Jewel Landy went looking for a house and ended up with a supper club.

Paradise Lounge is located in the old White Sands Hotel in Paget.

It took a few twists before the 53-year-old found it.

“Usually people have stuff inside of them but never go after it — that’s not me,” she said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t but at least I tried it.”

For 25 years she’d been busy with her dentistry practice, Smiles By Landy.

A realtor showed her the hotel on White Sands Road last year after Ms Landy finally confessed she wasn’t interested in the many homes they’d viewed.

“I told her I really wanted a rest home,” she said. “I’d been interested in starting one up ever since college; my father’s in one. She took me up to the hotel and I decided it was perfect.”

She sold her business but, as it turned out, her timing with the rest home was off.

“Planning and Health were becoming more regulated and I realised that with the cost factor, it was not going to work.”

She put her thinking cap back on and in the meantime, opened part of the property as a bar/lounge.

She named it Paradise Lounge after the flowers in bloom along the driveway on her first visit.

“The universe seems to tell you what it needs,” she said. “None of the financial institutions were supporting hotels and so I decided to figure it out on my own.”

What she decided was to offer something based on her own interests. She was adamant she wouldn’t open a restaurant but favourably recalled her visits to BB King Blues Club & Grill, a supper club in New York City.

She figured there was no reason why she couldn’t do a version of it here.

“I was raised in music,” she said. “My mother, Melita Landy, was playing piano when she carried me in her stomach. Anyone who knows me knows I love music. I grew up with the classics and the spirituals and I sing and dance [although] I’ve never had any formal training. What I wanted was a place to showcase local talent.”

She opened Paradise Lounge, guided by her Master’s degree in management and human resources and a one-year hospitality operations and management course she took at Penn State.

“You can’t just do something without having an understanding of it yourself,” she explained.

She also joined the entertainers’ union.

“We like to feature different bands and DJs and over the months it has unfolded into an event destination venue. What that means is if you want to have a reception, you can come here. At BB King’s club they feed you, they have the best live entertainment, there’s no assigned seating. It’s about socialising; eating and enjoying a show.”

Her plan is to run the supper club on a regular basis. The next event, a live tribute to Motown, takes place tomorrow night.

“It’s my contribution to the development of the arts in Bermuda,” Ms Landy said. “I want local talent to contact me; unknown Bermudians who are performing. I want new people to come and be showcased.

She’s asking anyone in Bermuda’s entertainment industry to contact her and arrange events.

“If you do comedy and need a venue and can get two or three [other comedians together], we will showcase you. If you’re a live group that does theatre, we will showcase you. Just sit down with us and ask how we can work it out.

“I want to encourage people to follow what they want to do. People put you in boxes — we’re more than what we do on a daily basis. It’s okay if it doesn’t work. If this doesn’t work then fine; I’m having fun while I’m doing it.”

She hasn’t given up on her dentistry however. She plans to hand Paradise Lounge over to a manager in the coming months.

“I still do dentistry two or three days a week and expect I’ll be doing it full-time by January,” she said.