FROM THE BEGINNING

It’s a long story… The story started with Karakter. Karakter is born and raised on Sint Maarten. The idea for a Caribbean beach bar focusing on quality and service where the guest is leading came in 2006.

Karakter has been operating since June 2008. The creators (Jorrit Heekelaar and Marleen Gerritsen) had the dream to start a beach bar and restaurant in the Caribbean and they choose Simpson Bay Beach on Sint Maarten to realize this dream.

With a minimum of funds they bought an old school bus on the island, converted this into a bar/kitchen and they leased an abandoned beachfront property. This is a short version of a very long process, but, with a lot of hard work and patience, Karakter opened its “bus windows” on June, 11th 2008.

STARTED SMALL, BUT STILL GROWING

From a very small company with just the owners as employees, Karakter grew in three years time, into a full service beach bar and restaurant. Having a lot of French customers from French St Martin, Karakter is very much influenced by a french touch.

The success of a relative simple Caribbean beach bar, but with high service standards and high quality food turned out to be the right choice. So why shouldn’t we create more of these places?

SECOND LOCATION: CURACAO

Curacao became Karakter’s second location. Karakter is always located on unique, quiet and beautiful locations, where no other restaurants are situated. Coral Estate is definitely a location which meets these criteria.

Karakter is up and running on Curacao since april 2012 and has become one of Curacao’s leading beach restaurants… But Karakter was missing something… Jorrit Heekelaar: “A nice and cozy bar is something we miss at Karakter. Of course, we do have a bar and nice bartenders, but it’s not really that typical bar where you meet each other and have a drink combined with a small snack.

THE NEW CONCEPT

We want to fill the gap with a new concept: Koraal Rooftop Terrace with an infinity pool right next to it. There will be a close link with Karakter, but Koraal Rooftop Terrace will certainly gets its own identity.”

ROOFTOP BAR

The rooftop bar should become the meeting point for Coral Estate Centre, but also for the entire resort and visitors. The bar is in the center, literally and figuratively. “With the developing team of Coral Estate we work with architects Thijs Giskes (Invictus) from Curaçao and Gerard Plug (Maas Architects) from the Netherlands. Together we have designed a beautiful horseshoe-shaped bar. The bar is in the center surrounded by nice tables, sofas and cozy lounge corners. The 270 degrees sea view makes this location unique, you’ll have a sea view from every seat. It is like a rooftop deluxe!”: Heekelaar says enthusiastically.

Bar likely, the focus in this concept will be on the drinks. Obviously in a stylish, high-quality way. In addition, guests can order little snacks. For the long term, the aim is to also organize theme nights. “Think of a Caribbean evening, a sushi night or maybe sometimes simply a Dutch stew buffet…”