Sale e Pepe - A family restaurant worthy of the name: There is a bit of an Italian community in the Simpson Bay area and the beating heart of it is Sale e Pepe, a waterfront restaurant with outdoor seating with lagoon views or an elegant interior and air-conditioned dining room.
Sale e Pepe (salt and pepper in Italian) is owned and run by Sicilian chef Davide Zagami and his wife Scarlet, who hails from the Dominican Republic. They met in St Maarten 14 years ago and eventually realized their dream of combining Davide’s talent and experience in the kitchen with Scarlet’s managerial experience and front-of-house presence.
The menu is a combination of Italian cuisine and a Caribbean influence that makes the most of local ingredients, notably seafood. While other talents may exist in the kitchen in the form of staff of other nationalities, this is most definitely the proud Sicilian’s domain.
Even a quick glance at the menu shows an unusually large choice of salads and other dishes on the healthy side of the fence. This, Scarlet says, is not a decision based solely on business, but on the fact that they think of it as a family restaurant.
“Our kids eat here,” she says. ‘And we want them to eat healthily.”
The salads include Caribbean lobster, the typically Italian Caprese, with its mozzarella and tomatoes, and Sicilian, which is fried goat’s cheese with honey and tomato marmalade. There are carpaccios of beef, salmon and tuna and a rich seafood soup. Then there’s a starter fast becoming a legend in these parts, Antipasto Davide – a feast of carpaccios both meat and fish, with eggplant and zucchini.
Because many people’s idea of an Italian restaurant revolves around pasta, there’s a substantial section of the menu devoted to that. You’ll find Linguine alla Vongole (clams) and Rigatoni alla Siciliana (with Italian sausage) plus a couple of risottos: one with porcini mushrooms and a vegetarian option featuring asparagus.
Gluten free pastas are available with a choice of sauces, while the non-pasta main courses range from lamb chops with rosemary lemon sauce to Mahi Mahi steamed with olives and capers – a splendid amalgam of Caribbean and Mediterranean.
Daily specials make good use of what is in season and of outstanding quality, and the homemade desserts tend to be simple but exquisite.
The interior of the restaurant is cool and stylish in black and white, and there are a few tables outside where customers can eat or simply sip good coffee and watch the world go by.
All in all, Sale e Pepe is the kind of restaurant where you feel you’re in good hands, with excellent food prepared and served by people who care.
SALE E PEPE
Welfare Road
Simpson Bay, Sint Maarten
Open from 10 AM to 11 PM
FOR RESERVATION CALL
+1 721 527-5019
