Agua Restaurant & Lounge has just moved to an exciting new location! After eight and a half years in Galleria Plaza, Agua owners Walter Fajette and Cristiano Vincentini, felt it was time for a change. On April 28, Agua closed its doors at the Galleria Plaza and in June reopened in a new location at Camana Bay, in the space formerly occupied by Ortanique restaurant. As this month’s Passenger Pick of the Month, we wanted to learn more about the new digs, as well as the story behind Agua, so recently we caught up with owners Walter and Cristiano.
PP: After so many years of amazing success in the Galleria Plaza location, why move?
WF: We just felt it was time to make a change. The Galleria Plaza was good to us, but our new location on the Crescent in 
Camana Bay opens up so many more opportunities. We are quite excited about our new location and our new vibe. You’ll notice that all the furnishings, décor, equipment are new! We wanted the indoor dining room to be attractive and welcoming. That’s where most of our investment went.
PP: Well it is spectacular! Beautiful new location, new look and a new vibe.
WF: We sold the all the furnishings and equipment with the Galleria Plaza location, so we put quite a bit of effort into selecting the new look and feel.
PP: We really love it, the aqua colors, the water theme. Fantastic. Tell us more about the new opportunities you see with this new location.
WF: Back in December 2014 we opened our second restaurant, Catch, at Morgan’s Harbor. And we’ve learned a lot about being on the water, having an ocean view, and the ocean breeze. When you’re on the ocean, you appeal to a different clientele. Here in Camana Bay, we’re on “the
Crescent”, with indoor seating as well as seating along the harbor.
CF: We expected the harbor front seating to be popular in the cooler and drier winter months, but we’re already filling the outside seating this summer. Of course, when rains, we know our guests will want to be inside. And there they’ll find our newly renovated interior, crisp and clean with more light and better flow than it had previously.
WF: While the location and the look has changed, much of what made Agua successful is not changing.
PP: So let’s talk about that. What really made Agua is the phenomenal food, drinks and service. Walter, you and Cris became friends while working as waiters at Calypso Grill, and then back in 2009 you two Italian guys decide to take the leap and open Agua, but this never has felt like a typical Italian restaurant. Tell us about it.
WF: We like to expand beyond Italian. We revamped our logo to show our seafood theme. There are a lot of Italian restaurants in Cayman, but they’re not seafood restaurants. Peruvian-style ceviche is one of our specialities that we’ve carried over to our new location. So we say that Agua is a seafood restaurant rooted in Italian tradition, and inspired by Peruvian cuisine.
PP: You have been long known for your outstanding, fresh seafood for a while now. How did that develop?
WF: We always believed quality is the key of any restaurant’s success. We always buy the freshest local catch or the top quality from the market.
PP: You mentioned your Peruvian-style ceviche. It’s outstanding! In fact, we understand you were the first to bring it to Cayman, 
so thanks! You have a variety of backgrounds in your chefs, how do you design your menu?
WF: Cris and I are the creators of our menu. The reason why we have such a multiethnic kitchen is because this allows us to come up with many different authentic dishes, done by the chef with the right experience. One example is the ceviche: we wanted to have ceviches on our menu but in the beginning we were not happy and we decided to hire a Peruvian chef (ceviche is Peru’s national dish) and now we think we have the best ceviche on island.
CV: It’s exciting because the menu is always evolving. We established ourselves with some “must haves” on the menu and 
these items will not change; however we are constantly tweaking the menu: adding new dishes and maybe taking out some dishes that we do not feel work so well. Collaboration between all the chefs is the key for the creation of our dinner menu.
PP: And our favorite is your Tuna tartar. It’s delicious! Who heads up your kitchen?
CV: Agua’s executive chef is R.J. Dye. He learned his craft in Charleston, South Carolina, with menus focused on seasonal local ingredients. The farm-to-table scenario is where he came from. Our kitchen makes its own pasta at our new location, avoiding inexpensive commercial ingredients and using organic flours and a hand-operated pasta machine.
PP: Tell us about your team, your staff. They seem to share your same unique sense of warmth and hospitality.
WF: That’s very important to us. We’re very proud of our staff, many of our guys have been with us since the start. When we hire new people we want to make sure they understand our ideas. If we think they wouldn’t fit with the rest of the team, we don’t hire them. Competition is continually getting tougher in Cayman’s restaurant business, but, judging by our happy customers, we think we are on the right track at Agua. We have an outstanding team who are so excited about our new location, new equipment, new furnishings, and new vibe.
PP: You do have an outstanding team. So friendly, so helpful, so excellent focused. Tell us about what you’ve done with drinks and beverages at Agua.
WF: Agua was one of the first restaurants in the Cayman Islands to embrace the craft cocktail culture and that has carried over to our new location. Agua also has one of the better wine lists on Grand Cayman and is one of the few restaurants on the island that has multiple sommeliers on staff. We are increasing the wine inventory, so the wine service is even better now at Camana Bay.
PP: Will you still continue to host various events like the popular Sommelier Standoff dinner series?
WF: We certainly will. The Sommelier Standoff is where we have wine dinners, where two Sommelier’s from various Restaurants or Companies on Island compete with each other, pairing two different wines with each course that Chef Dye creates. The customers pick the wine that they feel is best paired with the course and at the end of the dinner, the winner advances to the next stand-off. It has been a great success. If you are on Island, you do not want to miss this!
CV: Agua was added to World Class 50 best places drinking guide and we are very proud of it. Agua’s page wine menu has won annual Wine Spectator awards of 
excellence and have been carefully selected and compiled by our Master Sommelier. In fact Agua has just been awarded the Wine Spectator Two Glass Award again, for 2018.
PP: It’s so encouraging to see you receiving this kind of recognition. Count us as some of your most loyal fans!
CV: To show how important our customers are, Agua provides every day a full Gluten Free, Vegetarian and Vegan Menu. To assure that top level of customer service, one of the two of us is always here. People know they can talk directly to us. When we opened in 2009, people thought we were crazy, but we’re happy to keep doing what we’re doing, and now in a beautiful water-front location. We want Agua to be the place you come to sit, stay a while and have a great time. The goal is to create great food, and for people to leave happy.
PP: And from what our passenger’s continue to tell us, they certainly are!