Back to the Future
“We loved the architectural bones of the building. It had a 60s motel vibe to it. As Rockhouse had the rustic vibe, we went with that; at the beach, the bones had a modern, 60s style to it, so we were inspired by that.” But, he concurs with Glazer, “we had to chop back a fair amount to get to those bones.” As much as possible was made in Rockhouse’s own woodworking shop next to its organic farm.
Finally, they added smart, simple contemporary furniture that flows nicely from the earlier era but feels very much of today. Inside the rooms, there are bulletin boards instead of televisions, to accommodate guests’ pinned inspirations and postcards, as in some Doris Day movie. Architect Jean Henri Morin, a French transplant to Australia, where he met the Rockhouse partners, says of the style, “It’s a trend at the moment. It was the last period of romanticism in architecture. But everything’s a
Skylark will also be home to a Miss Lily’s, the hip downtown New York Jamaican restaurant owned by the same group, which has recently also opened a Dubai outpost. This clever decision should bring in incremental business from its loyal fans. “We hope that’s the case,” says Salmon. “They do have a love for Jamaican food, culture and vibes.”
Head partner Salmon, an Australian-turned New Yorker, had college side jobs in bars and restaurants which left him with an affection for hospitality, and on a trip to Jamaica in the early 90s that took him to every part of the island via minibus, he started to think a hotel in Negril might be an attractive proposition. At that time, hotels in the resort town were mostly either big cookie-cutter all-
“I had fallen in love with Jamaica by that point; not only the