The Nobu Beach Inn will be the actor-director’s most personal hospitality project yet
by CHARLES CURKIN
I WAS at a six-top at the otherwise empty Nobu restaurant on Barbuda when Daniel Shamoon, one of my dining companions, gestured toward the pale-pink beach. “There he is,” he said. Walking toward us under the beating sun was Robert De Niro in a grey T-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. A worn green backpack was slung over one shoulder; his opposite hand held a reusable grocery bag.
It was a surprisingly low-key entrance for an Oscar winner. But De Niro was here to get work done — namely, overseeing the final design details of the Beach Club, Barbuda, the restaurant-hotel-and-residences project he’s building in his own personal happy place. Come November 2026, the 36 rooms and private villas of the Nobu Beach Inn, its hotel component, will open to the public. I was here to observe how granular this movie megastar gets.
De Niro had come from a few hundred yards up the beach, where he has a modest house. I asked him what was in the bag. “My flip-flops,” he said. “Shoes aren’t great on Barbuda.” As we headed toward the small headquarters of his operation for a worksite tour, I followed his lead and slipped off my socks and sneakers; small hills of fine sand had already amassed inside them.
A Quiet Haven
That’s the thing about Barbuda: It’s a place to let go. The small Caribbean island is 30 miles (48.28km) north of Antigua (with which it forms one nation) and has always been a destination you had to really want to get to. You either drop anchor on your yacht, land your private jet at the new US$14 million (RM59.36 million) airport — commercial flights are the exception, not the rule — or, like me, fly in from Antigua on a helicopter. There are two luxury hotels if you count generously, but more are on the way: In addition to the Nobu Beach Inn, a Rosewood is also under development.
Barbuda has for decades made its reputation as a quiet haven. This is where Princess Diana hid from the world in the 1990s, including in April 1997, a few months before her death. This quietude, as well as the difficulty of access, is in part by design. The 62 sq mile island has a communal land-ownership structure for its 2,000 residents that’s long limited outside development.
Now, after years of persistence — including a legal fight between residents and the government that ended with special privileges being granted to De Niro’s compound — the actor is soon to realise one of his most personal projects. For a man whose luxury CV includes an empire of more than 40 hotels and 50 restaurants around the world (all bearing the Nobu name), plus the Tribeca Grill and the Greenwich Hotel in New York, that’s no small thing.
An outdoor bathroom attached to a bungalow
Ain’t Broken, Don’t Fix
For now, the dream is still a series of sketches. On a covered porch, De Niro stands with Shamoon, one of his two development partners (the other, James Packer, isn’t in attendance), and Katy Horne, MD for their company, Paradise Found. They hover over a map of the 391-acre (158.23ha) resort, pointing first to the Nobu Beach Inn, which is a new concept for the brand.
In addition to the bungalows, the resort will comprise a spa with private garden pavilions and an oceanfront pool. (Rooms will start at US$2,500.) The Nobu restaurant will still serve raw fish medleys and toma-hawk steaks — though its location will move to the hotel’s main building. Horne estimated the final investment will be “in the hundreds of millions”.
Most Nobu resorts operate under licensing deals, but De Niro and his partners own this one — and he’s sweating the small stuff, including the proper shade of ipe wood and where to source closet doors.
“If it pleases me, I’m sure it will please other people,” he said. One of his favourite dishes, the miso black cod at Nobu, the original hot spot he co-founded with chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, has been replicated globally with great success, so he’s definitely right on that front.
“When you go to a restaurant and suddenly they’ve changed the key thing that brought you there…” De Niro trailed off with a sigh. “That signature dish must be respected. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” I’m reminded of the exigent mobster he played in 1995’s Casino ordering a chef to put an equal number of blueberries in each muffin.
An artist’s impression of the main guest house
Sense of Place
In his personal paradise, De Niro shares with Shamoon a focus on minimising the ecological and even visual footprint. Gone are the hard edges and black-and-tan marble that characterise the chain’s other resorts. Here the architects have been charged with creating structures that disappear into the landscape.
“All buildings are single-storey, set back farther from the shore than required,” Horne said. This is done to preserve privacy and keep the beachfront pristine. Using natural materials and indigenous plants supports the ecosystem, and a mangrove regeneration project will boost the island’s hurricane resilience.
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“I don’t like things that are designed just for the sake of being designed,” De Niro said. “Like when an architect builds something without any sense of place.”
Beyond the inn there will be turnkey private villas starting at US$12 million, as well as larger private estates built down the beachfront, past De Niro’s current house. Empty lots are available for US$7 million and up. (Paradise Found is selling land and built homes, depending on the buyer’s preference.) Notably, all three partners will have homes at the beach club.
De Niro first saw the site more than 30 years ago, on a boat trip from Antigua. The landscape — pearlescent shores with more turtles than humans fronting shallow, turquoise waters — made a lasting impression. A decade ago, when he learned the land was available, he began shaping what would become Nobu Beach Inn.
The process hasn’t been without setbacks, including Hurricane Irma and the Covid-19 pandemic. The project also met with criticism from some Barbudans. Barbuda Council chairman John Mussington which oversees internal affairs, described the Beach Club as a “destructive development” and an “extractive and exploitative scheme.” (“Concessions in our leasehold are similar to other major developments in Antigua and Barbuda,” Horne said.)
Back at the HQ, De Niro’s design meeting was interrupted by an impromptu visit from Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who had flown in with Peace, his young daughter, for an update and lunch. Then it was back to wood samples for villa
floors. As in the infamous baseball bat scene from The Untouchables, where De Niro played Al Capone, tension builds as he stares at planks of “rustic” white oak and unfinished teak, his face as unshifting as a sphinx.
His words of approval soar no higher than “That’s nice.” Sometimes he simply nods. “What is this line here?” he asked about one piece, pointing to a line bifurcating the rectangle into two varying shades. “How could you miss this?”
The pool, and the pool bar beyond it
The Right Speed
Over dinner the previous night at Hermitage Bay, his five-star resort on Antigua, Shamoon had shared insight into De Niro’s creative direction. “Bob doesn’t like it when things aren’t moving at the right speed.”
His obsessiveness and perfectionism are mythical: To prepare for the role of Travis Bickle in 1976’s Taxi Driver, De Niro drove a cab in New York City for a month in 12-hour shifts. At the same time, he presents a laid-back and genteel demeanour that aligns well with a tropical paradise.
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“He’s very funny,” Shamoon said. “But he does get upset, and when he does, you might feel like you’re in one of his gangster movies.”
The crucial element of the inn, contrary to what one might expect given the sceney nature of its namesake restaurants, will be its privacy, just as it was at the K Club on De Niro’s property when Princess Diana came with her sons to escape the paparazzi. But it won’t be a place to hide away in total seclusion. Its water sports facility will offer kite surfing, dinghy sailing, snorkelling trips and sunset cruises on vintage motor yachts.
As magic hour approaches and the last items on De Niro’s agenda are checked off, he slings on his backpack and removes his flip-flops. There’s a noticeable kick in his step and a smile on his face. The Beach Club isn’t finished, not by a long shot, but it’s suddenly clear he feels confident it will be ready on schedule and built to his exacting specifications. “I actually feel very optimistic,” he declared, walking toward the beach. — Bloomberg
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