Bottle Blue

Restaurant recreates the
colors of The Caribbean sea
in its design details.

By bottling the blues of the sea and sky in aspects of its interior design, Agua restaurant serves a sensory cocktail to delight its diners.

The eatery recently moved to Camana Bay, where the location overlooking the canal allows the light to be leveraged to great artistic effect.

Panels of glass, replicating the bottoms of wine bottles in shimmying shades of blue, filter the sunlight as it floods into the dining room and bar, creating an ethereal aesthetic.

And the statement piece of the décor, a chandelier created from dozens of empty blue wine bottles, ripples above an expansive wooden dining table designed to seat large groups of guests.

“We intended to replicate the colors of the sea and sky outside, which are so beautiful in the Cayman Islands,” says Cristiano Vincentini, who owns the restaurant along with business partner Walter Fajette. “We also wanted an attractive interior so that people don’t just want to sit outside, but to come in and enjoy being inside, too, especially in wet weather.”

Blue touches

Other blue touches in the restaurant include lights, candles, stools, chairs and a large painting of the sea. All these tones tie in with the name of the restaurant which, in Spanish, means “water.”

“We designed the restaurant ourselves, with everything custom-made in Hong Kong,” explains Cristiano, who says he has “traveling in his blood” and took inspiration from designs he has seen on his adventures.

Interior fixtures and furnishings for the eatery were then shipped to the Cayman Islands and assembled on-site.

The chandelier was sent in pieces, with a local electrician painstakingly putting it together one bottle at a time.

Describing Agua as an international seafood restaurant offering upscale dining, Cristiano says the menu also has Italian influences and Peruvian “soul.”

Both he and Walter, who are originally from Italy, love food from across the world, especially Peru, but didn’t want Agua to be defined as serving one type of cuisine.

They have, however, given a nod to their home country with marble-look tiles around the bar.

Modern lines

The restaurant also features clean, modern lines, without table cloths, curtains, or fussy accessories.

Behind the bar area, the owners have chosen digital artwork with sea-scenes depicted on electronic screens, which serve the double-purpose of illuminating what would otherwise be a dark corner.

The dining section with the glass-bottle chandelier also has a huge, walk-in wine cellar around six feet deep, and the whole area can be sectioned off for private parties.

It’s not just the daylight hues of blue that attract diners to Agua; the restaurant shimmers with an atmospheric aquatic-glow after dark, too.

“The colors are fantastic at night-time, there’s a really nice light inside,” says Cristiano. “Looking in from the outside, it’s all lit up. It’s very attractive.”