NEW ORLEANS – Chef Alison Vega-Knoll and Drew Knoll will offer the 3rd annual island-hopping tour of six Caribbean Islands from Aug. 3 through Sept. 11 at Station 6 in Bucktown. After spending several years living and cooking in Antigua, Alison and Drew are excited to share the flavors of the Caribbean with their customers again this summer. Each week the restaurant will fly the flag from a different island and feature special menu items served à la carte and a specialty rum cocktail. Proceeds from Island Hopping meals and merchandise will benefit the Elkhorn Marine Conservancy Coral Reef Restoration in Antigua, West Indies. This organization is reviving Antigua’s vital and degraded marine ecosystem, which is degrading at an alarming rate, along with its economic and social value.
The tour kicks off on Aug. 3-7 in Antigua, where it all began for the Knolls. The old-fashion rum punch stars alongside seafood pepperpot & fungee (okra, eggplant, butternut squash, and spinach stew with conch, crab, and fish), spicy mango, lobster and avocado salad, curry goat and seasoned rice, and coconut rum cake. Puerto Rico is on the tour from August 10-14 with piña coladas, adobo chicken salad, shrimp sofrito, and pork belly mofongo (sautéed shrimp with plantain and chicharron cake) and coconut flan. The next stop on the tour is Haiti from August 17-21, where a krema (coconut milk, cream of coconut, Gosling dark rum, Bacardi light rum, lime) will be served with joumon soup (oxtail, butternut squash, acorn squash, mirliton, Yukon potatoes), lambi salad (fried conch over greens), griyo, pikliz, diri ak pwa & bannann peze (fried pork, spicy slaw, black bean rice, sweet plantains), and sweet potato cheesecake. From August 24-28, the Jamaican flag will be flying, and dark & stormy cocktails and Red Stripe beer will be served alongside conch stew, shrimp roti salad, jerk pork, rum raison gelato. Cuba will be visited from August 31 – September 4, where guests can toast the birthplace of the mojito while dining on potaje de frijoles negros y tostones (black bean soup), ensalada de pina y agucate a la plancha (grilled avocado and pineapple salad), pargo entero a la parrilla (whole grilled snapper), arroz con leche (rum raisin rice pudding). The Island Tour will finish in The Bahamas September 7-11 with chicken souse, snapper ceviche, pineapple pork on Johnnycake, curry conch, guava sorbet, and coco-mocha cheesecake paired with a goombay smash.
Tour Dates
Antigua – August 3-7
Puerto Rico – August 10-14
Haiti – August 17-21
Jamaica – August 24-28
Cuba – August 31- September 4
The Bahamas – September 7-11
Alison and Drew are passionate about coral reef conservation because the consequences of losing the planet’s coral reefs will have devastating results around the globe. The diverse ecosystems are critical in coastal countries where tourism and fishing account for a large portion of the country’s GDP, as it does in Antigua.
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