FROM CANDYLAND TO TREEHOUSE
Over 50 Years of Beach Life at Fort James
In 1974, Yvonne “Candy” Pilgrim opened Candyland on Fort James Beach. Famous for her food, Wednesday pepperpot, live music and a welcome that brought together everyone from local families to Antigua's political leaders, Candy created a Fort James institution. More than half a century later, Treehouse Beach Club is writing the next chapter on the same piece of beach.
Some businesses begin with a business plan.
Treehouse began with a place.
And a story that started more than half a century before the Treehouse of today.
In 1974, Yvonne Pilgrim, known to almost everybody simply as Candy, opened a little beach bar on Fort James Beach.
She called it Candyland.
It wasn't a polished Caribbean resort concept.
It was something much more Antiguan.
A locally owned beach bar beside the Caribbean Sea where you could come for a drink, find something good to eat, listen to live music and quite easily end up staying much longer than you intended.
Over the decades, Candyland became part of the fabric of Fort James.
And Candy became an institution herself.
It started with Candy
The story of Candyland is really the story of the woman behind it.
Candy wasn't simply the owner.
She was the cook, host and personality at the centre of the place.
People came to see her.
They came for the atmosphere.
And they certainly came for the food.
Candy became known as an exceptional local cook, and one dish in particular developed a following of its own:
Pepperpot.
Every Wednesday was Pepperpot Wednesday.
It became a Candyland tradition.
People would travel from across Antigua to Fort James knowing what Candy would be cooking that day.
A pot of Antiguan pepperpot.
Something cold to drink.
The beach outside.
And whoever happened to walk through the door.
For many people, that was Wednesday.
Pepperpot Wednesdays
There's something we love about the simplicity of it.
No elaborate concept.
No marketing campaign.
No booking platform.
Wednesday meant pepperpot.
And people knew.
Candy's reputation as a cook travelled far beyond Fort James.
Locals came.
Visitors came.
People working in St John's came.
Friends brought friends.
And over the years, Pepperpot Wednesday became one of those informal Antiguan traditions that existed because people kept returning.
Food has always had that power here.
It brings people around a table who might otherwise have very little reason to meet.
And at Candyland, an extraordinary variety of Antigua seems to have met.
Where Antigua gathered
Candy told us something that changes how we understand Candyland.
Over the five decades she operated at Fort James, Antiguan prime ministers and members of parliament were frequent visitors.
They didn't necessarily arrive for formal functions.
They came to Candy's.
They ate.
They drank.
They stayed.
And they mixed with everybody else.
Candy recalls Antigua's prime ministers across the decades visiting her premises, alongside parliamentarians, locals, visitors and people who had simply come down to Fort James for the day.
That tells you something important about the place.
Candyland wasn't exclusive.
But it mattered.
There are establishments that become important because they're expensive.
Others because they're fashionable.
And then there are places that become important because everybody feels comfortable there.
Candyland belonged to the third category.
At Candy's, status could be left at the door.
There was food.
There was drink.
There was music.
There was conversation.
And there was Candy.
And there was always music
Candyland wasn't only known for its food.
Live music was part of its identity.
For decades, musicians played on this little stretch of Fort James Beach.
People ate.
People drank.
People danced.
People talked.
Sometimes they probably came for lunch and discovered that afternoon had somehow become evening.
The idea of music beneath the trees at Fort James therefore didn't begin with Treehouse.
It was here long before us.
That's important.
Because when we think about what Treehouse can become, we aren't trying to manufacture a culture for this location.
We're building on one that already existed.
A proper Antiguan beach bar
Old visitor accounts of Candyland reinforce Candy's recollections.
People remember a simple shack directly on Fort James Beach, inexpensive cold beer, local food, rum punch and the kind of informal hospitality that is almost impossible to manufacture deliberately.
One traveller remembered Candy keeping customers' running tabs in an old-fashioned composition notebook. Another discussion specifically remembers Wednesday lunchtime at Candy's for pepperpot, describing it as an authentically local experience.
That wasn't a hospitality concept.
It was just hospitality.
And there's a difference.
Candyland wasn't pretending to be Antiguan.
It was Antiguan.
1974
It's worth stopping on that date.
1974.
More than fifty years ago.
Antigua and Barbuda would not become an independent nation until 1981.
Tourism looked very different.
St John's looked different.
Fort James looked different.
The beach-club industry as we know it today barely existed.
Yet Candy was already here.
Cooking.
Serving drinks.
Playing music.
Welcoming people to Fort James.
Year after year.
Prime ministers changed.
Governments changed.
Hotels opened.
Tourism expanded.
Antigua changed.
Candyland remained.
And somewhere along the way, what began as a little locally owned beach bar became part of the story of Fort James itself.
Then came Treehouse
Eventually, places change.
Candyland ceased operating in the form generations of customers remembered.
But the location didn't disappear.
The beach was still here.
The trees Candy planted were still here.
Fort James was still watching over the entrance to St John's Harbour.
And perhaps most importantly, the idea that this should be somewhere people gather was still here.
That's where Treehouse Beach Club begins.
Not with the idea that we should erase what existed before us and replace it with something shiny and new.
Quite the opposite.
The question became:
What should the next chapter of this place look like?
From Candyland to Treehouse
Treehouse isn't Candyland.
Nor should we pretend it is.
We're building something for a different generation.
The ambition is bigger.
We want somewhere families can spend an entire day.
Somewhere visitors can experience Antigua beyond the walls of their hotel.
Somewhere locals genuinely want to go.
Somewhere chefs can create.
Artists can exhibit.
Musicians can perform.
Children can play.
Friends can meet.
People can eat properly.
And somebody can arrive for lunch and somehow still be sitting beneath the trees at sunset.
But as Treehouse evolves, there are some things we don't want to lose.
The welcome.
The food.
The music.
The mixing of people.
The sense that everybody belongs.
Those things were here before Treehouse.
Candy put them here.
Eat. Drink. Play. Rest.
Today we express the Treehouse idea in four words:
EAT. DRINK. PLAY. REST.
But look at Candyland's history and perhaps those ideas aren't quite as new as we thought.
People came to Candyland to eat.
They came to drink.
They came for live music.
They came to meet people.
They came to spend time beside the sea.
And they stayed because they felt comfortable.
Treehouse is simply interpreting those ideas for another generation.
Better facilities.
A broader food and drink programme.
Cabanas and loungers.
Family spaces.
Events.
Art.
Chefs.
Music.
Experiences.
But underneath all of that sits something much simpler.
Give people a reason to come. Then create a place that makes them want to stay.
Candy had already worked that out.
Keeping it Antiguan
There's a temptation when developing a Caribbean beachfront location to polish everything until eventually it could be anywhere.
Miami.
Mykonos.
Dubai.
Ibiza.
Cannes.
Insert palm tree.
That's not what we want Treehouse to become.
We want it to get better.
The food should get better.
The service should get better.
The facilities should get better.
The experiences should get better.
But becoming better shouldn't require becoming less Antiguan.
Candyland is a reminder of that.
Local food matters.
Local musicians matter.
Steel pan matters.
The history of Fort James matters.
The people who have used this beach for generations matter.
And the stories of the people who came before us matter.
Treehouse didn't discover Fort James.
We inherited a place that already meant something.
Under the Leaves isn't actually a new idea
That brings us to Saturday.
Every Saturday, Treehouse changes with the light.
Breakfast.
Beach.
Lunch.
Swimming.
Cocktails.
Friends arriving.
Spectacular sunsets.
Steel pan.
Entertainment.
Live bands.
DJs.
Dancing beneath the trees.
Until 3am.
We call it Under the Leaves.
Our ambition is for it to become one of those Antiguan traditions that people build their weekend around.
Sunday has Shirley Heights.
We want people eventually to know:
Saturday? Treehouse.
But here's the beautiful part.
The more we learn about Candyland, the more we realise that bringing live music, food, drink and people together at Fort James isn't a new idea at all.
Candy was doing it decades before us.
We're not inventing the tradition.
We're continuing it.
Perhaps Pepperpot Wednesday should live again
And there's one tradition we think deserves another chapter.
Pepperpot Wednesday.
For years, people travelled across Antigua for Candy's pepperpot.
It became part of Candyland.
So rather than allowing that story to exist only in people's memories, perhaps it should occasionally return to the beach where it began.
Not as an imitation.
And certainly not without Candy.
But perhaps one day there is a table at Treehouse.
A pot in the kitchen.
Candy beside it.
And another generation discovers why people used to travel across Antigua to Fort James every Wednesday.
Some traditions deserve to be remembered.
Others deserve to be served again.
Same beach. Another generation.
There is now a remarkable timeline on this little stretch of Antigua.
Above us sits Fort James, guarding the harbour for more than three centuries.
Below it, in 1974, Candy opened Candyland.
For more than half a century, people came here to eat, drink, listen to music, meet friends and spend time beside the Caribbean Sea.
And today, Treehouse occupies the same piece of beach.
Different generation.
Different business.
Different ambitions.
But perhaps not such a different idea.
Because after all the buildings, menus, events and branding are stripped away, hospitality is still fundamentally about the same thing:
Bringing people together.
Candy understood that.
We're trying to make sure Treehouse never forgets it.
The story continues
Treehouse isn't the beginning of this story.
It's simply where the story is now.
We're building new traditions.
Under the Leaves.
The Chef Series.
The Art Series.
The Music Series.
Family beach days.
Long lunches.
Sunsets.
Those afternoons that weren't supposed to become evenings.
But we're building them on a place that already had a soul.
And we think that's worth protecting.
1974 → Candyland → Treehouse → What's Next?
For more than 50 years, people have gathered on this little corner of Fort James Beach.
Candy started something special here in 1974.
We're proud to be the current custodians of that tradition.
And hopefully, fifty years from now, someone will be sitting beneath these trees telling the next part of the story.
Different generations. Different names. Same beach. Same spirit.
The story continues.
Treehouse Beach Club
Fort James Beach, Antigua
EAT. DRINK. PLAY. REST.
Antigua, the island way.