Flamingo Watch: Where We Started

Welcome to Flamingo Watch — our new weekly dispatch from the build site, straight from Water Island. If you’ve been following along (or wondering what on earth is happening up on the hill), this is where we’ll keep you posted week to week as Blue Flamingo comes together.

First up: the entrance. What used to be a screened-in porch — mint-green trim, a lone plastic patio chair, more spider than seating — is becoming the entry to our bar and restaurant. Bold coral walls, navy trim, shade sails overhead. Same footprint, completely new life. We still catch ourselves doing a double take walking up those old stone steps.

And then there’s the view. Sunset from the veranda still stops us in our tracks every single time — the sky going orange over the hills, a sailboat or two anchored in the bay, palms doing their thing at the edge of frame. This is the backdrop we get to build a restaurant in front of. We don’t take it for granted.

One more thing, because Blue Flamingo is nothing if not eclectic: we recently rescued a headless, armless mannequin torso from beside a dumpster. A friend took one look and said, “that’s the Silver Surfer.” So now we’re on the hunt for arms and a head. If you happen to have spare mannequin parts lying around Water Island, we’d like to hear from you.

More to come every week as we get closer to opening in December. Blue Flamingo will be open Tuesday–Saturday, lunch 11–3:30 and dinner 5–9, right here on Water Island. Thanks for watching the flamingo with us.