Saba Rock

Saba Rock is a 1-acre island located at the Northeast end of the British Virgin Islands. After the devastating effects of Hurricane Irma in 2017, IFDT was contacted by a repeat client seeking help to rebuild the Saba Rock property. Prior to the hurricane, Saba Rock foodservice consisted of a simple 400 square foot grill kitchen tucked in one corner of this concrete bunker of a building. With the tremendous damage done came a tremendous opportunity to upgrade the food & beverage program. Since regular guests to the property include Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines and Google founder Larry Page, both of whom have their own islands nearby, the challenge was on. Working towards a 5-star hotel goal, operations presented a menu to impress their guests. The castle like construction posed limitations on the design approach. With the building water cistern directly behind the kitchen and planned guest rooms above, we were asked to triple the size of the cookline and somehow ventilate it around these components. Captive-Aire worked with us and came up with a ventilation masterpiece that included return air ducts just above the high-water level through the water cistern. With two bars on the property, one bar sits over the water on the newly constructed deck. The second bar is located on the second level with views of the surrounding bay and islands. Since the only way to reach Saba Rock is via boat or helicopter, (yes, it has a small helipad on the property), we had to work with the site to plan the delivery of each piece of equipment, timed just right. After loading the equipment into shipping containers and getting them to the main island of Virgin Gorda, the freight was broken down even further into smaller containers. These containers would fit on the only barge small enough to land at the Saba Rock dock.