RELATED ARTICLE
Discovering
Puerto Plata's
local hangouts: 
Eating  "hotel food" and seeing the same tourists everyday around the swim up bar can get boring after a few days. Meanwhile, some of the most colorful places in any Caribbean town are the local "expatriate" hangouts, where you’re sure to meet a friendly owner or bartender who speaks your language. Here is the POP Report Guide to places in town that are safe and "tourist friendly"
CLICK TO READ  ARTICLE
 

The POP Report invites your submissions
Public events, notices and news reports are now being received by The POP Report. It is requested that all submissions be made by email or fax: 586-5762. Letters, comments and opinions are also welcome, as well as free classified ads.  The POP Report will edit according to space and priorities. 

by Ron Añejo

Throughout the winter hundreds of frequent visitors to Puerto Plata came into town only to discover much to their disappointment that one of Puerto Plata’s most renowned watering holes, Fat Eddy’s Pub, had closed its doors. Last Friday, however, Anna’s Bar & Grill held its grand opening just across the street with “Fat” Eddy at the helm, providing him a new venue from which to dispense the clipped humor, dry insults and down to earth manner that ingratiates him with most everyone. 

Indeed, Fat Eddy’s was for many a home away from home, a place to congregate, chew the fat over cold Presidente’s and enjoy homestyle “pub grub” at decent prices. When Eddy sold out last year and returned to Canada, it was only a matter of months before Fat Eddy’s became a ghost pub and closed its doors.

Whatever the disenchantment was that made Eddy return to Ontario and spend the summer on the golf greens, it wasn’t long after the frost set in up north that he found himself back in these parts. (“Too many white girls,” he is reported to have said.)

And so today, Eddy is back at it, just across the street from the old Fat Eddy’s Pub, where owners Ana Zarzuela and Duane Gess have transformed the old “N&N” Disco into a bright, comfortable eatery with fountain and tropical plants, and where, like at Eddy’s, an open front wall affords a view of the passers- and struttersby on Colón Avenue near the harbor.

Eddy’s former infamous sidekick, Nico, and his cook, Fefa, have since moved on to Rum Runners uptown. This has left room for a new motley crew, such as Canadian Dan, who tends the bar at night, proprietor Duane, who hails from Minnesota and who when not off digging water wells, is a permanent fixture and endless source of advice as to how a bar should run. And then of course there’s Anna, Duane’s better half, whose name and eye for décor grace the place, and whose ready smile and perfect English offset Eddy’s attempts to scowl, making this bar and grill an even more hospitable place to be. 

With a new menu still under development, patrons are assured of finding a good selection of American style meals at for lunch and dinner, including such rarities as Black Angus sirloins and T-bones, and imported pastrami sandwiches.

In a word, Anna’s Bar & Grill revives a tradition, one that has provided thousands of visitors and residents in Puerto Plata with great moments and memories. And while the sign says Anna’s Bar & Grill, just about everyone in town is betting that when it’s time for a cold beer and a juicy steak, people will be saying, “see you down at Eddy’s.”

How to get there… from the Malecon, turn left at the power plant, drive a half mile, located on the left side of the Colon Ave. between the old train station and the small bridge. From Costambar or Cofresi: turn left at “La Javilla” entrance to town and go straight for 1 ½ miles, on the right hand side just after the small bridge. Tel. 586-8406. Closed Sundays. 

RELATED ARTICLE
Discovering Puerto Plata's local hangouts: 
Eating  "hotel food" and seeing the same tourists everyday around the swim up bar can get boring after a few days. Meanwhile, some of the most colorful places in any Caribbean town are the local "expatriate" hangouts, where you’re sure to meet a friendly owner or bartender who speaks your language. Here is the POP Report Guide to places in town that are safe and "tourist friendly" CLICK TO READ  ARTICLE