Popular GT restaurant closing down
(CNS Business): After more than a decade of serving the people of the Cayman Islands and tourists from all over the world, Breezes By the Bay restaurant will close its doors on 3 April. Breezes has been a landmark for the George Town waterfront for the past 12 years. However, the Tropical Trader Restaurant Group has decided to end its run with the tropical grill and focus on their other two restaurants, Chicken! Chicken! and Cimboco on Seven Mile Beach.
Breezes, George Town waterfront
TTRG Director Cliff Woods said it was a best business decision for the group, and although George Town is on the peak of a major revitalization project, he wants to use his Breezes team to enhance the two other locations.
“Breezes has had a wonderful history here, we have a wonderful team, but the business decision was made in deference to the success we have on Seven Mile Beach. We need the strength of this team to help us enhance the strength of those,” he explained. “No one can say that the last few years haven’t been challenging, because they certainly have, but I also believe that we got an increase in tourism and this was a business decision we made for ourselves to take care of our team and enhance our own success,” Woods added.
He said Chicken! Chicken! in the West Shore Center has been opened for the past 22 years, and for the last four years sales have been record-setting for the business. Cimboco, a Caribbean Café in Marquee Plaza, is now on its 14th year of operation, and he noted that last year was the best year yet for the restaurant.
Woods told CNS Business they plan to relocate any willing Breezes employees to the other two restaurants.
“We’ve got people here who are tremendous team members and it’s very difficult to find people that are just like that, and we would love to move our ten Caymanians from here to Chicken! Chicken! and Cimboco,” he said.
TTRG Director Renard Moxam stated, “As we hope the timing of our announcement indicates, we are giving our team and ourselves time to create the best solutions for all.” He added, “We are fortunate to have the ability and strength to offer ongoing employment to our Caymanian and long-term employees at our restaurants, Chicken! Chicken! and Cimboco.” Moxam noted, “With the added strength of well-trained team members, we enable greater achievements from our original successes.”
TTRG added there are positive infrastructure developments on the horizon. Woods said the Breezes team anticipates one of their best months ever, inviting the community to come and celebrate before they close its doors.
“We’re hoping this is a celebration for a life well lived,” Woods said.
Category: Featured, Food & Drink, Local Business, Uncategorized
Why don’t they bring the Chicken Chicken franchise there, you have to wait in a huge line most time you visit that location, and I’m sure a lot of those in line are driving from town to buy lunch there. give the locals what they want, and maybe they will be shocked with the level of business gained.
I’ve been to Breezes exactly twice during my 9 years of being on Island. Rude and inattentive staff, limited and unimaginative menu and what I did have wasn’t that good either. They clearly catered exclusively to cruise ship businesses, as tourists who ate there had no way of knowing how bad the place is. Locals knew and they didn’t exactly flock there. If businesses in GT are really serious about turning their fortunes around, they have to start catering not only to tourists who are here for 1 day and buy tacky souvenirs and expensive jewelry and eat crappy food but also to those of us who live here and who will be loyal to a place that has good food and good service.
A complete tourist trap to be sure; however, if tourism numbers are indeed soaring, as all reports indicate, this does fly in the face in of those reports. It does beg the question: where are all of these tourists who are supposedly flocking to Cayman spending their time and money? A mosey through Camana Bay on any given afternoon finds a ready and waiting bowling alley. I don’t know. It feels to me as though people are sick of getting ripped off in Cayman. It costs an exorbitant amount to fly into GCM with all of the fees tacked on to a ticket, drivers permits are expensive, restaurant prices can be ridiculous, all of these factors are coupled with some of the highest per night room rates in the Caribbean. Perhaps, once people arrive on island they’ve spent their budget and spend their time eating food brought from home, making their own meals, and lounging on the beach. A lot to ponder and I would postulate that you can do whatever you want to revitalize GT, BUT, I think, the problems go much, much deeper.
Went there once , never again.. food awful and rip of prices as well
none of my friends go there either
Great news that it is closing
I hope they take down the noxious signage they have covering the building when they close. It is an eye sore.
Downtown,like the dump, has been much discussed, but zero effort has been put in by government to address the situation.
Had any one of a dozen possible measures been implemented 36, 24, even as little as 12 months ago, this business would continue to operate, and those jobs would continue down there, and more would be created.
Island companies closing first their Souvenir stores, then their jewelry stores, finally their clothing store was the beginning. Breezes will not be the last casualty of neglect by this country.
As much as the spin is they need the human resources moved to Seven Mile, if the place made any money it would have stayed open.
There are many motivated stakeholders downtown who would love the area to thrive. Unfortunately, the people of the Cayman Islands and their elected representatives are not among them.
How can you stand by and watch your town die?