3 days ago
How Robert De Niro Is Building a Barbuda Paradise From the Sand Up
I'm at a six-top at the otherwise empty Nobu restaurant on Barbuda when Daniel Shamoon, one of my dining companions, gestures toward the pale-pink beach. 'There he is,' he says. Walking toward us under the beating sun is Robert De Niro in a gray T-shirt and khaki cargo shorts. A worn green backpack is slung over one shoulder; his opposite hand holds a reusable grocery bag.
It's a surprisingly low-key entrance for an Oscar winner. But De Niro is here to get work done—namely, overseeing the final design details of the Beach Club, Barbuda, the restaurant-hotel-and-residences project he's building in his own personal happy place. Come November 2026, the 36 rooms and private villas of the Nobu Beach Inn, its hotel component, will open to the public. I'm here to observe how granular this movie megastar gets.
