Breakfast at Hermitage
The pancakes are pure pumpkin, with a light home-made brown sugar syrup.
The West Indian Buffet
We take all day to prepare classic West Indian dishes as an homage to the recipes of mothers and grandmothers.
These dishes are served in clay pots fired outdoors at the Newcastle Pottery. A whole roast pig is spit roasted for seven hours under the mango tree making a feature presentation.
The evening always starts with rum punch and cocktails. We sit at 8pm sharp and a seafood bisque is served at your dinner table. The buffet is laid in the 18th century dining room where guests Chef Kressy and her side-kick sous-chef Kimone personally describe our farm to table process.
Island Dining
The talented staff at Hermitage come from the nearby villages, the herbs and spices are harvested fresh from the garden, farmers bring their produce directly to the kitchen, and the fish is delivered dripping wet, fresh from the sea.
We have created dishes that are known on Nevis as Hermitage specialties. Distinctly home-cooking, maximizing local ingredients and techniques, Hermitage is the only kitchen on the island that makes use of a traditional wood-burning oven. The smell of roasts, simmering sauces and sautées wafts out of the kitchen. So does the sound of laughter and local dialect.
Lunch
Roti is a traditional island lunch, it is a curry wrapped up in a pan fried flatbread, usually served with a complement of hot sauce and chutney.
A Wood Burning Oven
Stone ovens were a big part of the community of Nevis. There used to be one in every village on the island and people came together to make their bread in sheets of rolls or long loafs. We light our oven every Friday afternoon using dried acacia hard wood but instead of bread we make thing crusted pizza!
Our Rum Collection
The history of rum is woven into the Caribbean, It was the fuel and the comfort for the sailors who endured long passages to make to the West Indies. Rum tells the story of exploration and conquest, dominance and rebellion and finally, cooperation; rum is the metaphor for brimstone and fire being mellowed by the angel’s share.
Our collection of rum is designed to cover a broad spectrum, from light rums to dark rums, sweet to dry, delicate to pungent, each made in its own tradition. We have some light rums from Barbados, sweet rums aged in bourbon barrels, high ester rums from Jamaica, and white rums from Haiti.
Dinner
The menu changes everyday, using what the farmers and fishermen bring to us. We serve delicate soups, light appetizers, savory main courses and home-made desserts.
Rum Punch; an island specialty
Our rum punch is world famous and follows a recipe that is 400 years old, “one of sour, two of sweet, three of strong and four of weak”. Our secret is the fresh mountain citrus that we use.
