Anegada Beach Club Wins Best Lobster Sampler
Anegada Beach Club has been voted the winner of the 2025 Best Lobster Sampler Competition at the Anegada Lobster Festival after festivalgoers chose its Drunken Lobster Kebab and Spicy Fried Lobster Mac & Cheese as the crowd favourites. The win — announced by BVI Food Fete on Facebook and confirmed by local media — comes with the honour of hosting the spiny lobster sculpture handcrafted by Aragorn Dick-Read of Aragorn Studios. Organisers say the annual festival, which ran Friday, November 28 to Sunday, November 30, continues to spotlight Anegada’s lobster heritage while supporting local businesses and sustainable practices.
Anegada Beach Club has been crowned the winner of the 2025 Best Lobster Sampler Competition following the weekend’s tasting and public vote at the 2025 Anegada Lobster Festival. The festival ran from Friday, November 28 to Sunday, November 30 and brought cooks, fishers, vendors and visitors together to celebrate Anegada’s signature spiny lobster.
A sampler competition among participating restaurants gave guests the chance to taste small-plate creations and vote for their favourite, a format noted in reporting by Guavaberry. Anegada Beach Club stole the show with a two-item sampler: a Drunken Lobster Kebab and a Spicy Fried Lobster Mac & Cheese.
Those dishes captured the popular vote and earned the club the top spot among the competing venues. BVI Food Fete announced the result on its Facebook page with the post, “YOU have spoken!” (source: VINO), and local media coverage confirmed the win. Guavaberry quoted a representative from the BVI Tourist Board congratulating the team, saying, “A huge congratulations to the team at Anegada Beach Club, who will become the new home of the spiny lobster sculpture handcrafted by Aragorn Dick-Read of Aragorn Studios.” As part of the prize, Anegada Beach Club will now display the distinctive spiny lobster sculpture crafted by Aragorn Dick-Read — a visible symbol of culinary achievement at the festival.
The sculpture has become a sought-after trophy among businesses that take part in the annual event. The 2025 Anegada Lobster Festival was produced by the British Virgin Islands Tourist Board & Film Commission (BVITBFC) in collaboration with the Anegada community. Organisers say the event not only showcases local culinary talent but also helps support small restaurants, pop-up stalls and fishers whose livelihoods are tied to the island’s lobster fishery.
For residents, the festival is more than a food contest: it is an important community gathering that highlights Anegada’s culture and natural assets while drawing attention from visitors during the busy winter season. Public voting allows both islanders and visitors to have a direct say in who takes home festival honours, a feature that organisers and local leaders emphasise as central to the event’s spirit.
This year’s sampler competition featured stiff competition from a range of creative dishes, but the bold flavour pairing from Anegada Beach Club won over the crowd. Festival organisers and community leaders reiterated their commitment to celebrating Anegada’s lobster heritage responsibly and supporting sustainable fishing and tourism practices.
Plans and details for the next festival will be announced by the BVITBFC and community partners in due course, with organisers saying they are already looking ahead to build on the success of this year’s weekend of tasting, rating and live entertainment.
Primary source: VINO