The island is not a place created for the needs of sunset-special diners; there are few stores or restaurants, it is accessible only by ferry and plagued by power blackouts, rampaging deer and Lyme ticks, all local badges of hardy courage.
On those special evenings, diners who crowd into the place do not linger.
They are special because diners don't have to eat at 4 30 p.m. Plus, both are top-drawer places with exceptional food.
The Atoll offers multi-ethnic buffet choices for breakfast and supper, and at the spa, the Mandhoo serves food based on the four elements, and for a special treat, diners in the Ithaa Undersea restaurant enjoy their meals with fish swimming all around its "aquarium" walls.
And like Ciao Bello, my restaurant would include in every menu a printed specials list, because I wouldn't want servers spending their time re-repeating specials and diners spending their time trying to reconstruct the list.
She greets patrons with obvious enjoyment and warmth, and spends most of the evening circling the dining room in her chef's whites, explaining the specials, applauding diners' choices and giving a bit of history about her menu creations.
(Diners with special diets will dine here very well indeed).
Early diners' special: order dinner by 6 30 p.m. and get a free bottle of wine.
But about a month ago, he said, "we went to a two- to three-pound lobster special" because fewer diners wanted to pay $116 for a lobster, which was what a four-pound one cost.
For a much livelier buzz, reserve at Pakhuis (Schuurkenstraat 4; 00 3299 223 5555), a vast industrial space converted into a bustling brasserie specialising in huge oyster and seafood platters, while a very special evening awaits diners at the House of Eliott (Jan Breydelstraat 36; 00 3299 225 2128), a wonderfully camp restaurant decked out in 1920s antiques.
The fiery eruptions of the age of the black power movement are reflected only obliquely in the down-home debate and storytelling that is the daily special at the diner owned by Memphis (Frankie Faison) in the Hill District of Pittsburgh.
