When Port of Spain's newest restaurant "Trotters" opened its doors last October at the corner of Sweet Briar and Maraval Roads, it was referred to as the local version of the "Hard Rock Cafe." This sent a lot of us into hasty retreat as the words "hard rock" brought to mind loud and raucous, tuneless music with disturbing, flashing strobe lights.
Therefore, it was not until a fortnight before Christmas that I summed up the courage to go and see for myself what was really happening behind the stone walls of this very unusual structure which I had watched being erected over that past year from the ground up. So pleased was I that last Monday found me once again lunching at Trotters in what is indeed a most relaxed and comfortable atmosphere where good food, drink and service are the order of the day.
Many people, including myself, believed that Trotters was a franchised name, but explains the owner 30 year old Peter George Jr, whose brainchild it is: "A Trotter is you, me or anyone of us, who is willing and actively doing something about doing something - Those who have 'trotted' the globe and represented all of us well."
Let me put your minds at rest, there is nothing heavy metal about the background music, there is nothing overly expensive about the food and for those of us who do not drink fancy cocktail drinks, which are by the way costly wherever they are being mixed (and here with the finest ingredients) and shaken in a cocktail shaker, there are low-cost beverages. Menus galore there are in this well-appointed two-storied, balcony-type restaurant which can seat 200 persons; and television screens galore there are also which do not show only sports programmes - yet another misconception that Trotters is a sports bar.
You could very well find yourself viewing on the latest flat plasma screen which is a part of the establishment's very sophisticated audio/visual system, the evening news, cartoons, election results, a beauty pageant as well as today's Super Bowl which follows immediately after the first Sunday Buffet Brunch from 10am to 3 p.m. for just $120.00 person and half price for children, with a menu to die for of breakfast, breads, lunch, kids stuff, salads, drinks, dessert and soup.
At age ten Peter George was sent to boarding school in England and then to study for a marketing degree at Emory University in Atlanta after which he came back and joined the family business. However Peter J, as he is called by his four sisters, mother and father, says "my mind was always on entertainment and I thought that this country was obviously the most advanced Caribbean Island so I was always committed to bring International standards to Trinidad and Tobago, especially entertainment and so on, as what was being done locally was nice but there is only one way the right way with the best equipment, properly trained staff and delivery of the best product." And believe me, at Trotters you can find it all, no matter the age grouping under the most casual conditions as insists Peter J "you do not have to dress up to the gills. It does not entail any kind of special planning to come to Trotters, drop in as you are when out with the family."
Trotters caters for every type of function from its $1,000 per head New Year's Eve bash, to corporate business meetings (day or night), children's birthday parties,"Lunch In A Flash!" for an all-inclusive $45.00 happens every day of the week with no time-wasting for busy working people and an eight item menu, and the recent 3 Canal launch on the balcony level "an unprecedented live perfomance which was unexpected to our customers but toned down enough so that the two floors lived harmoniously" explains Peter J "3 Canal performed upstairs, people were eating downstairs, it was a fun place and was alive, our customers were unaffected - they sat down and ate, chatted and left when they were good and ready."
Dress code at Trotters is flexible and since the very airy building has been designed as "Classic Caribbean" where one is supposed to be in a very open courtyard which never gets too stuffy you can come in a suit and yet there are people in shorts. Whether seated in the comfortable booths against the walls or at the tables and chairs, under each laminated table top newspaper clippings from thirty years ago highlight local and Caribean politics, entertainment, culture and history, while the pictures and paintings on the walls have all been donated by local artistes and sports personalities.
Poring over the daily menu, which incidentally is changed here and there at least once in every three months, I was convinced that if one ate lunch, dinner and snacks at Trotters on a daily basis, it is quite possible not to repeat any dish on this varied menu of non-Trinidadian food to which local herb seasonings have been added.
From all appearances, It would seem that Peter George Jr is fulfilling his objective of "delivering something that the country was asking for, and not sacrificing quality or service."