Features
What to expect: Converted in 1974 into a hotel with contemporary amenities, Graycliff has a storied history. It was built in 1740 as a residential compound by Capt. John Howard Graysmith, an English pirate who preyed on Spanish ships. What is now the Main House's wine cellar was a jail for his prisoners. Graycliff served as an American base during the U.S. Revolution in 1776, opened as a French inn in 1844, and served again as an American outpost during the U.S. Civil War. In the 1920s, when owned by a companion of mobster Al Capone, it again became an inn. European royalty and government leaders such as Winston Churchill came during the years leading up to WW II. Later it became a private residence for a wealthy Canadian couple and then England's Lord and Lady Dudley, who entertained the Duke and Duchess of Windsor here. Evidence of Graycliff's long life can be found throughout the compound and its tranquil gardens that include ponds, bougainvillea, bamboo groves, and ancient palm trees. An international clientele, including sports and entertainment celebrities, come here for the hotel's history, privacy, fine dining, and award-winning wine list.
Amenity highlights: Gardens include a 65-ft, four-lane lap pool and a 30-by-15-ft pool, both flanked by sunbathing decks. Open to hotel guests only for breakfast and to the public for lunch and dinner, Graycliff Restaurant, with a 275,000-bottle wine cellar, serves Nassau's government, business, and social elite. Humidor Churrascaria, a Brazilian-style tableside-service restaurant, provides an option for dinner.
Insider tip: A seaside-dining village known as Arawak Cay Fish Fry is one mile west of the hotel and contains numerous restaurants and cafés.
Graycliff Restaurant - Internationally acclaimed fine-dining restaurant frequented by Bahamian government, business, and social elite as well as visiting celebrities seeking private dining in a wine-cellar room. Five dining rooms, including gazebo with bleached-wood ceiling overlooking gardens. Pink tablecloths with crocheted white tops. Award-winning wine cellar containing 275,000 bottles, including numerous 19th-century vintages and world's oldest vintage-label wine, a 1727 bottle from Germany. Breakfast service for hotel guests only. (Guestroom and poolside breakfast service, also.) Open to public for lunch and dinner. Lunch choices include conch chowder, grouper, rack of New Zealand lamb, grilled salmon with lemon-caper-butter sauce. Dinner choices such as lobster morsels in Spanish-saffron cream sauce; escargots with wild mushrooms in wine-cream sauce; caviar selection; foie gras with black truffles; lobster-foie-gras terrine; smoked seafood with watercress sauce; stone-crab claws; warm salad with shrimp and smoked duck; chicken breast stuffed with prosciutto and spinach; double center-cut pork chop with calavdos; mussels and Madagascar scampi in garlic coulis; grilled yellowfin tuna with Roquefort; rack of venison for two in wine-wild-mushroom sauce; dry-aged U.S. prime-grade steaks, dry-aged Angus steaks. Humidor Churrascaria - Fine-dining, Brazilian-style restaurant open Monday-Saturday for dinner. Bleached-wood ceiling. Yellow table linens. Appetizer, salad, and dessert bars. Continuous tableside serving of rotisserie-roasted chicken, pork, and beef.
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