One of UltraVilla’s newest members, Pamela Murdock, is a huge foodie, judging from the communiqué she recently sent us. In it, she describes one of her all-time favorite islands in the Bahamas by itemizing the many places where you can get a great meal! Tiny Harbour Island, barely three miles long and a quarter mile wide, lies two miles off the north coast of Eleuthera and 170 miles east of Fort Lauderdale. Small as it is, it has a lot to offer—Travel + Leisure crowned it “Best Island” in 2015. In her message, Pamela mentioned, somewhat in passing, “charming shops, liquor and grocery stores, delis, art galleries, bakeries (we love Arthur’s for breakfast) and several very colorful bars with music and dancing. Island activities include diving, snorkeling, bone and deep sea fishing, picnic cruises, biking, riding on the beach, and kitesurfing (depending on time of year).”
“Surprisingly,” she wrote (here’s where her fondness for good eating emerged), “for such a small island there are quite a few restaurants, ranging from the delicious and upscale Rock House and The Dunmore to more funky ones like Brian’s BBQ, where you eat in his front yard. There’s no sign out front. You just follow the smell of barbecue to the house with Christmas lights on Dunmore Street.
“For lunch, our favorite things, besides a picnic on a deserted island, are the lobster quesadillas at Sip Sip and the best fresh conch salad at Queen Conch, which is in a tiny shack on Bay Street. It’s also great fun to take the short boat trip across the southern inlet to Ocean Talley, a restaurant in a lighthouse on Eleuthera. For drinks and beautiful sunsets, we go to Acquapazza, located near the ruins of an allegedly haunted plantation house.”
Dunmore Town, Harbour Island.
Harbour Island was settled in the 1700s by British Loyalists, and its architecture has a New England-y feel. “On its harbor side is Dunmore Town, which was founded in the eighteenth century. This adorable village has pastel-colored clapboard cottages with picket fences and gardens full of colorful bougainvillea, oleander, and hibiscus. On the Atlantic side is one of the loveliest beaches ever, which runs the entire length of the island. Its pale pink sand against the turquoise ocean is a sublime visual. Life here is unhurried and peaceful—which stands to reason, as there are no cars for rent—only golf carts.”
House on a Dune.
Pamela’s portfolio includes a range of properties, from Allamanda House, a six-bedroom custom-built house in Dunmore Town, to 2,500-square-foot House on a Dune, above, designed by Oppenheim Architecture. As a villa specialist, she likes to give her customers “nothing to think about except what amusing thing to do next”—meaning she’ll make the arrangements for such things as:
Golf-cart rental
Advance grocery shopping
Extra maid service
Hiring a cook
In-house massage
Personal training
Special events
Boat charters
Airport taxi service
Roundtrip water-taxi service
And, of course, those all-important restaurant reservations.
