The Stone Balloon
The Stone Balloon was a restaurant in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands founded in 1960 by George Sedlmayr, a former Naval aviator and Eastern Airlines pilot from Long Island and his wife Jean Compo Sedlmayr, a former Conover model. Located at 1 Queen's Cross Street, in Christainsted, it was a gathering place for residents and visitors alike. Originally, just the bar area was open. Soon afterwards, the Club Room was created. Square black tables with poker lights overhead and captain's chairs provided the setting for chess, backgammon games or bridge games. Occasionally, there were even pick-up-sticks games. The ticker tape, picked up at the Merrill Lynch office at closing, hung from a clipboard on the wall. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as other newspapers and numerous magazines, were available, as were books in a lending library. One special area was the club table, a long low wooden table with ten chairs around it. It was a place where people who were on their own could sit, meet other people, catch up on the news or just read the paper or a book. The last addition was the Garden. In the center of the courtyard of the old Danish building was a large mango tree, surrounded by banana trees, a pomegranate tree and flowering shrubs. Set in the garden were wooden tables and captain's chairs where people could eat dinner under the stars in the balmy air of the tropical nights.
Smitty manned the bar and was known for being able to remember a person's name and their drink when they walked in, even if they hadn't been to the island for a couple of years. He was also a top cricket player. The Williams Clementine, along with her husband Walter and her sister Eileen, kept the kitchen going, their daughter Sheryl was there often. The waitresses, nicknamed "Balloon girls", were often local school teachers during the day. On the menu were Stone Balloon hamburgers, steak sandwiches, club, sirloin and tenderloin steaks, and chicken, as well as baked potatoes served with sour cream and chives, and salad. Later fresh fish, bought at the docks from the sport fishing boats when they came in, was added to the menu. For dessert, there were brownies, ice cream with hot chocolate sauce, and cheesecake.
The four Sedlmayr children living on St. Croix worked in the business, from picking up blocks of ice at the ice house down the street and chopping it into ice cubes (before there were ice machines there), to managing the place when their parents were on vacation.
Forbes Virgin Islands Cruising Guide, 1970, listed The Stone Balloon as one of only four restaurants they mentioned on St. Croix. They called it "one of the most popular eating and drinking spots in Christiansted for yachtsmen as well as locals."
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