interview
Island Life - April/May 2011
The Royal Esplanade Hotel, Ryde.
Below: Pamela pictured with her staff. 1977
from the optics, but the other ‘display
a novel idea. It was a cellar bar, so
amount to, but my children have never
bottles’ were full of coloured water,
when I returned I told Lionel I had this
forgiven me!”
standing there to make the bar look
wonderful idea..!”
well stocked. But with the help of
However, she did allow one room to
So Le Bar Cellier was born, and
be used by the Vice Squad – so they
former customers who drummed up
subsequently became one of the main
could keep a look out for whoever
support for the new venture, the Royal
focal points of Ryde in the 1960s. It is
arrived on the Island via the ferries and
Esplanade gradually began coming back
still talked about today by those who
the pier!
to life.
frequented it as having a wonderful
Things were swinging along in the
Pamela continued: “We had a local
atmosphere, with live music, a juke
sixti es – well almost! There was the
head chef, and his wife was head
box and a coffee machine that sold
time when a hot dog van parked
chambermaid. Our waiters were Italian,
Cappuccino. There were invariably long
outside the hotel. She said: “The hotel
and we were doing anything up to
queues to get into the popular haunt.
looked lovely outside, and suddenly
150 breakfasts, lunches and dinners
During that era the Beatles – paying
each day. Sometimes you forget how
a visit to the
really hard it was. But we did get into
Island - asked for
business at a very young age, and
rooms at the Royal
were blessed with being successful
Esplanade. They
at a young age. However, it did
were refused, with
mean working six days a week, and
Pamela explaining:
sometimes seven.”
“I had visions of
Following one visit to St Tropez,
people climbing
Pamela came back with the idea of
up the drain pipes,
installing a cellar bar in the Royal
or whatever, trying
Esplanade Hotel. “I went into a little
to get into the
restaurant called Whisky-A-Go-Go
hotel, so I refused
where they were serving chicken
them. I just knew
in the basket, and I thought what
what it would
44
there was this awful smell right outside
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