Roy’s Bayside Grill, a long-standing fixture of Anguilla’s restaurant scene, will permanently close its doors on 11 April after 44 years in operation.
In a statement marking the end of an era for the family-run eatery, owner Claire Lynch said the difficult decision followed an offer to purchase the Sandy Ground property.
The restaurant, founded by her parents Roy and Mandy Bossons after they relocated from the United Kingdom to Anguilla in the early 1980s, has become a staple of the island’s dining scene.
Get members-only articles and editorials, giveaways and discount codes with Anguilla Focus. Click here to join from just $4/month.
First located in Crocus Bay before moving to its current home on the sandy shores lining Road Bay, it is well known for its fish and chips, lively happy hours and decades of friendly hospitality.
Lynch said the business will continue as a catering company, with the team bringing Roy’s signature cuisine to homes, villas and celebrations.
Decades of milestones
Reflecting on the restaurant’s origins, Lynch said her parents arrived on the island “with suitcases and a slightly rebellious dream”, seeking to trade “the grey insistence of British weather for turquoise horizons”.
“They didn’t simply want to live in paradise, they wanted to welcome people to it. So they opened a restaurant,” she said in her statement on 2 March.
Lynch described growing up alongside the business, measuring time not in school terms but in tourist seasons and the return of familiar winter guests.
Over the years, she went from “the little girl who once peeked over the bar” to working front of house, before eventually stepping “fully into the heat of the kitchen” as chef and proprietor.
Following her parents’ retirement, in 2013 she and her husband Patrick continued to run the restaurant, carrying forward the decades-long legacy of hospitality.
She said over the 44 years, the restaurant had been present for “milestones, simple meals and sporting matches watched with raucous fervour”.
End of an era
On the closure, Lynch said she and her parents had made the decision after receiving an offer to purchase the Sandy Ground property, describing it as difficult but ultimately the right step for the future.
“Restaurants are made of wood and concrete and menus, yes, but also of laughter and stories pressed into the grain of the tables,” she said reflecting on the move.
She added that while Roy’s began as a fish and chips shack in Crocus Bay before finding its home in Sandy Ground in 2004, it has always been “more than a building”.
“It has been a witness to lives unfolding, to children growing up and parents growing older, and to strangers becoming familiar faces in our dining room,” she said.
Nearly half a century after her parents first arrived in Anguilla with what she described as a dream, Lynch said that dream “stands complete, not because it’s ending, but because it was fully realised”.
She thanked staff and customers for “44 remarkable years”, noting that while the restaurant doors will close, the business will continue through its catering operation.
Learn more about the history of Roy’s Bayside Grill here.
