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| Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West |
Sloppy Joe's in Key West, the granddaddy of the Southernmost City's drinking houses and a Duval Street heavyweight! As an author and fan of Ernest Hemingway, I walked into the place to take photos of the entire wall of hanging pictures and artifacts of his life. The manager and bartender told me much about its history.
It
began in 1933, the day Prohibition was repealed, and went through several name
changes and a sudden change of location before it became “Sloppy Joe's”. It was
a mainstay hangout for free thinkers, even in the thirties. In fact, Key West
residents considered Prohibition as an amusing U.S. government exercise.
Then,
along came a guy named Joe Russell who operated an illegal Speak Easy on Front
Street. My mentor, Ernest Hemingway, made Key West his home back then and often
slipped over to Russell's to buy illicit bottles of Scotch. The two became good
friends, and an enduring friendship began.
I
pretended I was old “Papa” Hemingway himself and strolled into the bar, sat at
a barstool and began plotting the MISSION OF VENGEANCE spy thriller. Rumor has
it that “Papa” wrote several of his most famous novels while sitting inside
Sloppy Joe’s, sipping his favorite drink (scotch). My spy thrillers are a
different genre, probably won’t win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction or sell millions
like Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” or “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”, but I
enjoyed plotting them out whilst sitting at the same bar stool where one of history’s
greatest authors once plotted his out.
Although
family-oriented now, it was once a rowdy, come-as-you-are saloon that was
renamed the Silver Slipper upon the addition of a dance floor. Basically, it
was a place of shabby discomfort, good friends and gambling, fifteen-cent
whiskey, and ten-cent shots of gin.
But Hemingway
had an influence on Russell and encouraged he rename it “Sloppy Joe's”. It was a
club that sold liquor and iced seafood. Because the floor was always wet with
melted ice, patrons taunted the owner, Jose (Joe) at the time for running a
sloppy place… “Sloppy Joe’s” they called it, and the name stuck.
I admired
the wall inside Sloppy Joe’s searched for a mural called “Hemingway and Friends”.
It hung there. I photographed it. Such history! In earlier days, "Big"
Skinner, a huge bartender who tipped the scales at 300 pounds served Sloppy
Joe's customers for over two decades. Big Skinner was captured by Erik Smith, a
WPA-era artist, along with Russell and Hemingway in the famous mural.
When
you journey down to Key West, stop in at Sloppy Joe's and enjoy the Hemingway
remembrances inside. It was his favorite bar in Key West, a place where he
drank many a night away during the 1930s. He wrote about two-thirds of his
published works there. Joe Russell, the owner, supplied him with copious amounts
of scotch, in addition to 15-cent shots of whiskey. Hmmm, I wonder if drinking
scotch may improve my writing skills? The drinks are a bit more expensive. As I
sat there, plotting out my MISSION OF VENGEANCE spy thriller, I sipped on their
Rum Runner signature cocktail, also the official drink of Key West… get it, it’s
good!
Lastly,
enjoy the video Sloppy Joe’s. It shows the Hemingway memorabilia on the wall, talented
musicians playing on stage (The place rocks at 9pm on), the bartenders who are
like family, and the long-curved mahogany bar. Enjoy!
Robert Morton is a member of
the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), enjoys writing about
the U.S. Intelligence Community, and relishes traveling to the Florida Keys and
Key West, the Bahamas and Caribbean. He combines both passions in his CoreyPearson- CIA Spymaster series. Check out his latest spy thriller: MISSION OFVENGEANCE.
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