spoke with these two gentlemen visiting from Germany. They were enjoying a wonderful cup of coffee on the outside terrace, while waiting for their meal. They loved the place!

They take both Visa and Mastercard if your bill is $10.00 or over.