Dress Code for Dinner

hoosiercane

SBH Member
Hello All! First trip coming up on Wed. We have some dinners planned from all your great advice! Bonito, Black Ginger, Tamarin. I have done some research but i feel no place better then this forum to ask? I am ok in shorts and a polo, or button down. Or is long pants required? \

THANKS for any and all help
 
The one place which required long pants, Le Bartolomeo at Hotel Guanahani, is still closed post-Irma. You’ll be fine.
 
I always bring 1 pair of linen trousers. I like feeling a bit dressed up between the shorts, tee shirts and bathing suits (or sans suit when the mood strikes)

Bonito or L'Isola would warrant them for me. Haven't been to Bagatelle yet but that would be another possibility.

Basically, if the Mrs. is "dressing up", I'm dressing up.

OTOH, you would not be turned away in nice shorts and a polo anywhere that I know of.

Used to be the restaurant at the Guanahani required long pants but it's closed for now.

Have fun and report back!
 
My husband always wears shorts and a polo or a golf shirt. Never pack pants. We just use mosquito spray before leaving the villa. Have fun!
 
Went to stay at The Rock House in Negril, Jamaica in '87 or so. A friend who had been to Jamaica advised me to bring a dinner jacket. Turned out to be the most bizarre advice I've ever gotten.
That said, St-Barth is a chic place. Come to L'Isola in T-shirt and shorts if your yacht is tied up at the quay and L'Isola serves as your canteen, otherwise you'll fit in better making a bit more effort. IMHO
 
I've been told that you can always pick the Americans out of a line up by the shorts they wear. I wear shorts all day long, though primarily now of the linen variety thanks to the prodding of my wife and Natalie at the 120 Lino shop.

But in the evening when I'm heading out to a nice dinner, if my wife is dressing up, I don't see why I shouldn't dress up a bit and put on a pair of linen pants. By the evening, I feel as though I have enough of the toxic cocktail of sunscreen and bug spray on my skin and after the post beach shower, I'd rather not spray myself up again. And if you think you look cooler in your cargo shorts than slacks, try a pair of linen pants in a color to compliment your partner's outfit and stand in the mirror and look at that amazing couple and say you would look better in those cargos, well then I got nothing to help you. Oh, by the way, the shorts don't keep you any cooler in my experience.

Just one well dressed guy's opinion.;)
 
Props to the guys who dress to match their wife's/partner's style. We appreciate it! :up:

My husband also wears pants. He just prefers them in general to shorts in the evening, including at home. He wears linen and regular jeans. The bug protection is a bonus. And he looks great IMHO.
 
We were on SBH for 3 wks, no long pants packed, Tamarin & Maya's didn't seem to mind nice shorts & collared shirts. Living in Bluffton, SC by Hilton Head I, very rare to see husband in long pants. When we 1st moved here, a new restaurant on HHI had dress code of long pants for men, that policy didn't last long, nor did the restaurant !
 
As you've seen from some of the posts, there are plenty of people that wear shorts at dinner there, so if you really want to wear shorts you certainly can. No one will stop you, and you won't be the only one by any means. I'm just of the mindset (at home and on vacation), unless it's a really casual place, I'm wearing pants to dinner. Personal preference.
 
We were on SBH for 3 wks, no long pants packed, Tamarin & Maya's didn't seem to mind nice shorts & collared shirts. Living in Bluffton, SC by Hilton Head I, very rare to see husband in long pants. When we 1st moved here, a new restaurant on HHI had dress code of long pants for men, that policy didn't last long, nor did the restaurant !
I had a landscape business for many years on Nantucket. We had customers who were some of the wealthiest people on the planet and also working people who lived on Nantucket. We treated all of them equally. If I promised a client we would be there on a certain day or finish on a certain day, we did everything in our power to make that happen. What people wear, where they are from, or how they talk doesn't really matter.
 
Only time I ever wear linen looong pants is on SBH & in Miami when Kathy & the other ladies say "dump the shorts." :pray1:

Stupidest sartorial goof was decades ago when I brought a pair of Levis to SBH. :tongue:
 
this thread reminds me slightly of the halcyon days of sbhonline of old. throw in some foo foo, some maya's, some dover sole and, along with the existential long pants question, we're almost there :nerd:
 
The key to all of the responses above is that you can go whichever way you want on the pants vs. nice shorts spectrum and not feel out of place or as if you will get a cross-eyed look one way or the other. For me, when I'm in St Barths, I wear long pants to just about every dinner. I also tend to go to more of the places where a higher % of men do wear pants than some of the more casual places, but it's always a mix in every resto I'm in. Linen, light weight or even a nice pair of jeans and also usually with a long sleeve shirt, but that is what I do in general when I go out for a nice dinner. I mean what else am I going to do with all of the clothes I buy at Laurent Effel????

If you don't even bring pants on your trip, no one will care or even notice. Do what you feel comfortable doing.
 
this thread reminds me slightly of the halcyon days of sbhonline of old. throw in some foo foo, some maya's, some dover sole and, along with the existential long pants question, we're almost there :nerd:

LOL, Cass! However, many who post here today have arrived post-halcyon days . . . so don’t know your references. Suffice it to say that “foo foo” is the turn of phrase that MikeR, King of poking holes in perceived pretension, hilariously left as his epithet! It’s great, of course, to have new blood coursing through our conversation! The ol’ days became pretty gritty at times. I’m grateful for the interest & enthusiasm of newly arriving members of this “team” . . . I learn something every day!
 
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