Basil Behind the bar in Mustique.

Basil Charles grew up on the island of St. Vincent, next to Mustique, and was injured in a motorcycle accident when he was young that left him in recovery for over a year.  When he finally was up and around again he moved over to the newly developing island of Mustique to see what opportunities might await.  Basil met Colin Tennant, the recently deceased Lord Glenconner, who was developing the land.  Tennant gave Basil the job of barman in the only hotel on the island, Cotton House, where Basil was a tremendous success.  Eventually, Tennant opened a stand-alone bar right on the ocean in which Basil at 29 could work his magic and named the bar in honor of its proprietor, Basil’s.  Basil’s personal life would probably be a book on its own, but to stay to the story of the bar, in 1981 several patrons, including Princess Margaret’s son, tried to buy the bar and convert it to a private club to keep the riffraff out.  Basil won out and owned the establishment keeping the friendly doors open to all. Basil came to serve cocktails to the late Princess Margaret, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Amy Winehouse, Mick Jagger, and Kate Moss, which is a unique one. (When the time came in 2011 to decide who would receive a coveted invitation to Kate and William’s royal wedding, Basil Charles made the cut.) Basil still mixes drinks at Basil’s daily, despite having sold the bar back to The Mustique Company two years ago. “You have to love what you do more than anything else to be a good host,” he muses. “When I handed over Basil’s I said, ‘For 40 years, I don’t remember a single day that I didn’t want to go to work. I’m the luckiest guy because I’m always home when I am there. Every day presents something new, I still never know who will come by.