Day 2 of our 5-day day cruise onboard the Disney Magic involved our first port at Key West. I expected the disembarking process to be something more than it turned out to be. After scanning our Key to the World, we were able to walk right off into the bright sunshine and pastel colors of the islands.
We had an excursion booked to experience the food of this coastal culture via a walking tour of the city. The directions to get to the meeting location became an adventure for us, though, as no one had heard of the bar listed that we were supposed to be going to. We did finally find someone who could direct us to the street we were looking for however, and finally we stumbled across the small bar (named something different than the instructions referred to) with the food truck in the back yard where we were to meet our tour guide. The takeaway is to always leave yourself enough time to find your excursion spot, if you haven’t booked it through the ship. We luckily had done so, and even had enough time to speed walk to the CVS pharmacy several blocks away to purchase the sunblock we had forgotten to pack.
Garbo’s Grill
Our first food stop happened to also be our meeting location. Garbo’s Grill is a food truck located on the backside of a little bar on a quiet side street. Definitely not where the tourists would go. This set the whole theme of the food tour – that we would be visiting the places the locals go, and not the tourist attractions.
We sampled fish tacos here, and our tour guide, Tracy, set the stage for us. We were the only two people signed up for that day’s tour, so our guide let us know that we would be able to slow the pace and take things as they come, since he didn’t have to herd a crowd. He was born and raised in Key West, which made him an expert in my book. He talked, we ate, and the fish tacos were amazing. Food trucks in the Keys have quite a few standards to uphold, so they are not as common as they would be on Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. Amongst many other rules, they need to have a bathroom available to the customers, and they also cannot prepare the ingredients inside the truck – only cook it.
Along the way to our next stop, we stopped at one of the little strip malls found all over Key West. Tracy told us how Key West is overrun with the t-shirt shops that the tourists fall trap to, where everything is $5. They have run out most of the local establishments. However, two places still present that had been a part of Key West for over 50 years were located in that strip mall. One was a cigar shop, where the cigars were hand rolled and the art form came with the family from Cuba when they immigrated to America. The second shop made and sold leather sandals. Kino Sandals, according to Tracy, are the best sandals that he has had the pleasure of owning, and they last for years. I have recently purchased a pair, so I will keep everyone posted on that!
Bagatelle
After the shopping, we were ready for our next food option. Bagatelle on Duval St is a two story historical building that was actually moved to its current location in the 1980s. We found that a lot of the historical houses in Key West were moved to their current properties. This one in particular caused a lot of controversy when this was done, but now is a very popular local restaurant. Lobster Mac & Cheese was on the menu for this stop, and I loved it. Creamy with chunks of lobster, this is my idea of comfort food any day.
Lagerhead’s Beach Bar
Onward to the beach. Our next stop was an open air bar that served us smoked fish dip. The building is very small, and the seating is limited, but the dip was good. Overlooking the beach, the views of blue waters and white sands are an amazing advantage while grabbing something to eat and a cocktail. An interesting tidbit from Tracy – the beaches of Key West are not the white sands that we were viewing from our chairs at all. Key West has a very rocky coastline, so any sandy beach that is found is actually manmade.
Eaton Street Seafood Market
Stop 4 (or was it 5?) was the Eaton Street Seafood Market. This is THE place to get fresh seafood, so says Tracy. To show us this, we got to sample some of the pink shrimp. I am not a lover of shrimp. In fact, I do not like them at all. However, I wanted to try what was on the menus, so I sucked it up and ate them. They were okay, but it may not be fair to get my opinion on this. My husband seemed to like them, so if you’re a shrimp eater then I think they will agree with you.
Old Town Baker
This may have been my favorite stop. I like desserts, and especially the citrus variety like key lime pie and lemon bars. Tracy was adamant that this was the the best key lime pie in Key West. The crust is made from ginger snaps, while the rest of the world is using graham crackers. Also, the pie filling is made with real limes. If you ever see a key lime pie that is green, you should run. True key lime pie will be white or yellow. No added food dye necessary. My rating of this key lime pie was definitely 5 stars out of 5 stars. It was pretty darn delicious.
Waterfront Brewery
We ended the day at the Waterfront Brewery with a flight of beer. While not a typical beer drinker, I will willingly drink them as long as they are not a dark variety. The two that we sampled were both pale ales, so right up my alley. They were good, and that assessment is coming from a wine drinker, so the beer drinkers of the world would certainly enjoy them. This was actually a large building, with a little souvenir store and an arcade area. There seemed to be plenty of outdoor patio seating right on the coast.
My final thoughts of the food tour is that it’s an excellent excursion. This tour was $100/person, and I believe it to be worth the price. Tracy was so great. The stories he told and the information he shared were entertaining and could only come from someone who lived the life. This excursion has a maximum of 12 passengers, so would be fairly intimate anyway, but we were able to do it our way being the only 2 that day. There was a lot of walking, and it was very hot that day, but Tracy made sure we had plenty of water at every stop and along the way, and got us into the air conditioning or shade every chance he had. I would recommend this to anyone coming in for the day on a cruise ship that would like the opportunity to see as much of the culture of Key West that they can, or even to someone vacationing in Key West that would like something to do during an afternoon.
