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Unlocking Key WestCaribbean Languor, Bohemian FlairBy Sharon McDonnellThere's something endearing about a town that sees sunsets as cause for celebration.
Then there's the tombstone that kept bumping up against my feet on the floor of Captain Tony's Saloon, inscribed "Reba Sawyer, 1900-1950," which begged for an explanation. It seems a man discovered after his wife died that she had been having an affair for 10 years with a man, whom she used to meet at Captain Tony's, thanks to love letters she left behind. One day, the man drove by, dumped her headstone on the sidewalk in front, and shouted, "She wanted to be here so much, now she can be here for all eternity," our waitress said. After bartender Tony Tarrancino heard Reba's kids didn't want her headstone back, the future bar owner and future Mayor of Key West (1987-89), imbedded it in the floor of the bar. This is the original Sloppy Joe's where Ernest Hemingway drank mightily and met his third wife, journalist Martha Gellhorn, before owner Joe Russell, a fishing buddy of Papa's, moved it around the corner to protest a $1-a-week rent increase. Fading campaign posters and newspaper clips noting Jimmy Buffett of "Margaritaville" fame would be Captain Tony's campaign manager hang on the wall, while bras, license plates and business cards dangle from the ceiling. A freewheeling bohemian streak and a Caribbean languor fill the subtropical air on this island -- the southernmost town in the mainland U.S., twice as close to Cuba (90 miles away), as to Miami. Carol O'Shaughnessy, a local publicist, told me she once saw her husband, a mortgage broker, staring pensively in the mirror one day. "I'm meeting a client for the first time today -- I wonder if I should wear shoes," he said. Key West even seceded briefly from Monroe County and the U.S., declared itself the "Conch Republic," and printed its own currency and passports. Miffed that the U.S. Border Patrol set up a roadblock and began searching all Keys-bound cars on US Highway 1 for drugs or illegal aliens -- causing miles-long traffic jams -- the Mayor led the five-day revolt in 1982. The town then "surrendered," a good excuse to party for a week. Today, Conch Republic flags -- a conch shell inside a sunburst, with the motto "We seceded while others failed" -- and passports are sold all over Key West. This small four-by-two-mile island at the end of the Overseas Highway, an hour-long flight from Miami or Fort Lauderdale, is eminently walkable and a delight to the eye. An architectural medley of century-old wood frame houses ranges from Victorian style with gingerbread trim, towers and bay windows, Greek Revival-style columns and widow's walks, Bahamian style with louvered shutters and overhanging eaves, to Gulf Coast-style "shotgun" houses, inspired by the Caribbean and West Africa. Lush palm trees and fuchsia bougainvillea nearly strangle the houses and many B&B's, mostly white, but sometimes pastel.
No genteel poverty for Papa -- the villa's tall shuttered windows open onto lush palm-filled gardens, the carved mahogany bed, dining table and chairs are from 17th-century Spain, and a cat figurine is a gift from Picasso. (It was stolen but found damaged, so a replica now takes its place.) are everywhere. Here's Hemingway with wife #1, Hadley Richardson, with whom he fled to Paris and Switzerland. She strikingly resembles Agnes von Kurowsky, the nurse he loved while wounded in World War I. And here are wives #2, #3 and #4 -- Pauline, Martha Gellhorn, who moved to Cuba with Hemingway, and Mary Welch, a Time journalist with whom he lived in Cuba and Idaho, where he committed suicide in 1961. The swimming pool was built by Pauline while Hemingway was in Spain covering the Civil War with Gellhorn, his future third wife. Angry when he heard it cost $20,000, the author threw a penny on the ground, and said she had spent his last cent. Pauline embedded it in the cement, where it remains today. About 60 cats prowl the grounds -- descendants of the six-toed Hemingway pet, Snowball -- and one reclined regally on the bed for photo sessions. One of the biggest collections of shipwrecked treasure anywhere is on display at the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society Museum. Jewelry, gold, silver and gems salvaged from two 17th-century Spanish galleons, the Nuestra Senora de Atocha and the Santa Margarita, after a 16-year search by a team led by the late Fisher, an ex-chicken farmer from Indiana who opted for a more glamorous life, are valued at over $400 million. The "poison cup," a gold goblet with dragon designs dating from 1620, once contained a stone believed to protect the drinker against poison. A sign notes no magic, just science, was responsible -- the gallstone of a goat or llama, whose protein can detect arsenic, was used. The collection's single most valuable item is a raw emerald crystal, valued at more than $500,000. One distinctive area of Key West is Bahama Village, where historically many Bahamians and Afro-Cubans have lived Filled with one-story shotgun houses, small cottages, and narrow lanes, it's also home to Blue Heaven, a restaurant where I swore I was on a Caribbean island. Amid the roosters and cats underfoot under the palms, seafood specialties are served at casual picnic tables, washed down with wines from a list of 160 selections from France, Italy, Australia, Chile and Spain. I had a shrimp omelet crammed with cheese and scallions for breakfast here, and if it wasn't for previous commitments I would happily have dined here nightly on dishes like yellowtail snapper with citrus beurre blanc or Caribbean-spiced grouper. The "Conch Train" trolley tour is a delightful way to hear Key West's intriguing history, peopled by Cuban cigar-makers, New England sea captains, pirates, Bahamian spongers, fishermen, wreckers and treasure hunters. For a shining couple of years in the 1800's Key West became the richest town per capita in the U.S., thanks to the wrecking industry -- salvaging cargo from shipswrecks. The cry "Wreck Ashore!" sent men racing to their boats -- first one there won the lion's share of the pickings. "Even if it did have the wrong initials on it, we had beautiful china, jewelry and furniture," Robert, my trolley tour guide, noted drily. One thing found both sitting on plates and walking around Key West is a "conch." A large snail-like sea creature and food staple of Keys natives for centuries, it's found in conch chowder (tomato-based or creamy), deep-fried fritters, or raw in ceviche and salads. But people born in Key West are known as "conchs;" while more recent residents are called "freshwater conchs."
Duval Beach Club, one of three restaurants actress Kelly McGillis owns here, overlooks the beach. Here I had a killer seafood pasta -- shrimp, scallops, mangoes, and sundried tomatoes with white wine cream sauce. Directly across the street are two ornate mansions. The J. Vining Harris House, a Queen Anne-style beauty built circa 1900 for a judge, was a popular waterfront nightclub frequented by Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and Gore Vidal in the 1950's. Next door, the E. H. Gato, Jr. House, a Greek Revival mansion built in 1885 by the son of Key West's first cigar magnate, is today the Southernmost Point Guesthouse, since.the buoy marking the southernmost spot on the U.S. mainland is nearby. A favorite activity of mine in Key West was figuring out the best bars and restaurants to stare at the sunset, the best show in town. I found Billy Fish Bar and Grill, outdoors on a pier topped by flaming torches facing the Gulf, which belongs to Ocean Key Resort, a great spot for a casual, reasonably-priced drink. A top contender for gourmet outdoor dining, with a view of the Gulf and the flame-topped pier is Pier House Resort & Spa, where "New Calypso Harvest" cuisine is served. Luckily, new sunsets are born every night. My quest continues. IF YOU GO:The Florida Keys Web
site Key West Chamber of
Commerce Island City Strolls
(walking/bike tours) |
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TM
As the sun sinks into
the Gulf of Mexico, Key West marks it nightly with jugglers who toss
flame-topped batons and knives, tightrope walkers and other street theater.
It's a bit over-the-top, as are many things here -- like the roosters who
strut the streets, crowing at all hours, the "Conch Republic" flags and
passports, and the10-day Fantasy Fest where flamboyantly-costumed revelers
and their spiffily-costumed pets celebrate Halloween. Not to mention
tombstones that coyly note, "I told you I was sick." 
Key West has lured
writers like a magnet, from Hemingway to Tennessee Willhiams, Wallace
Stevens, James Merrill and Elizabeth Bishop. Hemingway lived with his second
wife, Pauline Pfeiffer, a wealthy Vogue magazine editor he met in
Paris, in a Moorish-style villa her uncle bought for them in 1931. He wrote
"To Have and Have Not," about Depression-era Key West, "For Whom the Bell
Tolls," and other works in his studio in a former carriage house, which he
reached by a rope bridge from the main house. 
Duval Street, the
mile-long main street that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic
Ocean, is lined with restaurants, bars, nightclubs, shops from tacky to
upscale, and art galleries. I saw a cocker spaniel topple off a bar stool at
The Bull here (his owner didn't look too good, either.) Raucous at night as
bar-hoppers do the "Duval crawl," it extends from Mallory Square -- site of
the sunset celebrations, near both Captain Tony's on Greene Street and the
new Sloppy Joe's on Duval -- to South Beach, a . palm-fringed beach.