Author: Jenn Manes

Hi all! I am super excited to tell you all that STJ To Go is launching tonight! They say that all good businesses start in a bar, right?? Well STJ To Go is one of them! 🙂

I was sitting at The Tap Room last month with my friend Dan Frenette, and we were talking about the lack of restaurant delivery services here on island. We don’t have Uber Eats, Door Dash or any of those fancy companies you all have stateside. Many people have talked about offering this type of service over the years, but logistically it’s tough. As many of you know, Centerline Road is only 12.8 miles long, but the ride takes about 50 minutes. That’s a problem. The fact that we don’t have widely-known street addresses is tough too, although there is a current initaitive working to change that. So in order to pull this off, you really need to know this island well and know the location of several villas. Luckily for us, I drive these roads daily giving my island tours, and Dan cleans villa pools. So together, we feel confident that we can successfully offer this service to all of you. We pulled in Mike Hedy, who happens to be my other half, and together we are launching STJ To Go. Did I mention how excited I am??!!

We are doing a soft opening tonight, and then will launch officially on Tuesday, January 19th. We have to start small because we want to do this right. Therefore we are only delivering four restaurants at the get go. They are 1864, Banana Deck, Extra Virgin and The Tap Room. Our delivery zone initially is Cruz Bay to Gifft Hill and everywhere in between. We plan to expand both the number of restaurants and delivery zone in the near future.

The delivery/service charge is a flat $30 fee. That pays the driver and covers operating expenses. Unlike Uber Eats and the like, we are not charging the restaurants to provide this service. They have had one heck of a year, and we want to help them. Restaurants are at 50 percent capacity due to Covid, so essentially their businesses have been cut in half. We are hoping to help them with that.

We are planning to offer STJ To Go Tuesday through Saturday from 3 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. You can order the day of or up to 14 days in advance. We are limited in the number of nightly orders, so we suggest ordering in advance if possible.

Please take a few minutes to check it out at www.STJToGo.com

And as always, you can always email me at jenn@explorestj.com or inbox me on Facebook.

Thank you all for reading! Have a wonderful weekend!

Well folks, it’s been one heck of a year. I don’t know about you, but I am beyond over 2020 at this point. I miss the days when I could freely hug my guests, when I could see my parents and family members without worry. And you know what I miss more than I thought I would? Sitting at a bar. How silly is that??! I never realized how much I enjoyed sitting at the bar over at High Tide or Banana Deck, for example, while chatting it up with some of my favorite bartenders. Normal life soon come, I hope…

One nice thing about this island is that we have the ability to escape. It may be for a moment or perhaps even a few hours, but we have the ability to take a hike in the woods only to come upon some of the world’s most beautiful beaches. We have the ability to float in the healing waters of the Caribbean. For that I am beyond grateful.

I know that many of you reading this are somewhere in the states where the weather is likely getting cooler, forcing you inside your homes. So I am going to start to bring more of the island to all of you. I want to share the beauty of this island even more so now, a time when I understand how much it is needed.

Last week I hiked down to Salomon beach. It was another stunning day here on island, and I took a little video for all of you. I hope you enjoy it.

Hello everyone, and happy Friday! I just realized that it’s been nearly a month since my first Explore STJ blog post. So I thought that warranted a second one!

I do not have too much to chat about today other than I miss you all, I hope you are all staying safe during these crazy times and I hope to see you all soon!! As you have likely read on News of St. John, the island is shut down once again in an effort to control the spread. At the moment, all non-essential businesses are closed, restaurants can only offer take out or delivery, and guests are currently not allowed to check in to any accommodation. Hopefully these measures help stop the spread, so we can get back to business as usual.

The island is currently under a tropical storm warning. I flew to the states earlier this week, so like many of you, I will be glued to the internet and Weather Channel until this thing passes. Praying that it passes with minimal wind, but fills up those cisterns!

What a year this has been, right??!! I don’t know about you, but I am so ready for life to feel normal again. I had originally planned to resume my island tours (after my summer hiatus) on October 1st. Fingers crossed that I am still able to do so! It’s so hard to plan what we are doing next week, let alone later this year. I truly hope that I get the opportunity to see many of you this winter season. If you are interested in booking a tour, please feel free to send me an email at jenn@explorestj.com. And if you don’t want to book a tour, but just want to say hi, I’d love to hear from you!

As I mentioned in my last blog post, I am working on something that I think is pretty exciting. I am hoping to be able to share it with all of you as early as next week! Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful day, and I hope you are doing well wherever in the world you may be. 🙂

-Jenn