After months of closure, Café Olé at Crystal Caves is under new management.

The restaurant is now leased by Ronita Teye-Botchway and chef Sudesh Kontahelage, of the Eatery Ltd. The name, Café Olé, belongs to Crystal Caves.

The Eatery Ltd had a soft opening there on Friday.

“We were apprehensive because we did not have everything yet,” Ms Teye-Botchway said. “I said if we don’t do it, we will just keep putting it off. Sometimes you just have to take that step and go in faith.”

Things went better than expected despite the steady rain on launch day.

They are still getting the word out there, but business has been steadily building.

The Eatery Ltd began as a meeting of minds between Ms Teye-Botchway and Mr Kontahelage. They have been friends for years.

“Sudesh used to be the executive chef at Tom Moore’s Tavern,” she said. “He always told his boss that he wanted to branch out and do something different.”

Meanwhile, she wanted to follow in her family’s footsteps and start a restaurant. Her parents, Sheila and Sinclair Reid, ran Reid’s Restaurant on Mullett Bay Road in St George’s for many years.

“My mother was well known for her pastries, pies, apple tarts and fish sandwiches,” Ms Teye-Botchway said. “She also made snowballs from scratch. She catered to a lot of tourists, and even a few presidents. She was popular.”

Ms Teye-Botchway and her siblings often helped in the restaurant.

“It put us through college,” she said.

Her mother, Mrs Reid, died six years ago.

The menu at Café Olé is starting out small, but will eventually grow to include Reid-inspired pastries and pies, as well as pizza.

“I am going step by step,” Mr Kontahelage said. “I don’t want to release the full menu until I get to know the tastes of my customers.”

He was born in Sri Lanka, and spent the early part of his career working in Italy. He came to Bermuda ten years ago and has worked at Tom Moore’s Tavern and Tucker’s Point, both in Hamilton Parish.

Ms Teye-Botchway handles the café administration.

“I am doing all the accounting and trying to get things established,” she said.

She does know how to cook, but joked that she is not allowed in Mr Kontahelage’s kitchen.

Asked what her favourite item was on the menu, she described herself as a “salad queen”.

The chef said, so far, a lot of customers like their kale Caesar salad with homemade dressing. Their fish sandwich is also gaining attention. They have only been open a few days but they are already seeing customers coming multiple times for fish sandwiches.

They also offer fruit smoothies.

“I don’t put any sugar in them, just honey,” Mr Kontahelage said.

One of their challenges, so far, has been learning the point of sales system. They have also found it hard to hire local staff. They have six staff members at the moment including a pastry chef.

“So far, we are 70 per cent local,” Mr Kontahelage said.

Ms Teye-Botchway also runs the Bermuda International Institute of Ophthalmology at 129 Front Street in Hamilton.

Her husband, ophthalmologist Leonard Teye-Botchway, died in 2019.

Her sons, Addon and Addi, are overseas studying ophthalmology, while her son Adlai works in the restaurant.

Crystal Caves management asked the previous restaurateur, Stefano Barioni, to leave in March when his fish sandwich brought in so many customers that the parking lot became congested.