Donovan’s Reef isn’t a bar you find — it’s a bar you get directed to by everyone you meet on Martha’s Vineyard. Tucked below Nancy’s Restaurant at the Oak Bluffs Harbor, it’s the outdoor domain of Donovan, a Jamaican bartender who has been blending frozen drinks for island loyalists for decades. The signature is the Dirty Banana — rum, chocolate, banana, cream — and the line for one can stretch an hour on a summer afternoon. Nobody seems to mind. Donovan works the blender like a one-man show, remembers faces and drink orders from years back, and keeps the reggae flowing. It’s the rare beach bar where the bartender is genuinely the attraction.
