‘Bunchie’ & wife open unique food business on Anegada
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Today, he is still an entrepreneur bringing a new twist to Asian cuisine on Anegada, and VINO caught up with him on Thursday, December 11, 2025.
Together with his wife, Nia M. Douglas-Wheatley, Lawrence started Vivimara.
“We do cocktail drinks…we also do like coffee-based drinks like lattes, matcha, and milkshakes.” Lawrence also cans his own drinks; the branding, he said, has also been a hit with customers.
“I know the specific types of cans that I have; I believe I'm the only person in the BVI that does this specific thing.”
With his own canning method, he cans all his drinks.
As it relates to food, they offer sushi rolls, bao buns, dumplings, sashimi nigiri and onigiri.
From Tortola to Anegada
The Wheatleys lived in Tortola for a while before deciding to move back to Anegada after realising they wanted to have a “softer life”.
“Tortola is becoming quite busy and congested and stuff, and we have two kids, and we just felt like Anegada, being smaller and less populated, would be better to raise the family.”
Coming from a family of restaurateurs and hoteliers, Lawrence said he always wanted to follow the family business model and open his own restaurant.
Lawrence also revealed that upon moving back home, he was promised a space to open the restaurant by a family member; however, just weeks before receiving the keys, they decided to allow someone else to use the space.
“So that was a huge delay for us because we were looking to open at the beginning of this year.”
While he said it was “discouraging”, Lawrence said he and Nia remained optimistic and decided to “figure out another way”.
They wanted it, so they made it
Lawrence said his family loves sushi, and he and his wife love coffee; however, moving back to Anegada meant these were things they did not have access to at the restaurants already there.
“I used to go to get coffee pretty much almost every morning, and I couldn't do it when we moved back to Anegada. So a lot of the ideas also came behind just solving some of our own problems, our own needs.”
He said there was a desire to also provide something different to Anegada, as most, if not all, of the restaurants have similar menus.
“So I wanted to do something that was a hundred per cent different from what everybody else was doing.”
So for two years, the Wheatleys did the work, they trained and learned how to make sushi the right way, got the proper licensing and saved up enough money to buy the necessary equipment.
2025 Lobster Fest launch
Vivimara opened for business during the recently held Lobster Fest on Anegada.
“We’ve been open ever since…it’s been great so far. Loster Fest weekend, we sold out of everything…the sushi, the food, the drinks, everything, we sold out.”
The Wheatleys currently operate their business from home, offering free delivery to schools and $3 everywhere else on the island. Students, Lawrence said, are some of their biggest customers, as they make multiple orders a day. Vivimara is the only restaurant on Anegada offering online orders.
“I think they appreciate being able to get things like milkshakes and the fraps because there's no proper cafe on the island either.”
The husband-wife duo is looking to launch some limited Christmas flavours soon.
“We want to do like a gingerbread frap and a gingerbread milkshake, and we also have a sorrel cocktail that I'm trying to perfect.”
Lawrence took the opportunity to thank people who he said have been helpful on this journey.
He thanked the owners of The Sushi Bar for their “mentorship and guidance”.
He also thanked Trade Winds Mexican Bar and Grill, which provides them with the real tamarind and gooseberries for their margaritas and mojitos.
He credits Robert Swain Jr. from On the Rox for co-creating Vivimara’s signature cocktail, ‘Island Hub’.
The future
According to Lawrence, Vivimara is a partnership between himself and his wife, Nia.
“For right now, I'm doing everything myself, me and my wife. She handles like the marketing and stuff like that, while I do the sushi myself, and I can the drinks and all that stuff.”
Nia, he said, created the company’s logo, does most of the graphic works and oversees about 90 per cent of their social media accounts.
Lawrence and Nia hope to open a physical location for Vivimara soon and once the space is organised, hire staff, contributing to employment on Anegada.
Asked what advice he has for others, Lawrence said, “Deal with one problem at a time as they come, don’t force everything and deal with everything one time because you can stress yourself out and discourage yourself as well. Just deal with one problem at a time.”
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