Key West Dining
Linda
enjoy simple, good food. Linda
Tom & Linda
very nice restaurant on Key Islamorada called the Green Turtle. Not
sure if it's there anymore, or even how far it is from Key West. But it
used to be very good. GREAT conch chowder. If you decide to go for a
drive some afternoon, it might be a good place for lunch along the way -
if it's still open.
--Tom
Mason Barge
>Any not to miss suggestions from locals???? Going to spend 5 days in KW and
>enjoy simple, good food. Linda
>
Louie's Backyard!
Mason Barge
"If this is coffee, please bring me some tea. If this is tea, please bring me some coffee."
-- Abraham Lincoln
KGross9343
Try Little Italy for breakfast I think its mm 70
fishman
"KGross9343" <kgros...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20031105212259...@mb-m10.aol.com...
> The Green Turtle is excellent!
>
>
The Green Turtle is, as are the Lor-E-Lei and Cheeca Lodge - but keep in
mind that Islamorada is 90 minutes up the road.
Chris
Karen Henelde
My husband and I just returned from a week's vacation in Key West, and
that island is well known to have some amazing restaurants. Three that
were absolutely-not-to-be-missed were Alice's at La-Te-Da (pretty pricey
but worth the splurge), Blue Heaven (very affordable and totally funky),
and El-Sibonay (fantastic Cuban food!). Also, keep in mind that you can
get some very good meals at bars such as Hogs Breath and Sloppy Joe's.
Don't forget to go to the Blond Giraffe for the best Key Lime Pie,
either regular or frozen chocolate dipped! To Die For!!!! Happy Eating
in Paradise!
Karen
Owings Mills, MD
Eddie and Annette Berman
all affordable and very good
"Linda" <li...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:5whqb.11839$Oo4...@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net...
D. Reid
having a "Cheeseburger in Paradise" at Marguritaville. Thats Jimmy Buffetts
place. It's on either Duval or Center Street...I forget. I usually cant
remember my own name or where I live when I leave that place anyway. :-)
Enjoy your trip
"They say at 40...your eyes start to go. At 50 Your mind turns to mush. At
sixty...well...at 60 they say you start losing what I'm gonna miss the MOST
!!!...I'm gonna dread 60".
(I think I said that...but I cant remember)
"Eddie and Annette Berman" <moma...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:iuCdneXpmdc...@comcast.com...
3rd time cruiser
Hey,
Did Key West on our last cruise. The problem was that there were three ships in
port at the time. About 4000 people decending on K-W all of a sudden. Lines
were long, the place was a zoo. Take a walk down the side streets. As always,
off the beaten path, there is gold.
In article <10682297...@cache6.usenetserver.com>, D. Reid says...
D. Reid
ships)...and yes...some of the best KW has to offer is off the beaten paths.
"3rd time cruiser" <3rd_m...@newsguy.com> wrote in message
news:bogvb...@drn.newsguy.com...
fradybunch
not having a "Cheeseburger in Paradise". I also liked hearing Jimmy Buffet
the whole time. But the service was terrible, kind of like the islands :-),
of course, Key West IS an island! But, there were only two of us, and they
added 18 percent tip onto our bill, which was not posted anywhere, so I
asked for that back, and left what I thought was appropriate for the service
we got. We did enjoy eating here, but I don't know if we would do it again.
Sandi
Peter Krynicki
> enjoy simple, good food. Linda
A lot depends on how long you will stay, the number of days and nights
and what you will do there. But if you have one sit-down dinner, go to
Blue Heavan on Petronia on a week night. (Too long a wait on weekends)
It has a bar inside and outside, but the dining area is just enclosed
by a fence with no roof. They have strung sails overhead to provide
shade in the afternoon, but otherwise it's nice and cool in the
evenings. (If I have one rule-of-thumb about Key West, it's never
eat/drink in a place that has four walls and/or a roof. Too many good
open air places) And the ground is simply dirt. Nice dirt, but dirt
none-the-less. It's so the chickens can peck around while you eat and
the cats can sleep underneath the tables. It sounds weird but it's a
great place. Supposedly, in the old days, it is one of the places
where the cock fights took place and that Hemingway used to referee
them. Take a look upstairs at the art gallery. This used to be a "cat"
house. Suggestions for food include the blackened grouper, the veggie
platter and an appitizer of shrimp. You can also try a Kalik
(pronounced Klik) beer. It's brewed in the Bahamas and is like an
India Pale Ale - very refereshing. For some reason if you ask people
who have been to Key West for a place to eat, they suggest Seven
Fishes, but this place is too upscale for me. (And it has a roof!) You
can eat at Blue Heaven in shorts and not feel out of place. You can't
at Seven Fishes.
Another good place for a dinner is Pepe's on Front Street (Not El
Meson
de Pepe). They are a small place with limited seating and a different
special each night. Try to hit the Bar-B-Q night if you can, but most
of the food there is good. And they are one of the best places to have
a breakfast. You will have to wait a while but the pancakes are
home-made. And they sometimes have a turkey/cheese/eggs wrap that is
out of this world. You can go in the middle of the morning and have a
Bloody Mary while you wait. This place used to be a garage. Check out
the chandeliers. Another good breakfast place is Coissants de France
right on Duval. Ask for a table in back in the garden, have a
cafe-au-lait, and the brioche. But for a breakfast (or lunch) with
that special someone, ask about taking the launch to the other side of
Sunset Key. They drop you off and you can eat on a veranda of a hotel
overlooking the ocean where all of the rich people dock their boats.
And El Meson de Pepe has the best Cuban food - ceviche, Cuban Bread,
Cuban shrimp, plantains (ask for them "wet"). They have Happy Hour
from noon till 4:00 where all of the bar-food is 1/2 price. They
should call it happy half-day. Try an Hatuey beer here. It used to be
brewed in Cuba but has been bought out by Bacardi and now is too
expensive for them to bring in in kegs, but the bottles are good, too.
This used to be Hemingway's fav. beer. The place is on an alley that
leads to the Mallory docks so there is always a nice breeze coming off
the ocean. They have a 2 or 3 or 4-man Latin band (according to how
well the economy is doing) and you have to sit at the bar at night
about 9:00 and watch the people coming from watching the sunset at
Mallory Docks. Usually touristy people who have had a long day, are
sun-burned, and the kids are antsy. They mope along, then......they
hear the beat of a tango and they can't help themselves. They start
bopping and jiving to the beat, their arms swing, and they might even
try a few steps. Then they pass and it's back to normal.
If you are there several nights, watch the sunset from Mallory Docks
the
first night (everybody does) then maybe once from the Pier House upper
deck, but then go to the top of that 7 or 8 story
hotel right in the middle of Duval (La Concha, I think). You can see
all of Key West from the observation deck up there and I think this
orovides the best sunset.
And I think the best place for having the first drink early in the
evening is Kelleys on Whitehead. They have a micro-brewery which makes
4 different beers and the best margueritas. It used to be owned by
Kelley MaGillis (Witness) and is in the old HQ of Pan Am airlines. Sit
at the bar overlooking the garden. (There seems to always be a guy
there, smoking a cigar, who says he was with the CIA and was part of
the Bay of Pigs invasion. Dubtful. But also check out the photos on
the wall and the ceiling fan inside.
Things not to miss, and you can choose for yourself any place on the
Key West bight, are conch critters, boles, conch chowder, pretty much
any local seafood item. Try Turtle Kraals and the Half-Shell Raw Bar.
Alonzos and the A&B Oyster Bar are OK, but more expensive and not any
better, IMO.
BTW, if you want to go snorkling at the reef, they now have combo
snorkling/sunset sails. These are good deals, esp. if some people
snorkle and some don't. The sail out to the reef is half the fun. For
beginners or if you want to be with a lot of people, take either the
Sunny Days or the Fury cat. I say for beginners because these boats
have a big ramp that they let down from the bows into the water, so
it's easy to get in/out. Otherwise they have to try to climb down a
ladder with their gear on or take that one step from the rail. But if
you want a more personal trip, take the Floridays which berths at the
Hilton - next to the Pier House. It's a smaller ship, maybe 64', and
only holds 14 people. You get a much better feeling of sailing and you
can steer the ship for a while. There is also a full day sail (9:00 -
4:00 or so) which gse to several places for snorkling and lays out a
BBQ on a beach somewhere. I haven't tried this yet but will next trip
down.
If you want a Damn Good piece of Key Lime Pie and a Damn Good cup of
coffee, go to the Damn Good Food Co., just off the bight. You'll have
to ask around because it's hard to explain how to get there, but most
of the fishermen buy coffee and stuff there in the AM, it's that good.
Damn Good! And IMO or course, if you want a burger or a steak or
chicken wings, wait till you get home. The conch and seafood is so
good here that you waste your time having ordinary fare. Even a place
known for its burgers, Hog's Breath Saloon, also has a very good
grouper sandwich instead.
And one other odd thing. Souviners. You can get a cap or a T-shirt
(look for the 3/$10.00 or you'll pay too much), but when you get back
check out a web page called GALLERYKEYWEST. It has photos or ink
drawings or multi-colored paintings by local people. They are $15.00
each and you can look through them and try to recognize places. Then
get your fav. and support the locals.
Good luck
Pjk
Nicholson's
for example: Mel Fishers or cemetery tour? Any suggestions on what not
to miss?
thanks,
Cheryl
Ray Goldenberg
<noshohcin...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> What is your view on the tourist type stuff? Like
>for example: Mel Fishers
Hi Cheryl,
I very much enjoy visiting Mel Fisher's museum. Now I have to admit I
am a scuba diver and very interested in ship wrecks but I would think
most would enjoy a visit.
Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
Peter Krynicki
> This post is a keeper. What is your view on the tourist type stuff? Like
> for example: Mel Fishers or cemetery tour? Any suggestions on what not
> to miss?
> thanks,
> Cheryl
>
things to do in a day or so, and that this is part of the fun of going
there. I've never felt tempted to take the Conch Train Tour or the
Cemetery Tour or pretty much anything that is guided by someone else,
except for the tour of the Hemingway House because the guides are so
knowledgable. If you are interested in Hemingway and his life in Key
West, there is a good book called Hemingway's Key West which is as
much about the island as it is about his stay there. And you can read
some of his "dispatches" which he wrote in the 30's and 40's from, and
about, Key West and Cuba. Many of these have been put together in a
book called By-line: Ernest Hemingway edited by ??? White. A lot of
interesting stuff about fishing and the Gulf Stream and the Island.
Another good book is Last Train to Paradise about Henry Flagler's
building of the inter-island railroad and its destruction in the great
hurricane in the 30's. And John Hersey's Key West Tales, a book of
short stories.
For me, now, the "touristy" thing I always suggest because you might
miss several things, is a walk all the way to the southern end of
Duval to see the Southernmost Point to the west one block and the
Southernmost House at the corner of Duval and South Street. Then if
you work your way east, into the rising sun along Atlantic Blvd, you
can find the White Street Pier and the east and west Martello towers,
and just walk along the beach across from the airport area. These are
some of the nicest "out-of-town" areas in Key West. It's maybe 2 or 3
miles off Duval. One other nice "in-town" area is around the corner of
Caroline and Simonton. This area has the nicest restored Key West
houses, and if I were ever to stay at a B&B, this would be the area
for me...nice and quite but one block off Duval.
I suppose everyone has a drink or something at Sloppy Joe's, Capt'n
Tony's, The Hog's Breath, Magueritaville, etc, but these are, for me,
one time deals, something to have done with. And no offence meant
because these places are always crowded. But Kelley's and Pepe's and
El Meson de Pepe and Crabby Dicks are quiter and just nicer. (Crabby
Dick's right on Duval is on the 2nd floor and is great bar for
(full-priced) oysters, but Crabby Bills, as of my last trip, has a
dozen oysters for two bucks and 2-4-1 beers, even Sam Adams. Sooooo.
hth
Pjk
MaryGosline
Susie Q
Nicholson's
I really appreciate this newsgroup and all the people like you that make
it so informative.
Cheryl
Queen of Cruising
<noshohcin...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>I really appreciate this newsgroup and all the people like you that make
>it so informative.
Thank you.
LOL