What's new in Key West?

It’s true… one of the reasons we love Key West so passionately is that it never changes....
it’s the same ole’ rebellious, slightly irreverent Conch Republic that’s welcomed us snow-weary and routine-ravaged travelers for decades.  While the rest of our everyday world flurries around us, we can always escape to Key West and sit on Louie’s Backyard deck with a mojito, and feel timeless… almost!  

But here are some new finds that I discovered this spring, that might just make Key West even better!  (Is that even possible? )

The Yebo Island Grill

This South-African owned and inspired food truck on the corner of Angela and Duval Streets took 1 ½ years of wrangling to secure permits in this restaurant-centric mecca.  The big sign for PeriPeri sauce initially caught my eye – that’s a spicy tomato-based South Africa sauce in which they stew everything from chicken livers to mopane worms.   But here in Key West, it’s only on the tacos (see photo, right)!  I ordered a quesadilla which came with their namesake sauce, Yebo, a tangy, peachy colored mayonnaise-based accent.   De-licious!   
And don't worry about the Yebo detracting from sit-down restaurant business.  There's no bar at Yebo's and the "dining room" is a gravel lot with wooden benches - perfect for a sidewalk snack or a to-go beach picnic!
This place is so new that Joel (the owner) and Grace (his baby sister) just got up their Facebook page: LIKE it here!

       

      Mikey-Mo’s wearable art

      This gallery of Hawaiian inspired colors and prints, selling everything from silky boxers to beach skirts, is a firm endorsement of bohemianism at 428 Petronia Street.  Mikey's background story involves Who's Line Is It Anyway's star, Wayne Brady (you can read about it here),  and many of his products are produced by local seamstresses.   Best of all, his passion is bottomless.   Meet the proud owner in his Mikey-Mo's boutique:
  
       

       
The Pig at Sunset Celebration:  

       We’ve known the CatMan for years - our tips have sent his kids to college! The handpainted tomato-cans-turned-lumineres are trusted souvenirs, and my own kids watched the sword-swallower, almost 2 decades ago.   But this year, I found a new cast member at Mallory Square:  a 50-ish-pound,  pale pink and black spotted baby potbelly pig, who dances and even kisses!

Honorable Mention goes to:

Ukelele Night at the Green Parrot!  This is not exactly brand new, but this 2-3 year tradition is a great monthly event, typically the second Wednesday of the month at 8pm at 601 Whitehead Street.  Bring your own ukelele and strum along from the bar, or just come to watch and sing!

I admit… there were a couple of new things that I did NOT particularly like in Key West this year, namely the 4-lane megaroad that leads onto the island and shoots past the once-sleepy yacht basin.    I also shook my head at the sadly generic lemon-colored condos across from Schooner’s Wharf and mourned the long-standing trailer court and panda colony that used to live there.

Even in Key West, we must treasure today because that's all we really have.

Melanie Tucker, head designer at Tough Love Travel, has been traveling to the Keys for more than 3 decades.  

Read her insider's scoop on the Overseas Highway here on her blog, 

or talk to her to plan your Key's ESCAPE!

Island Dreaming: zap me to KEY WEST!

More aptly titled, "3600 Calories (in 36 hours) in Key West", here's a truly decadent table crawl on Cayo Heuso!

Don't waste a minute!  Go 2-wheelin' straight from the  airport

to the deck at Louie's Backyard! 

(thanks to Eaton Bikes and their free delivery @ 305.294.8188)

The best mojito on the island, enjoyed with some killer conch fritters, gets you started, but don't ask the bartend to order food anywhere but the bar... he'll know you're a Newbie!

For lunch, some fish tacos and cannellini bean bruschetta with sauteed calamari were slightly spicy winners!













I dozed next door on the Dog Beach









then biked over to my B&B for a quick shower before heading out to sunset.






A Painkiller at the Sunset Pier, while not exactly original, is a quintessential Key West treat!

I strolled Mallory Square, as the Cat Man performed before a setting sun and the Fury Booze Cruise rocked on by. 

Strolling the shops on the Westin waterfront -- nicely uncrowded without any cruise ships at dock -- worked up an appetite.



Soon i was ready to bike over to the Flaming Bouy Filet Company, a new dinner Hot Spot in town, opened by a Cinncinati-transplant named Fred.  Despite his landlocked life, he sure knows fish, and









grills a moist Key West Pinks (shrimp, for you out-of-staters) in cilantro chutney, and a sweetly watermelon-drenched ceviche too!    Topped it off with Spicy chocolate quesadilla!

Not quite ready to go to bed, I wandered "the strip"!   I watched martini-lovers on the La Te Da Duval-front barstools

and Gin-n-Juicers (an amazing cucumber concoction made with Hendrix Gin) at the secluded Orchid Bar, a little hidden gem hidden within a 1950's motel by the same name.

but frankly I was too beat for either, so i ducked into the old standby, Starbucks, for a chamomile tea, and was off to bed.  Day 1 was done!

Next morning I headed straight to La Creperie, owned by a Key West Icon, Yolande.  Her sidewalk tables  on Petronia were the perfect niche to enjoy a Banana Lime crepe and a cup of tea, before grabbing some book time on Fort Zachary Taylor beach.

Early lunch called at Sarabeths, a synagogue-turned-eatery over on Simonton.  The cool cathedral windows create an intriguing ambiance indoors, but my choice is the outdoor patio.  

A key west Pinks-infused crab cake and salad fill me up, but the strawberry cake, on homemade shortbread, is the real surprise! 

I spend the afternoon biking the hidden alleyways of Old Town,  through the Truman Annex community, and along the southern Higgs Beach trail.

I end up over at the Historic Seaport for a Dark-n-Stormy at Pepes, the oldest restaurant, a cuban-fringed steakhouse, in Key West- opened 1909.  










On a whim, i ordered the Mixed plate of Oysters... mexican ones with chile peppers, florentine ones with spinach, and spicy ones with tabasco.
Good choice!






Reservations for dinner were not easy to come by at the Seven Fish, but it's well worth the wait til 9pm! You could walk right by this little hovel, over on Olivia Street, but I had been wisely directed! The Black Grouper, their rendition steamed with almonds, apricots and coconut, was sweetly divine!

Full to the gills at the Seven Fish, Day 2 was done!

Next morning i found myself on the 8:15 complimentary water taxi to Sunset Key, an 8-minute ferry that delivered me to the private island with a clutch of posh residences, some Westin rentals, and the fancy Latitudes Restaurant.

A sister property to the famous Sagamore Hotel in Upstate NY, Latitudes offered me a rod-iron cafe table under the palms of its waterfront veranda.  There, i opened a menu promising the Power Foods -- soy, blueberries, yogurt, broccoli --









but i opted instead for some sauteed Yellowtail eggs benedict with a side of spinach, a bursting florida pink grapefruit, and some hot coffee that arrived with a flourish in a silver carafe.
I was stuffed!

A mid-morning stop on my bike at one of Key West's homemade gelato stands was a fine idea,

and, as a grand finale, I gave myself an hour on the porch of Santiago's Bedego before heading back to the aiport.  A flaky chevre tart, some thyme-laced lamb lollipops, and a tall glass of red sangria topped me off.  It was time to go home.

If that was all 3600 calories, I need a new calculator!

Honorable mention goes to Nine One Five, whose Victorian porch, slung with bougainvillea, has great people-watching along Duval as well as tasty Pinks!

And to Half Shell Raw Bar.  Happy hour's til 7pm where a couple of drinks and a dozen half-shells run less than 10 bucks! (best seat in the house?  Outside on the dock, watching sunset!)

Don't hurt yourself!