Dusk was falling one evening in Isabel II, the quieter of the two towns on Vieques, when we stumbled onto VQS Emporium. My husband and I were leaving a bland, tourist-priced dinner we'd consumed out of hunger and a desire for an easy meal. Its doors were open, and bright light and music filtered out onto the quiet streets. Two employees were leaning over the stoop that lead into the store, chatting.
Both of us drawn to look inside to wonder what kind of establishment it was, we kept walking, only to decide after half a block we wanted to turn back to find out. Turns out we had read about them in a local magazine for their coffee, and while it was late for coffee for us and they were closed the next day, we made the decision we'd be back.
The morning we stopped in, I was nursing a sunburn and my husband hadn't found but one good cup of coffee since we'd landed in Puerto Rico. Vegetables are hard to grow - and find - on the island, so I was excited at the prospect of fresh carrot and ginger juice as well.
VQS Emporium is open and airy and, like most other places here, on island time so we were in for a laid-back morning. They have a charming little coffee bar and the store's one employee that morning got right to work making us fresh coffee and soon after, my juice. Not yet stocked in juice glasses, his solution was to serve it up straight in a martini glass - chilled of course - which made the experience all the more pleasant.
While we waited, I wandered around and found a new bottle of much-needed sunscreen (as my husband says, my defense against the strong Caribbean sun is to very liberally spray it on a thousand times over, and we had gone through the bottle we brought in a few days). I also stumbled upon a bottle of locally-made After Sun Spray, created by Vieques Bath & Botanica. The night before, in a desperate internet search to cool the burn, I'd read about the power of apple cider vinegar to bring down the temperature of the skin and was delighted to find kombucha vinegar listed as an ingredient, along with aloe, rosewater, cucumber, and a variety of antioxidants to hopefully keep my skin from wrinkling prematurely.
I snatched the After Sun Spray up and my only regret now is not buying more to take home with me, along with the bags of coffee beans we bought after tasting the coffee made with them here.
VQS Emporium is a charming home goods store with a small coffee and juice bar. It's fun to see them selling local goods alongside Le Creuset and I can tell that if I lived on the island full time, I'd be here often, if only for the visual and tactile taste of home decor shopping (it's just not the same online). They stock many of the home and kitchen wares you'd expect to find at your Williams-Sonoma, but with a flair and a pace personal to the lives of island ex-pats.
Whether you're simply visiting or considering a more full-time appointment on Vieques, I'd definitely recommend stopping in for a coffee, a carrot juice martini, and an armful of skincare and home goods. read more
