Come to Arawak Cay often enough and you start to notice something. The paint is fresh. A counter has moved. The bar does not look the way it did the last time you sat at it.
None of that is an accident. In this family it is a policy, and it has a name. We call it the fresh-up.
"Every year you freshen up"
Ask the family why the place keeps changing and the answer comes out plain:
"Thank God, you know, Buddy and Danny started that philosophy, that policy. And every year you freshen up, but a number of the restaurants are not continuing."
There is no end date in that sentence. The fresh-up is not a project with a finish line. It is something you do every year, the way you look after a house you intend to keep.
The year the renovation made the business pages
In March 2017, The Nassau Guardian sat down with owner Danny McCardy just after Twin Brothers completed renovations at the Arawak Cay location. The paper reported that the location employed at least 70 people at the time.
He told them how guests took the change:
"The customers love the new look. People talk about it every time they come in the restaurant. They say it's so different."
Then he gave the reason behind the work:
"Twin Brothers is a brand name and when people come they always expect us to be different and set the pace. That is what we try to do."
Setting the pace is the whole idea. Guests arrive expecting the place to have moved forward since their last visit. The fresh-up is how we keep that expectation honest.
The part that does not change
In the same interview, Mr. McCardy offered his advice to anyone starting a business. It had nothing to do with paint:
"I always say, you have to be consistent. I don't care how it looks you must be consistent. You just can't give up. You go out there and just keep on doing it and one day it will pay off. The main thing is you have to be consistent."
That is the other half of the fresh-up, and it is the half our guests taste. The room changes. The conch salad does not. The fire-grill does not. The people behind the counter are the same family they were last year.
Right now, it is the daiquiri bar's turn
The fresh-up is still running today. The daiquiri bar at Arawak Cay is being rebuilt, and that work is underway now.
It takes as long as it takes. A fresh-up is finished when it is right, and then something else gets its turn.
What we can tell you is what will be waiting when the dust settles. The machines will still be swirling the same flavours. The snapper will still come off the same grill. The room around them will simply feel new again.
Come see the newest fresh-up
If it has been a few years since your last plate of cracked conch on the Cay, give the place a fresh look. Some of it will be exactly as you left it. Some of it will surprise you.
Book a table, or send us a WhatsApp and we will hold one for you. Come see what is new.