The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Café Skans’ owners/operators are aiming to ‘reinvent’ the Bay Street eatery as an outdoor café to cater more to a cruise visitor clientele, telling Tribune Business that downtown Nassau and how it functions needs to be addressed so food and beverage businesses can survive.

Tony Skandaliaris told Tribune Business that one of the main reasons Café Skans has been able to survive on Bay Street for the past 42 years is because his family also owns the property, and does not have to pay the high rental costs that have forced other eateries from Bay Street.

“The customer is changing on Bay Street. What we are doing is moving outside to do an outdoor café to make it more Bahamian,” he said.

“For us the concept is going to change. We are going to go outside and offer a different product, a more tourist-friendly product. This concept and the theme is more relevant to the Bahamas and what it has to offer. Most of the customers that come here already eat on the cruise ship; they want snacks, they want to try something local, have a cold drink in a nice, relaxed atmosphere.”

Mr Skandaliaris said the Government’s decision to approve their new concept indicates that it, too, understands the need for change on Bay Street. He added that if Café Skans’ plan was successful it could help spark downtown’s revival.

Café Skans, which serves Greek, Bahamian and American food, employs 24 persons who will all be absorbed into the new venture.

Mr Skandaliaris, meanwhile, said Bay Street eateries continue to suffer due in part to the low volume of Bahamian consumers. “They moved all the Government offices off Bay Street. That’s all the locals,” he explained.

“All we have left are the cruise ships. Everyone has left. There are no Bahamians left and so we have to reinvent the concept to cater to the tourists. That’s our customer. The concept of Bay Street and the way it functions, even the traffic flow, everything has to be addressed to focus on the customer, which is the cruise passenger. The only reason we are lucky is because we own the properties on which we operate,” Mr Skandaliaris said.

“The ones that you have seen survive own the building. Rent is a very high barrier to doing business here in the Bahamas, and the way Bay Street is functioning right now. The way Bay Street is functioning really needs to be addressed, especially from a food and beverage perspective. It’s already difficult to operate on Bay Street as it is. There needs to be a higher demand and volume of people on Bay Street.”

Last year, the Italian eatery Sbarros closed its Bay Street restaurant after 14 years, citing a drop-off in sales and rental costs that were said to be higher there than its three other locations combined.

“If you want to develop Bay Street into a destination for more people to come, then we really need to address the way it’s functioning,” Mr Skandaliaris said. “We don’t have enough people to sustain business. The way it is now they need to address it.

“We have the customers on the boat; we just need to get them off the boat, but we have nothing to offer them. If we give them the product they will come and we have to give them product that they want, not a product that we want. They’re the customer; we’re not the customer.”