Tip Tap chef stranded on St. Martin
Renowned Boston chef Brian Poe has been stranded on hurricanebattered St. Martin — the tropical paradise where he and his wife had gone to celebrate a second honeymoon, his business partner told the Herald.
“He’s stuck there. He’s stranded. We’re doing everything we can to get him out,” said Gordon Wilcox, restaurateur and Poe’s partner at the Tip Tap Room and the Bukowski Tavern. “He’s one of my closest friends and I’m worried sick. I’m trying to stay strong here.”
Wilcox said he was able to speak to Poe yesterday morning for less than a minute. Poe was with his wife, Cristiana. The couple said they were safe but the conditions were difficult.
They were without power on their cellphones. Poe called Wilcox from a landline, Wilcox said. Wilcox said the couple was sheltered in a ballroom at their hotel, but the roof was deemed unsafe. So they were going to go to a shelter with other tourists where there was enough food and water to last four days, Wilcox said.
Gordon added Poe’s friends and family have reached out to the U.S. State Department for help getting the couple off the Caribbean island, but were told there’s no way to fly in right now.
Poe and his wife tried to flee before Irma struck, but their flight was canceled, Wilcox said.
News of Poe and his wife’s harrowing circumstances on St. Martin shook others who knew him, including Kerry Byrne, a former longtime food editor at the Herald.
Byrne added he got “a lump in my throat. When it is someone you know, it hits a little bit differently and makes it more personal. It just brought the tragedy a little closer to home.”