This exclusive "library by the sea" on Grand Cayman serves cocktails inspired by books

Back in the 1930s, Ernest Hemingway spent time in Cuba sipping daiquiris at a Havana bar called El Floridita. Upon trying the bar’s traditional recipe for a daiquiri, he’s quoted as saying, “That’s good but I prefer it without sugar and with double rum.” The Hemingway Special was born. 

Now, nearly a century later on a different Caribbean island, a bar in Grand Cayman is paying homage to this boozy beverage. Library By The Sea, a literary-inspired bar at Kimpton Seafire Resort, is serving up the E. Hemingway Special with 1930s Bacardi, 1930s maraschino, fresh lime and grapefruit in vintage glassware. 

“Everything about this drink is exactly the way that Hemingway would’ve drank it except nearly 100 years later,” the bar’s beverage manager Jim Wrigley explained. It’s served next to a copy of Life magazine from 1952, which first published Hemingway’s famed The Old Man and the Sea.

Though Hemingway’s version of the drink would’ve technically been frozen and even boozier, Library By The Sea’s elevated take stands out for its attention to time-period accuracy and extraordinarily rich flavor. Retailing at $275/glass, it’s certainly a special occasion drink, but other items on the menu come in at more palatable price points.

The entire menu is devoted to literary libations. Books fill shelves around the bar, sharing space next to a vast collection of other vintage spirits. A specific book pairs with each drink, and staff are eager to present the book on a silver platter, alongside the cocktails. 

For example, there’s “Murder in the Afternoon,” a bubbly pear and strawberry concoction with a nod to Agatha Christie’s knowledge of potions. The “Singin’ & Swingin’” draws on the favorite flavors Maya Angelou described in her third autobiography. It’s topped with a spiced buttercream caramel foam inspired by Angelou’s grandmother’s buttercream frosting recipe.

But my favorite was the “From Cayman, With Love,” an obvious James Bond reference for a martini-style cocktail. This drink celebrates Quarrel, a Caymanian fisherman who helped Bond learn the seas in Ian Fleming’s stories. The drink draws on local ingredients, such as a sugarcane spirit infused with island botanicals, plus sea-mineral vermouth and homemade tropical cordial. Though the title harkens to the masculine Bond character, it’s presented in a delicate glass vessel, then sipped from a glimmering ceramic oyster shell.

“This is the iconic love letter to Cayman from Library By The Sea,” head bartender Max Wolff says.

Those three cocktails come in around $20 each. They’re among more than a dozen themed cocktails on the menu, plus vintage spirits, beer, wine, mocktails, coffees and teas. 

Guests are welcome to peruse the collection of vintage books while imbibing. 

“We did an overview, which is a massive breakdown of the author, the era, time contexts,” Wrigley said. “The idea was to be able to sit and talk for half an hour about the source material.”

The menu features beautiful drawings of each cocktail, which are both visually stunning and help visitors choose between the wide array of options. “We also essentially did the old Italian laminated menus with a picture of your food on there so you can choose,” Wrigley said.

While the bar is dubbed “Library By The Sea,” it’s fully indoors inside the hotel, completely reinventing the notion of a boring lobby bar, Wrigley said.

In addition to the bar’s literary fancy, staff also pay close attention to sustainability. Benjamin Davies, Oasis creative controller and bartender, has turned an unused shed on the property into a cocktail laboratory. There, he experiments with ways to reduce waste, like turning pineapples, limes and oranges used at the hotel’s restaurants into things like fruit leather and citrus powders. 

Staff at the hotel can join the Seafire Guardians, a group dedicated to preserving the island’s coral reefs. As part of their work, they pick up plastic found on the beach, then work with a company to transform the plastic into 3D printable trinkets. 

They’re planning to create a drink inspired by “Le Petit Prince,” and the cocktail will come with a 3D-printed plastic rose on the side that guests can take as a souvenir. 

“We literally look at the place where the plastic goes into every day,” Wrigley said. “Also, everything comes with an air mile if it isn’t produced on this island, so we try and create as many things as possible.” 

Library By The Sea manages to inspire guests to think about classic literature from the past while also urging them to consider the island’s environmental future. We raise a glass and offer a hearty cheers to that.