By Ainsley Walters, Staff Reporter 
Patrons enjoy an early lunch along the terrace at Gloria's High Street branch. - Michael Sloley /Freelance Photographer
IT HAS been more than two years since Gloria Prawl passed away, leaving her children to carry on the tradition of preparing fine seafood, which Gloria's of Port Royal had established since the early 1970s.
Despite the absence of the famed matriach, the Port Royal restaurant remains the choice of its loyal customers, which include local and foreign celebrities, politicians or just about anyone seeking a quiet spot to enjoy a sumptuous fish, shrimp or lobster meal.
"We're still performing as when she was here. Nothing has changed significantly," said Bridgette Lim-Tom, one of Gloria's daughters. She operates what Port Royal residents refer to as the 'top shop', a branch which followed the original High Street restaurant located across the road from the Port Royal Police station.
Lim-Tom believes plans to transform historic Port Royal and nearby Lime Cay into a twin tourist attraction would boost the sleepy town. But she says some of the older folk were cautious about opening up their world to the ills which may accompany any such development.
"We would welcome it," she said. "It would bring more business and provide employment for more school-leavers, but a few people, the older ones, believe it would bring crime and the usual things into the area.
"Right now, we are 99.9 per cent crime free. They are used to their peace and quiet. Port Royal people... you have to go slowly with them but I believe they should welcome it for their children."
Among the plans, Lim-Tom said, was for tourists to visit historic sites at Port Royal, once claimed to be the wickedest city in the world before it was partially sunk by an earthquake in 1692. The tourists could enjoy fine seafood and then move on to the outlying cays on pleasure boats.
Gloria's was made famous by its sidewalk dining, Lim-Tom said.
"People prefer this one because of the ambience," she said, referring to the outdoor location on a sidewalk. It is a stone's throw away from the dock where passengers from the Kingston ferry disembark.
"We get tourists from all over the world," she added. "We had Don King and his entire boxing entourage once, Sheryl Lee Ralph is a regular and the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition have meetings with their people here.
"Oh, Chaka Khan was here once," she recalled. "We should have a celebrity book but we don't really get into that."
The 'top shop', an enclosed location at Foreshore Road, was a later addition by Gloria, Lim-Tom explained.
"That one came about to cater for customers during the rainy season," she explained. "We had to have somewhere to put them."
Being virtually crime-free, Port Royal allows Gloria's and other businesses to enjoy a pretty late night life. However, customers who usually travelled to the restaurant as late as 2:00 a.m. are now arriving earlier and leaving sooner.
"I don't know if it's violence or what," she guessed. "Not in Port Royal though, probably when they leave here and are on their way home."
Gloria's, Lim-Tom said, will always hold its place as a leading seafood eatery. "Once we maintain our standards and taste, there's no competition."
