Posts tagged "Beer"

Jack Flats

509 Duval St – (305) 294-7955 – www.jackflats.com/

2nd Gator Football game of the season = trying out another sports bar!

After our trip to The Sports Page last weekend, we were looking for another sports bar to compare it to, so we decided this time we were going to try out Jack Flats on Duval St.

We wandered in about noon and bellied up to the bar. The walls inside were completely covered with projection screens.. this place means business! I ordered a draft blue moon, and christina ordered a bloody mary. The bloody mary was really good, and the blue moon was no slouch. Fresh beer.. a good sign!

We ordered some nachos for an appetizer while we waited for the game to start. There were a couple of big College games on that day so the place was busy, but not obnoxiously so, there were only two bartenders, but those girls were on top of their game.. and much cuter than the dudes at Sports Page.

Not Yo Cheese!

The nachos were pretty darned good, I’d definitely get them again. They fry their own chips there, so they were nice and crispy, and had that yummy flavor you just can’t get with bagged chips. They were smothered with beans, chili, cheese, sour cream, and some lettuce. Tasty.

I stuck with the blue moon throughout the game, but Christina switched it down to Bud Light. (UG), but you know.. who am I to tell someone what to drink, and it was a buck cheaper than the Blue Moon, which was 4.50, average Duval prices. We didn’t ask about a local discount, which most bars have here.. I guess we just didn’t think about it.

The couple sitting next to us at the bar were on their honeymoon, and they were Gator fans too, but weren’t terribly interested in chit chatting, so we let them be. They ordered a few pitchers, and a pizza app which looked really good. I wanted to get a picture of it, but I thought they might think I was wierd, taking photos of their food..

The booth behind us was full of a group of older dudes in full Gator regalia.. banner on the table and all. They had a little boom box with them, and every time the Gators scored (Which was ALOT), one of them would cue up the Gator theme song, and walk up and down the length of the bar with the boom box up in the air a la John Cusack.. hahaha.. good times. Lots of Gator chompin’ going on that day!

The televisions (projectors) were all bright and in focus, and the sound system was in good shape. No distortion here. Near as I could tell they picked a game from each section of the bar and played the sound from that program in that section. They had remote speaker boxes at the bar so you could dial in your favorite game if you couldn’t hear the game you wanted on the main system.

Time for some real food

I ordered a Cuban Mix sandwich, and Christina ordered wings medium. Funny thing, here in Key West, I notice they call it a ‘Cuban Mix’, but everywhere else I’ve been it’s just called a ‘Cuban’. I wonder what – if anything – is the difference. Anyone know?

When the food arrived, I immediately snagged a wing off Christina’s plate. It was really good, more spicy than the kinda bland wings we got at The Sports Page. My Cuban was VERY good, perhaps one of the best I’ve had so far. Of course Key West is much closer to Cuba than Orlando, so that’s to be expected.

It had the usual ingredients – ham, roasted pork, pickles, mustard, swiss cheese, and even bacon! Christina’s eyes lit up when she noticed that.. I had to fend her off by feeding her some french fries, which were also quite good, no funky tasting spices here.. just normal french fries.

This is the first Cuban sandwich I’ve had here in KW, so I can’t compare it to other local restaurants, but I look forward to hunting out the best Cuban down here.

And the score is!

I have to say, that as much as we liked The Sports Page last weekend, I’m going to have to say we both enjoyed Jack Flats more, and plan to go back next weekend for the coming Gator game.

I wish I had the kind of money it would take to really give places I wasn’t blown away with multiple chances, but eating out is expensive around here, and currently I’m a big fat burden on society, so Christina is our only source of expendable income. Hopefully that situation will cease to be an issue soon! There has to be some job I’m qualified to do down here.

I went to Jack Flats’ website, and it was down. What is it with web sites for businesses in this town?? It costs like 8 bucks a month to host a website, surely they can afford that. But hey, I have to give them props for even having a real website, unlike Sports Page which uses facebook. I know, I know.. it’s Key West.. who cares!

Jack Flats.. a fun place to go watch games, eat good food, drink good beer, and get good service.. check it out!

Peace!

Captain Tony’s Saloon

428 Greene Street – 305-294-1838 - www.capttonyssaloon.com/

And you thought Sloppy Joe’s was on Duval!

I knew right away this place was a little different. When we walked up to the front, there were a group of drunk coeds standing under the sign on the sidewalk, (fake breasts threatening to slip out of seriously strained bikini tops), facing the street and trying to chuck pennies up over their heads into the mouth of the big fish on top of the sign. I don’t know the history behind this, but I can only assume it’s a good luck thing. I certainly felt as if my luck was changing!

I’d been here once before for a couple of beers, but had to come back to grab some photos for this post (oh darn). Captain Tony’s is a place like no other, the ceilings and walls (every single available scrap of space) are covered with thousands upon thousands of business cards, panties, license plates, old junk, and bras.. bras, bras, bras.. everywhere you look bras. It’s literally impossible to make out what it all is, there’s so much of it.

Then there’s the tree. A huge old Oak, growing right up through the middle of the floor and out the roof! It’s dark, dingy, and utterly key west through and through.

A rich and infamous history

This is the original location of Sloppy Joe’s Bar, the actual place Hemingway hung out in in the early 1930′s. Sloppy Joe’s was owned by Joe “Josie” Russell. Hemingway immortalized his friendship with Joe in his book To have and have not by using him as the basis for Freddy, the captain of the Queen Conch, and owner of Freddy’s bar.

The building had been many things before Joe Russell bought it in 1933. It was a telegraph station in 1898, after that it was a cigar factory, a bordello, several speakeasies, the county morgue, and an icehouse.

Joe Russell moved his bar out of the building in the middle of the night over a dispute with the landlord, and the building housed a gay bar through the 40′s and early 50′s

Captain Tony bought the bar in 1958 after hitchhiking to Key West from New Jersey on the back of a milk truck.  He’d left NJ to avoid being chased down by mob bookies to whom he’d managed to annoy quite seriously.

During his fantastic life of 92 years, Captain Tony fathered thirteen children by three wives, had been a Charter Boat Captain, a Gun Runner for Cuban mercenaries during the Bay of Pigs, and was elected mayor of Key West in 1989, his campaign slogan being; “All you need in this life is a tremendous sex drive and a great ego. Brains don’t mean shit.”

His goal while mayor was to limit growth and to have Key West maintain its reputation as a refuge for eccentrics and renegades. He was quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying “Key West is an insane asylum. We’re just too lazy to put up walls or fences, I want to retain that mystique.”

Captain Tony passed away in 2008; he’d sold the business almost 20 years earlier, but was still a constant fixture at the bar, and he spent his time signing autographs and visiting with the patrons.

Now HERE was a guy I would have absolutely loved to meet, I’m really sorry I got here a year too late to make that happen. Captain Tony, you sound like my kinda folk!

The Lady in the Blue Dress

I’m still digging for this story, and when I get it figured out, I’ll post it up in the ghosts of Key West section, but for now here’s a quick rundown. Apparently during the time when the building was used as a morgue, that big old tree that now grows through the roof, was the town hanging tree.

A woman who had killed her husband and son was hung from that tree, along with a few other miscreants over the years. When a huge storm hit Key West and demolished the morgue, they found bodies all over the place in the aftermath.

I’ve heard a couple of versions of this, one is that they cremated the bodies and filled glass bottles with the ashes, which they then embedded into the concrete foundations of the rebuilt structure. Another version states the bottles were filled with holy water to keep the restless spirits at bay. It’s hard to find reputable stuff about this online, but sure enough, the bottles are there in the foundation. I’ll keep digging.

The ladies restroom is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of the lady in the blue dress. Christina didn’t see anything in there during her visit, so the Jury is still out!

A good place to hang out

I like Captain Tony’s, it rates right up there with Schooner Wharf for down and dirty local character. There’s usually some sort of live music, and always a lot of interesting folk. It’s a block off Duval so it’s not totally overrun by sweaty sunburnt tourists. And you can hardly pass up the opportunity to run into a ghost in the ladies room!

Check it out!

The Sports Page Key West

610 Greene St – 305-296-3230 - www.myspace.com/thesportspagekw

College Football Season Begins!

And when that happens, it’s time to search out a favorite sports bar to catch the Gator games. Now I have to come clean here, I’m not a huge sports fan, but Christina is a dyed in the wool Gator, so I find myself a fan by association. We had a favorite haunt in Orlando to go watch the games, but that’s a long way to drive for a football game, so we vetted our first sports bar here in Key West last Saturday; The Sports Page on Greene street.

We walked into the Sports Page about 6:30 Saturday and bellied up to the bar. The first thing I noticed was that it felt like any good sports bar should, crowded, lots of big screen TVs, a few projection screen TV’s, a pool table, lots of pennants, neon beer signs, and cheerleader photos.. So far so good!

It was an interesting transition from the atmosphere of Key West to inside of the Sports Page, I wasn’t expecting it to be such a typical sports bar, but it almost felt like we were sitting in Orlando or anywhere else enjoying the game. I appreciated the familiarity of it, it made me feel comfortable right away.

Time for some beer!

There were two bartenders working the bar that night, Robert and um… someone else. (God I’m bad with names) They were both very good, and handled the entire place very efficiently. It’s a pretty big place so that’s no small feat.

We ordered a couple of Blue Moons. Supposedly they have 2 for 1 happy hour between 4 and 8, but we didn’t get any of that.. oh oh.. strike one. We ordered up some cheese sticks to get us rolling, and settled in. I switched to Key West ale for my second beer.. love that Key West Ale! The draft was cold and fresh.. bad draft is one of my big peaves, so I’ll give points for that!

The beers were pretty expensive, 4.50 I think for the KW Ale, and the Blue Moons were about 4.75 – about average I guess for Duval area beers. (I could be off on this – man, I make a horrible restaurant critic, I can’t even remember exact prices!) Their myspace web page states that they have incredible prices.. um yeah.. incredibly high! Maybe they’re trying to make enough money to get a real website.

They don’t have pitchers, but they do offer buckets, and I’ve recently learned that they offer 2 dollar Bud Light drafts, so if you can stomach that crap, you’re in luck. Maybe that’s the incredible pricing they speak of. But hey, not hatin’, I understand it’s expensive to run a business downtown Key West. If the prices were out of line, it sure didn’t show in attendance, the place was packed.

Bring me a bucket..

I’d done a little bit of research online before heading in, and read good reviews about the food so I had pretty high expectations.

The cheese sticks arrived in a basket with a cool newspaper-looking liner, and they were very good as far as cheese sticks go.. and before you say it’s hard to fuck up cheese sticks, let me tell you that I’ve had many a basket of total shit cheese sticks, overcooked, greasy, undercooked, you name it. I’ve even had an entire basket of them that somehow, magically, all the cheese was gone out of them, like they sprung a leak in the fryer and the cheese escaped.

I’d read in one review online that the ‘cleveland paninis’ were to die for, so I looked for those on the menu. I noticed they had a cheesesteak version.. oh yeah, I want to go to there! Christina ordered a basket of chicken wings medium. Alright! Food is ordered, time for a couple more beers while we wait.

We were sitting right by the service bar so I had a front row seat to all the food coming out of the kitchen, and I saw some very delectable delights pass me by.. one in particular had to be a calzone of some sort, I almost snagged that sucker as it sat there waiting for Robert to take it to it’s rightful owner. Next time I’m getting that!

After a little while the food arrived in some more baskets with the cool newsprint. The wings were big and juicy looking, and my panini looked really good! I immediately stole one of Christina’s wings.. hey, it’s the price she has to pay. It was cooked perfectly, but it definitely wasn’t what I’d consider medium.. the sauce for sure could have used used some help from Emeril. All in all a good wing, but quite bland. If this was medium, I wonder what the mild tastes like.

My Panini was piled high with sliced, tender roast beef, coleslaw, tomatoes, melted swiss, and french fries! On the sandwich! How odd. It looked fabulous.

If only it had tasted as good as it looked. Where the wings were under-flavored, the panini cheese steak was over-flavored. You know that salty red shit they pour on ‘spicy’ french fries? I don’t know exactly what it is, it’s like Mrs. Dash or something.. well it was on the fries, and all over the roast beef too. I did some surgery and removed the fries from the sandwich, but the flavor was overpowering. I mean, you have all these yummy flavorful things already on there.. why smother it with all that salty crap. Now, I realize this is just me, I don’t like spicy fries to begin with – other people may love it, but it’s definitely not my bag. I could tell that the sandwich surely was cooked well, the meat was tender, the focaccia bread was crunchy, it had so much potential! ARGH! I won’t let this stop me from going back though, the other things I saw flying past me on the bar looked really really good. And there’s always room for more food in my life.

Maybe I’m an audio snob, but come on..

Being someone who’s built a good deal of loudspeakers, and set up some pretty complex audio systems, I’m probably a bit of a gear-snob. That being said, I don’t think I’m too far off base by saying their sound system in this place sucks. There are a few small loudspeakers hung around the room, and they are driven far past their acceptable capacity. Actually the larger problem is the input gain to the amps from the television is waaaaay to high, in effect creating a situation where the amplifiers are outputting a distorted signal into the poor speakers, which themselves are too small for the room they are in.  That signal had no chance man, it was hamstrung out of the gate. Probably something that a bit of tweaking by someone who knew what they were doing would fix. This could be something that just was happening that night, I won’t know until a couple more visits.

All in all, I really can’t complain too much, the place is warm and inviting, the service is good, the bartenders are friendly and efficient, the crowd was fun, the beer was cold, and the food didn’t kill us. What else could you want from a sports bar. I’m holding off on final judgement on the food until I have some more of it. I’ve read nothing but good reviews from other people, so there has to be something to that.

I’ll have to hit the other sports bar down on this end of town, Jack Flats and see what the comparison is..

OK.. 4:30.. happy hour time here.. Cheers!

Shanna Key Pub

1900 Flagler Avenue – 305-295-8880 – http://shannakey.info/

It’s not much from the outside..

.. but we’d been wanting to hit this place for a while, and because it’s on the other side of US1 in new town it required getting in the car and driving. Well, OK.. it didn’t require driving.. we could have ridden our bikes I suppose, it’s only like a mile and a half away.. but we were in the car anyways because we’d been to the East Martello Museum to visit Robert the Doll. It was just after lunchtime, and hey, it was time for a beer or two.

We wandered in, sat at the bar and ordered up a couple Smithwicks. The young lass behind the bar looked at me strange and asked if we knew each other. Oh oh.. think, think, think… my mind scrambled to recognize her… I got nothing. I told her I was pretty sure we didn’t. She didn’t look convinced. Neither did Christina.

“Where are you from?” she asked. I noticed her irish accent now. “Orlando” I blurted feeling guilty already for whatever it was my doppelganger may have done to her. “Well, we live here now, but originally from Orlando”. She looked at me a little cautiously to see if maybe I was trying to pull one over on her. “Hm, she said, you look just like someone I know. You guys hungry?” She handed us a couple menus and wandered off to take care of a group of folks a little bit down the bar. I have to say that I get this more often than I think I ought to.. Do I really look that much like other people? I certainly don’t think so.. but what do I know.

They have a pretty good menu at Shanna Key, and we’d heard from more than a few people that the food was good. Neither of us was terribly hungry, so we tried to order light. What we really wanted to get were some scotch eggs, but they didn’t offer them. Christina ordered the Smoked Fish Dip, and I ordered the Corned Beef and Swiss sandwich. I’d just made corned beef and cabbage for dinner a couple nights before, and just that morning had used the leftover corned beef and potatoes to make corned beef hash, so I don’t know what possessed me to order corned beef again, but the stomach wants what the stomach wants.

Atmosphere

While waiting for our food, we finished our first beers and ordered up a second round while I checked out the decor. Shanna Key will certainly win no competitions for traditional Irish Pub furnishings. No heavy wood beams on the ceiling, no intricate wood work on or behind the bar, the walls sported no fancy-framed beer mirrors, relying mostly on sports posters to fill the space. Shanna Key calls itself a sports bar, so I guess the posters are de rigueur. Maybe I’m just not familiar with Irish sports bars, are they typically less-decorated than Irish pubs?

In the bar area up front, there are a few large, round, wooden bar-height tables to sit around, Some televisions hanging on the walls, and a few stools and such. There’s a sit-down dining room near the back of the place, I didn’t see anyone in there, but being 2:00 in the afternoon I wouldn’t expect it.

All in all, it’s pretty boring inside as far as the decor goes, so if you’re looking for a traditional dark Irish pub, this isn’t the place for you. What it does have, (and this is based solely on our one visit) is a healthy dose of interesting regulars. One of my favorite haunts back in Orlando; Casey’s on Central was the same way. No gimmicks, no fancy decoration, just good food, cold beer, and interesting conversation. The gentleman sitting next to Christina had just made a batch of home made salsa, and he’d brought a tupperware bowl of it and a bag of tortilla chips in to share with the people at the bar.  Very cool.. and the salsa was good!

Shanna Key is definitely a locals neighborhood sports bar first and foremost. I like it. I can see myself going back often.

The Food

The food was very good. My sandwich was made with shredded corned beef (Not sliced deli processed crap, but real boiled corned beef brisket), melted swiss, and Guinness mustard piled onto a toasted soft hoagie roll. It came with a big pile of yummy french fries. It was very tasty… very.

Christina’s Smoked Fish Dip was superb, and I don’t even like fish. I’m going to have to go back and order up some more food when I’m hungrier to see if everything else stacks up to these initial delights.

I give this bar  3 out of 5 beers, only losing one beer point because it’s really not decorated like an irish pub ought to be, but in all honesty, who the hell cares! The food is great, the beer is cold, and the people are great.. you couldn’t ask for much more. Well except maybe some some strippers, but that’s a story for another time….

If you’ve been to Shanna Key, let s all know what you’re experience was like!

Schooner Wharf Bar

202 William Street – Ph: (305) 292-3302 – www.schoonerwharf.com

So far this is my all-time favorite bar on the island. Schooner Wharf is the first place we stumbled upon on our very first visit to Key West years ago, and it remained the first stop on all subsequent visits.

It sits right on the marina and is full of a wonderfully eclectic hodge-podge of detritus no doubt scavanged from many a tall ship or reeled in on the end of a fishing line.

It’s a great place to go have a couple of cold beers while waiting for a sunset cruise (and of course after the sunset cruise), do some tourist (or local) watching, and listen to some of the ever-present live entertainment.

I haven’t been to anywhere near even a quarter of the bars in KW yet, so I can’t say for certain, but my guess is this is one of the true local hangouts, and if you want to get a real taste of what life is like in KW, you absolutely must come here and strike up aconversation with one of the old salty dogs sitting around the bar. Locals might look scary sometimes, but my experience has been they’re mostly pretty harmless.

The staff is friendly and quick, and the food is not too shabby. I absolutely LOVE the clam chowder here. Clam chowder is one of those things I order everywhere I go to see who has the best. I can say with certainty that Schooner Wharf has the lead where the chowder is concerned. I don’t know if they make it from scratch or buy it straight from the devil himself, but I wish I could buy it in bulk from them.

Personally Oysters are something I’ve yet to gain an appreciation for, but Christina loves them, as do some of my other friends we’ve brought here. The verdict is super-yummy.

The only issue I’ve ever had with the food has been the last couple times I’ve visited. The fried shrimp was overcooked. I ordered them again the second visit to see if it had been an anomaly the first time, because usually the food is so good. I still believe it was probably a case of someone falling asleep at the fryer, and will give it another shot next time around to decide for good. Barring that small gripe, everything else we’ve had here has been fantastic. Schooner Wharf  is after all a bar, and not a fine dining establishment, so judging by that standard, I’d say the food is better than average.

There is an upstairs ‘poop deck’ that gives a better view of the marina, this is by far my favorite hangout at Schooner Wharf… unless it’s raining. The live music in the courtyard on the ground floor can get a little loud for me sometimes. Of course a trip to the bathroom from here requires a walk down some stairs, so plan accordingly…. nothing more embarrassing than tumbling down some stairs in front of a group of people eating. Trust me.

Speaking of bathrooms. I hear the Women’s restroom isn’t bad (Can’t say for myself), and while I guess the mens room isn’t as bad as many I’ve seen, the journey to reach it is an interesting one.

Also, no visit would be complete without a trip to Frank Everhart’s Magic Bar in the back corner of the ground floor. Frank is a true sleight of hand aficionado.  He’s a very entertaining guy, I highly recommend you spend some time at his bar. He gets there around 9:00 nightly.

Schooner Wharf has a webcam that looks out over the courtyard toward the stage. We spent many an evening in Orlando watching this while we were trying to dream up ways to move to Key West. It was like a little bit of heaven right there in our living room. Check it out, you’ll probably see me sitting at the bar quaffing draft Key West Ale!

Cheers!
Mike