Call to the Bar: Family atmosphere at TP’s Lounge

There are more than a few drinking spots along the popular Red Hills Road thoroughfare, but TP’s Lounge is certainly a favourite.

Supervisor for the bar, Nadesha Bassaragh, said that the bar has been in operation since May 2012, and what sets them apart is that every customer is treated like family.

“We interact with our customers differently. We have a birthday club where we keep birthday parties for our customers. We cook dinner for them. We even have a Christmas dinner so whoever is home alone, they can come and enjoy the Christmas with us,” she said. “We visit the hospitals when any customer is sick. We visit them, we carry baskets, we take care of them. It’s because of them why we make money. We have a very good relationship with our customers.”

She noted that customers who come in on a Sunday also get their ‘good old Jamaican Sunday dinner’.

The lounge gets its name from the owners Garth Tapper and his wife Monica Panton-Tapper. The ‘T’ in his last name, and the ‘P’ in her maiden name explains the ‘TP’, and they are truly respected in the area.

“People love the family setting and they feel protected, because you know how Red Hills Road can be. We don’t accept certain behaviour here. The bar also stands out because it’s a Wray and Nephew bar,” she said. With the rum barrel tables and its domino and pool tables, TP’s Lounge has a certain old-school feel to it. But Bassaragh said that the drink spot attracts patrons of various ages.

“In the daytime, we have an older set but in the nights, we have the younger ones,” she said, noting that they have customers from as far as Old Harbour. “There is the round table set who love their rum and Boom. And you have a pool set. Mrs Panton-Tapper always plays pool with them.”

The bar’s place in the community is well established, and the management team uses the venue to help enrich the area.

“Whenever we have events we host tournaments (both pool and dominoes) for the communities because you know sometimes things happen,” she said.

Bassaragh explained that during these tournaments, persons from sections of the wider Red Hills Road area, like Park Lane and 100 Lane, come together.

“We try to lively up the place and give them back a strength,” she said.

There are plans to start a karaoke segment but they’re not rushing into things. Bassaragh suggests they may start that during the Christmas holidays as persons are usually more ‘merry’ during the Yuletide season.