Tourists on the Crawl

We had a great visit, yesterday with Candy Gandolfi Martin and her husband Bob.Those goobers drove all of the way down from the Sarasota area during the wee hours of the morning for a day trip!  That's dedication.

We met them at The Green Parrot. The Parrot is a great old historic place that has been there since 1890. 

It's a popular spot with a great story so I'll save that for a full post. 

When we first arrived, Bob was in the shop getting a T-shirt.  When he came out, we ordered drinks and settled in to catch up. Candy was looking forward to some beach time but, it only took a few minutes befor Bob declared his intention for full Bar Crawl credit. I liked Bob. 

Here's a pic at the Parrot with Candy, Melissa and I.  

Melissa left us here to go write for a few hours.

From The Green Parrot, we headed up to show them the place we think is the most interesting bar in Key West, Capt Tony's.

Although it trumpets itself as the original location of Hemingway's old hangout, Sloppy Joes, Capt Tony's back story is  much richer.  I won't tell the whole story here, but it includes pirates, hangings and Jimmy Buffet.  How is that for a tease to another post?

After that stop, Candy wanted drinks at the Smallest Bar but, for some reason, it wasn't open. Instead we stopped at the famous Sloppy Joe's and grabbed seats at the front bar.  Candy almost went for just a soft drink!  No kidding. We were all just as shocked as you guys.  Props to her, though, she quickly changed her mind and added a dose of rum.  Her crawl lived on! I'll break here for your applause..........

Three down.  That's a solid Small crawl. Two more stops and they would earn official credit for a full Bar Crawl. Candy talked about maybe heading over to the beach before they hit their final stops but, I pointed out that it would be a violation of Rule 3, sec 6 of the Key West By Laws.

Rule 3, sec 6

         “All activity must be consecutive.  The Bar Crawl or Small Crawl shall be deemed terminated for a participant in the event of any of the following;

a.   A participant enters and departs a drinking establishment without ordering an alcohlic drink

b.   A participant departs the establishment for 20 or more minutes.

c.   Participants enter any establishment with a liquor license and fail to order drinks.  In the event that it is a food stop, participants must also order a drink at the restaurant.  In that event, the stop is counted toward the Crawl.

That clinched it,  We pressed ahead. The lady's a trooper. The final two stops were easy. The Smallest Bar still hadn't opened so we diverted into The Bull. This is the place where Melissa and I go to hear Dawn Wilder sing. Melissa rejoined us here and Stop #4 was soon complete.

From there we slid on down to Caroline's for Cuban sandwiches and rum.  Not only was the Crawl complete but we had finished before 3pm.  One of our earliest ever!  That even gave them enough time to get Candy to the beach.

 Bob and Candy, you guys were tons of fun and you're welcome back any time! 

New-to-Me Small Crawl: Round 1

Guess who? Mark, of course. Pretty soon, I'm gonna demand co-author credit for this blog.  I bet I could even swap out Melissa's profile and picture and she wouldn't even notice.

We've been down here over a year now and, although we arrived with heartfelt intentions to experience a wide variety of the restaurants and bars, we quickly found places we liked and settled into a routine. That's sooo wrong.  We had taken a solemn oath to maintain a wide knowledge base of the Duval Street area for our future guests. We devised an easy fix; the New-to-Me Bar Crawl. The primary rule is simple, we can't go to any bar unless one or more of the participants have never had a drink there.

When we jumped on the bikes and headed to town, yesterday, we intended a full-fledged NTM Bar Crawl.  Unfortunately, we got a bit of a late start and then, later, had a hang fire on a food order. Both miscues cost us precious Happy Hour time and, in the end, we were only credited with a small crawl.

Under the Key West By-Laws, Rule 3, sec 5,

"No adventure shall be deemed a Bar Crawl unless participants order drinks in, at least, 5 establishments.  In the event that participants experience between 2 and 4 establishments, said adventure shall be deemed a "Small Crawl."

Our first stop was Grunts. It's a small place on the north side of Caroline St about a half block west of Duval.  It's a marvelous spot. Just around the corner from the livelier times of Duval St, it gives you all of the comfort of a neighborhood bar.

 They only offer beer and wine but that's just fine for a neighborhood bar.  The servers and bar staff are sociable, pleasant and professional.  Debbie's also pretty darn cute, isn't she?

During Happy Hour, draft beers are $2.75 and domestic bottles are $3.

After 5:30, you can order food and that seemed like a smart idea.  The menu is limited but we ordered the fish tacos. Somewhere along the line, our order got lost but I prefer not to blame Debbie. I'm sure it wasn't her fault. We probably lost about 30 precious  minutes of Happy Hour. That meant one less stop. When the tacos arrived,  though, I loved them.

When you stop by Grunts, you can have a seat inside, at the bar, or relax at a wrought iron table in the courtyard.  Either option is well worth your time.

Next up, we stopped by the Smallest Bar. Its the ultimate hole-in-the-wall.  You could probably fit about 4 people inside. (Challenge accepted?)

John, the bartender was a really engaging guy.  That big ole smile is real. He's as friendly as a puppy. We decided to test him with a couple drinks and he nailed the mix.

Like us, John's only been down here about a year and a half. I could have hung out and BS'd with him for hours.  We'll definitely stop back to see him.

  Our final stop for the night was the Hog's Breath Saloon. It may be a bit surprising that we hadn't been there yet, but, as a rule, we tend to avoid the more commercialized places.  It was a disappointment. The service was perfunctory and the place just didn't feel warm at all.  Unless we are with someone else who wants to stop there, I doubt we'll be back. There are too many other places that feel more welcoming.

Stay tuned for the next installment of the New-to-Me Bar Crawl.  We haven't go it scheduled yet but I've got a couple weeks off so it could be soon.