Be Your Own Best Butler

With summer right around the corner and Memorial Day here right now, we’ve got outdoor entertaining on the mind, from beachside barbecues to cocktails by the pool to picnics in the backyard. This year, we’d like to try a few new tricks of the trade for partying down when the sun is up, so we turned to The Cove’s very own expert entertainment organizers—namely, the smiling butlers who service the private beach and pool cabanas at Cain, our all-day, adults-only party pad and alfresco ultra-lounge. Here are some of their best ideas for creating cool times that let you beat the heat and feel the beat all summer long.

1. Go Misty Eyed: A mist spray at the ready—like those from Evian—leaves you and your guests feeling fresh and your skin looking dewy. And it really is cooling, too. As the water evaporates off your skin, it provides a little chill. That’s science for you!

2. Make Lemonade: Well, not exactly lemonade. Squeeze some lemon juice into moistened towels, then keep them cold in an outdoor fridge or portable cooler. Pass them out to guests when they arrive or when the sun really starts beating down. Not only will they lower everyone’s skin temperature, the lemon also acts as natural mosquito repellent.

3. Screen Yourself In: Sunscreen is everyone’s best friend, even those who swear they don’t burn. Keep some at the ready for your guests in stylish ceramic or stainless-steel pumps like the ones you’d put hand soap in in your bathroom or kitchen—rather than the ugly plastic packaging it probably came in—and encourage everyone to lay it on thick and reapply frequently.

4. Get Water-Logged: Have a signature cocktail—or two or three or four—but remember to drink plenty of water, too. Set up a fun hydration station with a variety of glass pitchers and ice waters infused with different fruits and vegetables. Our butlers especially love using slices of cucumber, but lemon-lime, pineapple strawberry, orange and watermelon all work just as well.

5. Maximize the flavor: Keep drinks—nonalcoholic ones anyway—cold using ice cubes made of whatever you’re drinking: ice coffee cubes for ice coffee, iced tea cubes for ice tea, lemonade cubes for lemonade, and so on. Just freeze some of the liquid ahead of time and then drop the frozen cubes into drinks as you serve them. That way, everything stays cold but doesn’t get diluted by melting ice made out of plain old boring water.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Related Articles

The Rum Diaries

Paper umbrellas, be gone.  Blenders, beware. Fine aged sipping rum – akin to scotch and bourbon or, depending on the cask, even cognac – is the stuff of sophisticated connoisseur dreams and it could not be further away from the … Continue reading →

 

 

Barefoot on the Beach

Marathon Bahamas weekend has come and gone, but we’ve still got running on the brain, especially during these health-minded resolution-heavy days. Barefoot running seems like the latest craze, with Vibram FiveFingers everywhere we look, including last fall’s New York Marathon—where … Continue reading →

 

 

Mad Men on the Beach

In case you hadn’t noticed (though we’re pretty sure you have) the mod look and feel of AMC’s cult hit Mad Men has burrowed its way pretty deeply into our cultural and fashion consciousness—so far, in fact, that Banana Republic … Continue reading →

 

 

Make Mine a Mocktail

We don’t know about you, but after weeks and weeks—sometimes it even felt like months—of holiday celebrations, we’re ready to stay off the sauce for a little while. At least a week. Or maybe a day. Okay, a few hours. … Continue reading →

 

 

Pret-a-Porter by the Pool

Just as New York City’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week wraps up on Thursday, couture comes to the Caribbean for a sexy spectacle of style hosted right at Cain, the adults-only ultra-pool and pleasure playground reserved exclusively for you and other … Continue reading →