At about 9:45 p.m. on Saturday, Demetris Penn blew the whistle that he keeps in a pouch under his shirt. The sound alerted chef Juliana Jeffers, who was upstairs at Thelma’s Place Restaurant & Bar, that a crowd was building downstairs.
The smell of grilling jerk and barbeque chicken lingered outside the Parham Town restaurant, where smoke led residents towards the entrance.
“You have chicken ready?” a customer asked Mr. Penn as he prepared to-go orders.
“We are extremely busy when we are doing this,” Mr. Penn said as he carried chicken from the grill to a nearby table. “I haven’t had a break since 3 this afternoon.”
The restaurant and bar is one of many places where residents hang out in the East End area on weekend nights. Although establishments in Road Town are often more heavily patronised, Tortola’s eastern end often bustles with an easy-going nightlife of its own.
Fruit shopping
Near Thelma’s, Abdul Mujahid and his wife were assisting customers at a table covered with fruits including watermelons, mangos, papayas, pineapples and bananas.
“Once we have stuff, people always comes,” he said. “Most of the people come on days like Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”
As he spoke, cars were lining up along the curb.
“We are mostly trying to establish ourselves where a lot of people in the East End area wouldn’t have to go all the way into town to get produce,” Mr. Mujahid explained. “I’m from this area, and we don’t really have a fruit stand or fruit market.”
He added that he and his wife start preparing for their buyers as early as 6 in the morning, and their business AM Distributors stays open as late as 10 or 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Sports
Other East End residents enjoy getting active on weekend nights.
On Friday, the rhythmic dribbling of a basketball echoed across the Greenland Playing Field, where teenagers were playing basketball and cricket under bright lights while adults walked around the edge of the field.
“Aye! He blocking you from the front, back and sideways, meh son!” one of the basketball players shouted while the others laughed and jogged across the court.
Kevante Sprauve, who attends the Elmore Stoutt High School, can frequently be found on the court on weekend nights.
“That’s the only sport I play,” the ninth grader said. “I’m up here for years and you can just come up on the field and play soccer too.”
He added that he and his friends hang around as late as 11 p.m., when the field lights shut off.
Catching fish
Fishing is another popular weekend pastime around the village. On Saturday, two men were casting off of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge.
“Those are snappers,” Elvis Byron said, pointing to a bucket with four or five small fish. “We were fishing behind Little Mountain first, so I caught them there.”
Mr. Byron, a resident of Fat Hogs Bay, was cutting up bits of a conger eel his friend had caught for bait.
By 9 p.m., he was ready to throw his line out again to catch some more.
“Sometimes it takes minutes,” he explained while tugging on his line. “But the water is not all that good because it’s too calm.”
Eating out
There are also plenty of dining options on the eastern end of Tortola. The more laid-back choices include the Trellis Bay Market, which serves jerk outside, and the Sports Bar Lounge, where music lovers can hang out and play dominoes.
More formal options include the newly renovated Emile’s Restaurant and Suites, a second-storey establishment that overlooks parts of East End.
“When people come to East End they always look for some place where it’s very clean and high end where they can have a good meal,” said Junie Demming, who manages the business.
According to Ms. Demming, owner Edward Wheatley is from an East End family who wishes to ensure that there are plenty of choices for residents in their own community.
In the future, she added, the restaurant hopes to build a deck for weekend pig roasts.
Church gathering
Other residents head to church on weekend nights. By 9:30 p.m. on Friday, more than 50 vehicles were parked on the roadside near the Church of God of Prophecy, which was hosting its annual district convention.
Jacob Edwards, a COGOP member who grew up in the Fat Hogs Bay area, was chatting with a group outside the church. He had encouraging words for those who might perceive the East End area in a negative light.
“Regardless of the negatives that people have to say, there’s a lot of good stuff that goes on, especially in the East End community,” he said. “This community, per se, is very family oriented.”
Weekend activities often include family get-togethers, cookouts, or just hanging out on street corners and talking, he explained.
“Really and truly, we do look out for one another, and we try our best to keep that community [closeness] as it was,” the guidance counsellor said. “It’s plain and simple — nothing extreme. There are a lot of youth programmes that go on, especially on the weekend.”
In recent months, the community has seen some violent crime, much of which has occurred around The Stickett in Long Look, but residents like Mr. Edwards strongly believe that people can still enjoy themselves in the area.
“People would say that’s a bad place, but really and truly it’s not,” he said. “Sometimes we just come around and talk. We have meaningful conversations about what really goes on in this territory.”
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