Archive for March, 2010

Dante’s Key West

955 Caroline Street – 305-953-5123 – www.dantes-keywest.com

One of the Coolest Places in Key West to Hang Out

I can’t say enough good things about Dante’s. Next to Schooner Wharf (which sits just a bit down the marina from Dante’s), this is my favorite bar in Key West.

Imagine this: A large swimming pool, a really cool waterfall, and a statue of a marlin which shoots water into the pool. Pretty cool? Add two tiki bars and a large pool deck with umbrella tables and lounge chairs, a stage where they have live entertainment at night, then add on top of that a fantastic view of the Old Key West marina and you have Dante’s.

My first visit to Dante’s was when I was down on vacation. We sat at the bar and had a drink or two, but were afraid to go in the pool because it kinda looks like it belongs to a hotel or something.. I was afraid we didn’t belong and would get shoo’d out. Well it doesn’t belong to a hotel.. it’s just a big nice pool, that happens to be part of a bar. I love it!

All of this would be enough to keep me going back, but when you add on top of all those great amenities some fantastic food (menu here) and you’re getting pretty close to a perfect situation. Dante’s shares a kitchen with Prime 951 steakhouse, a really fancy resturaunt right next door, so you know right off there’s good food comin’ outta there!

I haven’t had a lot of stuff off the menu because I just can’t seem to get past the Nachos. They are hands down the best nacho’s I’ve ever had, and the plate is so big you can feed 3 or 4 people off of it. People I’ve been with have ordered the sandwiches and burgers, I didn’t sample any of them, but I can tell you they are huge, and judging by how fast they disappear, and the yummy sounds coming from the devourers, they must be good.

Dante’s is the place that during Fantasy Fest had the stripper pole on a platform in the middle of the pool, and held a pole dancing competition. Good times!

There are always a good group of locals and touristas alike smattered throughout the two bars, the bartenders are super friendly, and they drink prices won’t kill you. When the weather is warm, which is most of the time, the pool deck is crowded with oiled bodies sipping frozen drinks and soaking up the rays.

You can usually find Magic Frank here as well an hour or so before his show over at Schooner Wharf, relaxing and chit chatting with the folks at the bar.

Dante’s is definitely one of those bars that draws the locals to it as well as the tourists. Most of the folks I’m friends with here don’t have access to a swimming pool where they live, and when it gets really hot out, you just gotta get into the water. Dante’s is where everyone goes to relax and cool off during the day. When the sun goes down, it’s only a few stumbles to Schooner Wharf  for the late evening crowd.

Check it out! It’ll be love at first dip!

Normalcy Creeps Back Into My Life

It’s been a while, I’ve been busy

Well, Spring is almost here in Key West and as far as I’m concerned, not a moment too soon. After one of the coldest winters in Key West history (right after I move here I might add.. grrrr), I’m ready to begin the tropical phase of my life.

I’m coming up on one year in Key West this June, and as I look back on the last nine months since moving here, I can still say with all certainty that I’ve definitely made the right choice.

I finally managed to secure employment after a gruesome 7 months of looking. It’s a great job doing computer graphics and color correction for a local photographer at his gallery. Right up my alley! I was completely convinced there near the end that I was going to have to get a job at Pizza Hut or McDonalds! I even applied at Home Depot, hey.. I’m a handy guy, I could certainly sell tools to people. I never heard back from them though, so I guess they didn’t share my optimism.

I’m not sure if the lack of good jobs in key west is due to the nature of the city, or the economy, or a combination of the two, but let me tell you, I was having some anxiety there near the end that Key West might spit me back out. I had read the “Quit your Job and Move to Key West” book (After I moved here, I might add), and there was an entire chapter on the realities of trying to live and work on the island. They stated quite clearly that Key West chooses the people it wants to live here, and jettisons the rest.. I laughed when I read that, but now I’m a believer. Thank you Cayo Hueso for letting me stay! I see a long and delightful future in the cards for us.

Where does the time go?

One of the largest differences in my life after finally getting a job, is the loss of all the FREE TIME! I mean, I’d worked full time for my entire life up until a couple years ago when I was laid off, and I always seemed to be able to get the things done on the weekends that I needed to. I never really felt like I was missing anything.

Now I feel like life is screaming by me, and all I’m doing is workin’ for the man again! It’s disturbing, and as much as I love having a job and making money again, I lament the time I had to sit around and gather my direction at my leisure.

I’ve labeled this phenomenon the ‘time slip’ (Not to be confused with the Time Warp, there’s no jumping to the left in the time slip). It’s the creeping feeling that you get in your gut when, after a period of enlightenment and personal growth, you start to realize how precious your life and personal happiness really are. How much your time is REALLY worth.

I felt the Time Slip strongly for the first time when I went to the Virgin Islands to stay on Water Island at a friends house for a week about four years ago. It didn’t hit until I got back to my life in Orlando, and returned to my soul-sucking corporate job. I didn’t know what it was exactly, but I knew that I’d been altered somehow, and my life in the city, and the corporate job that supported it, just weren’t cutting it anymore. Not by a long shot.

The feeling passed after a while, as I slipped back into the matrix and resumed my daily grind making other people rich. But the feeling sat in the pit of my stomach, just a small flicker of a flame, refusing to be put out.

Personal Expression

Now, maybe I’m just a conflicted person. Maybe I want it all. Maybe I’m being unrealistic, or maybe I just haven’t yet found my ultimate stride in life. But working for someone else again reminds me just how strong my desire to be self sufficient really is. Don’t get me wrong, I love this job, there’s no corporate BS, no staff meetings, it’s just me and a couple other folks. My boss is a super nice guy. But still I’m stressed out about it. Is it the work? Most certainly not, it’s a very easy and casual job, so that leads me to believe that what stresses me out about it is the lack of personal expression involved in working for other people.

I’m guessing that across the gamut of the types of people out there, from artist to construction worker to corporate number cruncher, that everyone has a different needs when it comes to personal expression. Some people are completely happy in a corporate job working for the man. They find their personal expression in the daily minutiae of how they do their jobs, or perhaps the have hobbies on the weekends that fulfill their needs. Maybe they have no desire for personal expression at all and spend their weekends playing golf. Who knows. But I’m convinced that these people have not yet, or perhaps never will experience the time slip. Is there anything wrong with that? I don’t know. I certainly can’t speak for the rest of the world, but it’s no good for me!

I crave personal expression like air itself. I need to build… to create.. to live my days immersed in stimulating, thought provoking, beautiful surroundings. I’m just not happy without that. I tried for years to find happiness in money and stability. Hey, you look around you when you’re growing up at the people who seem happy, and you follow their lead. I mean, it worked for them right? Hmm. Don’t think so.

My Friend Eric told me about his theory that society needs to go back to the barter system and people need to learn trades. He holds that today’s society is unbalanced because no one actually knows how to do anything anymore. Most people can’t even change a tire, let alone grow food, or build furniture.

I have to say, that when I think about it, it makes some sort of sense. At least to me.

So anyways

I’m rattling off course here. My point is that holding a job again has brought me to the realization that happiness (at least for me) involves self sufficiency and personal expression on a grand scale. I need to build, create, make people think.

I guess I’ve always known that what would really make me happiest would be to make a living creating art for myself in some fashion. I’ve dabbled with writing a novel, painting, photography, sculpture.. you name it, I’ve probably tried it. I think my next big step in life is to focus on developing a plan to reach financial independence. I’ve decided that working for someone else, even if not an unpleasant experience in and of itself, is a dead end street when you look at it closely.

Besides, how can I cruise into the sunset on my sailboat and disappear into the Caribbean if I have to be back to work on monday?