Bananas

Bananas Review

Peripatetic English owner Gillian Smith has held jobs with Disney and Relais & Châteaux, and everything about Bananas (read lovably nuts) borrows from her wildly diverse experiences. Even the setting is delightfully deceptive: the classic stone, brick, and wood plantation greathouse nestled amid extravagant gardens was painstakingly built by Gillian herself in 2006. Her fun, funky, shabby-chic sensibility informs every aspect of the restaurant. The colonial look (pith helmets, steamer trunks, beamed ceiling, white wicker, chandeliers dangling from the corrugated tin roof) contrasts with Turkish kilims, Moroccan lamps, and whimsical touches like a lighted tailor's dummy and antique tennis rackets. The food is equally eclectic and globe-trotting, running from bourbon-glazed ribs to lobster tails with pineapple-ginger salsa. Despite the improvisational ambience, there's no monkeying around with quality at Bananas.