Charlotte Amalie, picturesque capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the West Indies, has never been a gourmet’s paradise. A shopper’s paradise, maybe. But Saint Thomas is not home to the great restaurants you find on Caribbean islands like Saint-Martin, Saint Barts or Anguilla.
However, years ago, while seeking refuge from a tropical downpour, we stumbled into a Spanish restaurant named the Amalia Café in one of Charlotte Amalie’s cobblestone alleys.
We had lunch on the porch while waiting for the skies to clear, and ever since, on visits to St. Thomas, we have made the Amalia Café our lunchtime destination.
Owned and managed by Randolph and Helga Maynard, this open-air Spanish restaurant has had the same chef forever – a rarity in the islands – and his zarzuela de mariscos ($24), a Costa Brava-style seafood casserole of snapper, grouper, salmon and hake in a tomato brandy sauce with mussels, clams and shrimp, draws raves from everyone who tries it.
Generally, though, we arrive for a late lunch hot and, tired from shopping, order a carafe of the Amalia Café’s refreshing white sangria (they also have red), and simply enjoy a selection of some of the tastiest Spanish tapas you will find anywhere.
On our most recent visit a week ago, we ordered only two of our favorite tapas – the gambas ajillo ($12) and the almejas salsa verde ($14) – because I insisted that we once again enjoy the Amalia Café’s paella Valenciana ($21).
That meant we passed up one of their great tapas, the very lightly battered calamaris frito ($13), which is always an exquisite rendition of this dish. However, the gambas ajillo, beautiful shrimp cooked in garlic and rosemary, and the almejas, clams prepared in a green garlic sauce, were wonderful as always.
Curiously, as seems to have become the custom in many tapas restaurants in Spain, no bread is served at the Amalia Café unless you order it, and you are charged $3 for a basket. But how can you not have bread with all of that wonderful garlic sauce just waiting to be mopped up?
As for Café Amalia’s paella, the seafood components on last week’s visit were great as always – very fresh, very well-seasoned calamari, shrimp, mussels and clams. But the saffron rice this time was just a bit disappointing; perhaps because we arrived on the late side, the rice had been prepared separately from the flavor lenders.
However, lunch on the porch at the Amalia Café is always a great way to decompress after a day of shopping in Charlotte Amalie. While my husband says he plans on future visits to stick with the tapas, I am already thinking about the zarzuela de mariscos.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of this newspaper.