Imagine Aruba during WW II, when there was no tourism of any kind on the island. There were no hotels on Palm Beach and the hospitality industry was unknown to Arubians, who mostly worked in the oil industry. It was during the dark time of the Second World War that a businessman of Lebanese origin, Chaiben Neme, recognized an opportunity and started the construction of a hotel, well beyond the Oranjestad city limits at the time, on the road to the Dakota airport. This hotel, called the Strand Hotel, was not a beachfront property, but it did have an ocean view from the terrace. The reason why Mr. Neme chose the location of the Strand Hotel was that he wished to attract visiting executives of the Lago refinery who flew in at the airport.

After the Strand’s opening in 1943, the seven-room hotel became the top social center of the island with its swimming pool, bar and restaurant. The Rotary Club and the Kiwanis held their meetings and gala events there.

In 1949, 12 more rooms were added and three years later the hotel’s name was changed to Coral Strand Hotel.

Dutch royals stayed in this hotel, such as Queen Juliana in 1955 and Princess Beatrix and Prince Claus in 1966, after their honeymoon in Mexico.

Neme also went on to construct the first tourist accommodation on Palm Beach, Basi Ruti, which opened in 1957. With the focus switching to Palm Beach where the first luxury resort, the Aruba Caribbean Hotel, opened in 1959, the Coral Strand Hotel became less popular.
In 1964 a new owner came along, Izaak ‘Ike’ Cohen (born 1911), with his wife Greta.

Cohen understood what top quality meant in hospitality as well as in fine cuisine and he opened the Talk of the Town Restaurant. It became so famous that people referred to the hotel not as Coral Strand, but as Talk of the Town Hotel. So this name was used from then on.

In the TOTT Restaurant, the quality standard was of the highest level and even before a Hotel School was established on the island, the restaurant took on this task, with young Arubians learning from the master, Ike Cohen himself.

As the son of a Dutch meat purveyor, Cohen always had an appreciation for quality food. His Talk of the Town restaurant served no less than 250 dinners nightly. At one time, his freezers housed $ 100,000 worth of personally selected, top quality, aged American beef.

The Talk of the Town restaurant set the tone for what was to come regarding food quality, menus, set-up, linens, ambiance, dress code, and entertainment. At the time there were very few restaurants on Aruba, only Chinese restaurants and the restaurant in the Aruba Caribbean hotel and the Bali Restaurant.

Talk of the Town was one of the few restaurants on the island which offered international cuisine, evening dress and an elegant atmosphere. Cohen also encouraged locals to dine out and he was the first business owner in Aruba to accept local credit cards. Talk of the Town’s nightclub had it all, including limbo dancers, belly dancers, tap dancers, singing waiters and many other entertainers.

The Talk of the Town hotel complex also includes a beach location, named Surfside, across the LG Smith Blvd, behind the ‘Plaza Turismo’, on which the ‘Ike Cohen Monument’, honoring Aruba’s tourism pioneers.  The Surfside building in which the popular ‘Scorpio’s Disco’ was located, was also known as Havana Beach Club and Nikky Beach.

Izaak Cohen passed away at the age of 96 on September 23, 2007.

The oldest hotel on the island, Talk of the Town Hotel has been in business for 82 years and counting!