Tino’s not sticking

Tino’s restaurant and Sports Bar is the new talk or walk of the town, Scarborough that is.
The brainchild of Tobago businessman Adrian Martineau and his wife, Esther, the quaint two-storey wooden sprawl is the newest addition to the downtown area and has stamped its presence with panache.
Opened just over two months ago, the couple is jostling for room in an area dotted with four other restaurants, including a popular fast food outlet.
No stranger to the Tobago business fraternity, Martineau, who has been operating the Martineau’s Transport and Tractor Services construction company for the past twenty- six years, said that his new venture has found a sweet spot.
He has no fears about Tino’s losing its novelty, since it caters for both the young and old.
But the couple is, however, quick to point out that Tino’s is not just another eatery and caters for a diverse range of customer’s tastes.

He explained that while most businesses on the island catered for the taste of tourists, Tino’s wanted to try a new tack. The TT$1.7M venture was built firmly around the decision to provide Tobagonians with “a nice and relaxing ambience that won’t cost them an arm and a leg to enjoy,” he said.
Still, it’s slowly becoming a watering hole for tourists. Make no mistake, the pastel-coloured cottage-style building, which was designed by Martineau and was built in six months, has been reeling in tourists.
Most of them who observe the paintings on the road and “follow what they see,” is how Mr Martinau put it.
The open-air facility, which opens it doors to customers from “6.30 am - until,” offers customers the luxury of dining in air-conditioned comfort or under umbrellas in its expansive yard.
With murals of the island’s culture and history such as the Buccoo Reef and excerpts of the Tobago Heritage Festival plastered on its walls, it brings home the couple’s originiality. On any given day, persons can just walk off Wilson Road in Scarborough, sit down and sample the indigenous Tobago cuisine that is prepared “from the heads” of the local chefs, he said.
Customers, too, can relax with a beverage of their choice while looking out at the busy street or just be entertained by any of the five television sets.
The building, which caters for the physically challenged, can hold up to six hundred people and comes with a pool hall and an entertainment area, where some of the country’s popular calypsonians have already thrilled visitors on the weekly Friday evening cool down and grill lime.
Attendants have also been placed at both entrances — on Wilson Road and Dutch Fort — to assist patrons in any way that they can.
The entrepreneurs have also signalled to business people that the place is ideal for conferences and meetings. Reservations have been accepted for business meetings, which can be held in the patio area on the top floor of the building, Martineau said.
“My business is without prejudice,” he said in an interview. “It is for everyone to enjoy despite race, religion, finance or anything else that may seperate us from each other.”

He boasts that the prices are the same — whether you choose to sit in the open air or in an air-conditioned comfort.
He added that while there was no dresscode in effect, “ we try to encourage discipline that will generate a sense of comfort among our guests.”
There are plans, he said, to use Tino’s as a springboard for local talent by holding a weekly amateur night and for which they will also be paid. Martineau explained that one stumbling block to this has been the ridiculous fees being requested.
Tino’s is still being tweaked though. The eye-catching building will be fully completed in about a month’s time, when it will consist of a bar and a restaurant on the top floor where customers will be able to dine with a bird’s eye view.