Story on the origination of Cheeseburger in Paradise

Nearly 30 year since Jimmy Buffett sang its praises, several Caribbean restaurants still claim to have inspired the legendary "Cheeseburger in Paradise." According to margaritaville.com, Buffett and crew were on a boat rip gone awry, subsisting on canned food and peanut butter before limping into port on Tortola. Famished, the group ordred cheeseburgers from a local beach bar, which arrived overdone on burnt buns. Nevertheless, they inspired Buffett's 1978 hit.

Today St. Barts' Le Select and Ma Ruby's Restaurant in the Bahamas claim to be the originators of the burger - with lettuce, tomato, Heinz 57, fries and a kosher pickle. But Stanley's Welcome Bar and Restaurant on Tortola has the most legitimate claim to fame.

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Buffett: "The myth of the cheeseburger in paradise goes back to a long trip on my first boat, the Euphoria. We had run into some very rough weather crossing the Mona Passage between Hispanola and Puerto Rico, and broke our new bowsprit. The ice in our box had melted, and we were doing the canned-food-and-peanut-butter diet. The vision of a piping hot cheeseburger kept popping into my mind. We limped up the Sir Francis Drake Channel and into Roadtown on the island of Tortola, where a brand new marina and bar sat on the end of the dock like a mirage. We secured the boat, kissed the ground, and headed for the restaurant. To our amazement, we were offered a menu that featured an American cheeseburger and pina coladas. Now, these were the days when supplies were scarce - when horsemeat was more plentiful than ground beef in the tiny stores of the Third World. Anyway, we gave particular instructions to the waiter on how we wanted them cooked, and what we wanted on them - to which very little attention was paid. It didn't matter. The overdone burgers on the burned, toast buns tasted like manna from Heaven, for, they were the realization of my fantasy burgers on the trip. That's the true story. I've heard other people and places claim that I stopped or cooked in their restaurants, but that is the way it happened."

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