Captain's changes course with sports bar and grill

FRIDAY, JAN. 27: The Captain’s Lounge has a new name, a new look and new owners.

Well, maybe not a completely new name as it is now Captain’s Sports Bar and Grill.

The iconic bar reopened last week and held a soft launch.

After being closed for a couple of months, Captain’s is back with a bang.

Owner Chris Neocleous explained how he came involved in the bar.

“The opportunity came about through my friend Deon Mills, one of the owners of Flanagan’s.

“Deon, knowing that I had been a part owner of Casey’s Lounge from 1983 to 1996, thought that this may be something that would get my juices flowing.

“Burned out on the construction field, I jumped at the opportunity.”

He said there are two partners that run the day-to-day operations, himself and Dave Morgan and one silent partner who provided funding to see us through the renovation. 

Asked why the decision to renovate, Mr Neocleous said: “We chose to do a full scale renovation and change the name a bit for a few reasons.

“First and foremost, we desperately did not want to see Bermuda lose a business that has had a deep and meaningful history to the community.

“Based on the physical condition of the business when we came in, we felt the only way to achieve this was to do a complete overhaul.” He continued: “We changed the name to The Captain’s Sports Bar and Grill because it is more reflective of our overall business plan.

“Thanks to our design team, By Design, everyone who has walked through our doors since we opened has been impressed with the new look.”

Asked if the concept in the same, the owner said: “Captain’s has been a sports bar for the past 30 years.

“However, the attraction of sports bars 30 years ago was quite a bit different that the attraction today.

“Thirty years ago, the presence of our star local athletes coming in to patronize the establishment in turn attracted their own followers.

Sports bars now

“Today, the attraction is more about having a cool place with large flat screens, good food and good service for the public at large to come in to support their team.”

As far as clientele, Mr Neocleous said he hopes to make it a bit more diverse.

“Captain’s has always been a place for black Bermudians and as we would love it to continue to be a place for black Bermudians to call their own, the new owners would love to see it become culturally diverse.

“We want all cultures to feel welcome and we will do our best to see that everyone has a positive experience when they walk through our doors.

“We feel strongly that sports is a celebration of world unity. At some point in our lives we have all celebrated victory and defeat with our rivals in the spirit of sport.”

Mr Neocleous said the bar will function primarily as a sports bar and restaurant with DJs, private parties, and so on.

“We encourage everyone to come in to take a look around, especially the sports fans.

“We are featuring 10 large plasma flat screens complemented by a state of the art audio system.

“We guarantee that you will have great experience while watching your game.”

As for food, Mr Neocleous said they hope to have the kitchen up and running in April. 

“We recognize that food and drink go hand in hand and subsequently have big plans to bring the food service part of the business to a competitive level.

“In the interim we have created an alliance with Smoking Barrel barbecue to accommodate our lunch guests.

Beginning Monday, January 30, we will serve a buffet lunch every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.”

Mr Neocleous said they would also have a variety of food and snacks for the Super Bowl next weekend.

Captain’s is located at 13 Reid Street.