A popular island restaurant has officially reopened after a seven-week $1 million renovation.

The interior of the Barracuda Grill was stripped bare and rebuilt with a new bar, opening up more space at the Burnaby Street business.

It was officially reopened last night by David Burt, the Premier, who worked at the restaurant as well as the Hog Penny Pub after he left university.

Phil Barnett, head of the Island Restaurant Group, which operates the Barracuda Grill, said: “We literally ripped absolutely everything out.

“We took it back to the bare walls and ripped up the floors. We replaced all the exterior windows and replaced the whole HVAC system in the kitchen.

“It is quite an old building and it’s got an amazing history. It was originally an ice house and a pharmacy and dates back to the mid-1800s.”

Asked about the cost of the renovation, Mr Barnett said: “Well, this is the restaurant industry and nothing’s inexpensive, but I’m pleased to say that my partners wanted to make sure that we kept it underneath $1 million.

“We’re certainly around that, so it’s a huge investment because once a restaurant opens, you still have the cost of the food, you still have the cost of the wines and you still have the cost of the labour.

“Generally what they say is that 30 to 35 per cent goes to your food and your beverage costs, 35 per cent goes to your labour costs, leaving around 30 per cent that is left over to pay your rent, electricity, gas, maintenance, and leave yourself a profit.

“You can see that when you factor all those things in, profit isn’t a huge thing.

“Knowing what we did as an existing business was very helpful because we already knew what our sales were and we knew what our metrics were.

“At $1 million, we can meet those metrics and hopefully still remain profitable.”

On whether he was confident about the economy, Mr Barnett said “yes”, adding: “I think we have to be, and just to be clear, we are fully vested in Bermuda.

“We have to invest in where we believe we need to in order to continue to attract the clientele that is necessary for us to stay relevant, for us to stay busy and for us to stay profitable.”

Mr Barnett said the island was attracting more insurance and related companies and the life reinsurance sector was “starting to really explode”. “Our goal is hopefully to be that destination for their business meetings.”

Mr Burt cut the ribbon last night, and Mr Barnett added: “It’s fascinating to look back because when the Premier first came back to the island from university, I remember him walking into my office and I hired him on the spot.

“He was originally hired as a bartender, straight out of university. It was the classic case of him coming out of school and he needed to earn as much as he could. He was a hard-working guy.

“He is an incredibly charismatic, pleasant young man. He’s a fabulous individual and I’ve always had an incredible amount of respect for him. I was honoured that he made the time to be able to come up and do the ribbon-cutting.”