Aruba Joe's is a locally owned family business started in 1996.  The name Aruba Joe's might seem odd for a restaurant company, especially given that nobody in the family is named Joe, or Joseph or even Josiah. So why the name?

 

As children we were fortunate to grow up on a tropical island.  The temperate climate allowed us to have lunch every Saturday on the back porch of our grandparent's house.  In the fall of 1980 we were joined by a beautiful vibrant green iguana.  We fed him some veggies and after that afternoon he became a regular at our Saturday meals.  We kids called the little fellow Joe.  Joe's presence each week added a simple joy to our meals, and so years later when opened our first restaurant in Aruba we decided to call it Iguana Joe's. 

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Eight years later we kept the name Joe when we opened our Caribbean inspired BBQ restaurant Smokey Joe's.  And Four years after that when we expanded again and opened a Mexican cantina we chose the name Iguana Cantina (Iguana Jose doesn't have a nice ring to it). 

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in 2024 we opened Scratch Kitchen Aruba, our first restaurant without Iguana or Joe in the name.  Wwe did keep a small sand garden in the back of the restaurant just like the one in our grandparent's back yard. 

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