Building Blu Fin: Dr. Trisha Laplace on Business, Balance and Knowing When Enough Is Enough
Dentistry and seafood may seem an unlikely pairing, but for Dr. Trisha Laplace, they represent two sides of a life that has never quite followed a predictable script.
A dental surgeon by profession, Trisha spent years overseas, studying at the Catholic University in the Dominican Republic and later pursuing further training before deciding it was finally time to return home to Saint Kitts.
Her timing could hardly have been more complicated.
She returned in early 2020. Barely settled back into life at home, COVID-19 arrived and the world shut down.
“I literally had just a month and change being back home,” she recalled.
Suddenly, the carefully considered move home looked very different. Doors were closed, opportunities seemed limited and, as a mother, Trisha also had the very practical concern of supporting herself and her son.
But sitting on a family property in Sandy Point was the beginning of an idea.
Trisha had noticed something simple: finding a casual, predominantly seafood spot outside of Basseterre wasn’t particularly easy. She loved seafood, had grown up eating it and her father already had a property that could accommodate a small operation.
So she bought a container.
Then she and her father painted it themselves.
“I actually painted the container myself,” she said. “My dad and I. My dad is actually a contractor for years, and we just worked on it as something to do.”
That “something to do” became Blu Fin.
What began as a small takeaway operation with just four tables gradually expanded, not because Trisha arrived with an elaborate hospitality master plan, but because customers kept asking for more.
As orders increased, people wanted somewhere to sit and eat. She added another section. Then customers began using the space for baby showers, bridal celebrations and small gatherings. Parties followed. Eventually, Blu Fin expanded again, adding a stage and developing a nightlife component on weekends.
During the day, the atmosphere remains intentionally relaxed—a quaint, no-frills seafood spot where people can eat and unwind. On event nights, the personality of the space changes entirely.
Blu Fin grew by responding to what its customers wanted. But behind that growth was a balancing act that Trisha admits has not always been easy.
Trisha works as a dental surgeon in the public health system and can see more than 20 patients in a day. Yet before getting to the dental clinic, there may be shopping to do for Blu Fin. After seeing patients, she heads back to the restaurant, where another shift begins.
“I have to come right back here and get myself together and be here until closing time,” she said.
Blu Fin opens only Thursday through Saturday, partly because operating any more frequently would be difficult to sustain.
And being the owner does not mean watching from the sidelines.
“I chip in. I am on the floor. I cash. I bartend.”
For a time, Trisha added yet another layer to the operation: she owned a fishing boat that supplied Blu Fin with its own fish and lobster.
On paper, it made perfect business sense. In reality, it meant fishermen returning from overnight trips around 6 a.m., sometimes only hours after she had left the restaurant. She would organise the catch, coordinate deliveries to restaurants and hotels, field calls from customers and still report to work as a dentist.
Eventually, something had to give.
She sold the boat.
Financially, giving up the ability to supply her own seafood was a loss. Personally, it was necessary.
“I had to think about myself, and I said, no, it’s too much,” she explained.
More importantly, she realised that what began as a hobby was starting to compete with the career she genuinely loved.
“It was taking away from what my true love is, which is on the medicine side.”
Sometimes entrepreneurship is also knowing when enough is enough-and when an opportunity, even a good one, is costing more than you are willing to give.
Keeping it fresh and keeping it local
Seafood remains at the heart of Blu Fin, but Trisha is particular about how it reaches the table.
“Everything is prepared right there,” she said. “I have no food from the day before.”
Orders are prepared on demand rather than kept in food warmers, while considerable preparation goes into seasoning and ingredients beforehand.
The restaurant also benefits from another family resource—a farm.
Green fig, okra and other produce used in dishes can come directly from the family’s land, and Trisha says the restaurant deliberately tries to limit its dependence on supermarket ingredients where possible.
“We do our own blends with the seasoning, natural, and that is something that we take pride in at Blu Fin.”
That family connection extends beyond the food.
Look around the restaurant and the walls tell another story. Rather than defaulting to photographs of international celebrities, Trisha has chosen to celebrate local personalities and intends to expand the collection to include more Kittitian and Nevisian figures from sport and other fields.
“Nothing beats homegrown,” she said.
The photographs have become conversation starters. People walk around, ask questions and learn something about the faces looking back at them—particularly visitors who may be encountering these local personalities and their stories for the first time.
For Trisha, that is precisely the point.
Blu Fin is overwhelmingly supported by locals, with visitor traffic fluctuating seasonally. That local foundation has helped sustain the business in an industry where competition is relentless.
New restaurants open regularly, and curiosity naturally pulls customers toward the newest option. Trisha has learned not to chase every competitor.
Her answer is consistency.
“Once you are consistent,” she said, customers tend to return.
But competition is only part of the challenge. For restaurant operators in Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trisha points to another pressure that is far less easy to manage: operating costs, particularly commercial electricity.
“That’s the real challenge there,” she said. “Electricity.”
Patience, resilience and expensive lessons
Ask Trisha about the greatest lesson entrepreneurship has taught her and one word comes first.
“Patience.”
Then another.
Resilience.
And when asked whether she would do it all again, her answer is strikingly candid.
“If I had to do it again, I don’t know if I would.”
Still, running Blu Fin has given her lessons and experience she now draws on when friends seek her business advice.
Some of those lessons came at a considerable cost.
Asked about her most expensive entrepreneurial mistake, she did not hesitate.
“Partnership.”
For Trisha, partnering with the wrong people taught her that the cost of a bad business relationship can extend well beyond money.
“It costs you friendships sometimes. It costs you family. It can cost you peace of mind. It can dig a bigger hole in your bank account as well.”
Her experience has made her wary of partnerships, though she acknowledges that they can work when responsibilities are clearly defined and each person respects the role and expertise of the other.
That respect, she believes, should extend far beyond business partners.
“You have to respect from the person who picks the garbage up on the road to the minister,” she said. “Everyone has their role.”
For aspiring entrepreneurs, her advice is to be certain they are mentally and financially prepared for the responsibility of ownership rather than rushing into an arrangement simply because starting alone seems difficult.
Just when the combination of dental surgeon and restaurateur seems unusual enough, Trisha adds another chapter.
Before dentistry, she was a journalist.
She studied communications and began reporting in Saint Kitts at just 17, working with the Leeward Islands newspaper and The Observer. She covered everything from courts and entertainment to sports and later did freelance work while living in New York.
She wrote poetry, debated and participated in effective speaking.
Those interests never disappeared.
They are now finding their way into Blu Fin.
With a stage already incorporated into the restaurant, Trisha is developing a weekly Thursday-night space where creatives can perform without the pressure of a formal show.
The concept is deliberately broad. Singers, musicians, dancers, poets and other performers can register, take the stage and share what they do before the evening transitions into karaoke.
“There are a lot of creatives. There are a lot of people who just sit at home, nothing to do,” she said.
She wants Blu Fin to become a place where they can experiment, develop confidence and simply have somewhere to perform.
For someone who increasingly prefers life behind the scenes, creating a stage for others may be the most fitting way for Trisha’s old creative world to meet her new entrepreneurial one.
Making room for what comes next
There is more change ahead.
Trisha is preparing to open her own private dental office, a move that will inevitably demand more of her time. Her goal now is to put systems and management in place so Blu Fin can operate successfully without requiring her constant presence.
It is another evolution for a business that began with a container, four tables and an idea during one of the most uncertain periods in recent history.
She still has plans for the physical space, including a top deck that would take advantage of its sea views.
But ask Trisha where she ultimately wants to get in life and the answer has little to do with revenue, expansion or conventional measures of entrepreneurial success.
In fact, she doesn’t spend much time thinking about “success” at all.
“I think about being happy.”
For Trisha, that means being comfortable, being able to support herself and doing work that gives her satisfaction—not accumulating wealth simply for the sake of it.
“Life itself is a blessing for me,” she said. “I definitely just want to be doing something that makes me happy. And if I am at that place, there’s nothing else that matters.”
Perhaps that explains some of the choices she has made along the way.
Her journey has included journalism, 12 years abroad, dentistry, motherhood, a fishing boat, a restaurant that grew far beyond its original four tables and now plans for her own dental practice.
There have been expansions, exhausting days, partnerships she would not repeat and moments when she has deliberately chosen to scale back.
Through it all, Trisha’s story offers a less romanticised version of entrepreneurship—one where ambition matters, but so do boundaries; where growth is exciting, but more is not always better; and where sometimes the smartest decision is recognising what you are unwilling to sacrifice in pursuit of it.
