Graffy Turns 40!

February 5, 2010





Graffy turns 40



To celebrate his 40th birthday, our friend Graf had a great idea, to invite his friends and family to join he and his wife Eileen on a cruise. In the works for months Graf & and a large group of friends spent the better part of the week aboard a cruise ship out of Miami. The bad news for us was that Kathy & I were unable to join them due to commitments to our respective jobs. The good news was that the first stop of their itinerary was right here in Key West and on Graf’s actual birthday to boot, which allowed me to sneak away and meet them and help celebrate for a small portion of their fun.



Graf



It is probably a good thing that we didn’t join them, I’m not sure my liver would have survived the trip if the few hours they spent in Key West were any indication. Since many of those on the cruise are actual residents of Key West, they of course thought it would be hysterical to dress as tacky tourists during their stopover here. It was really funny to see them all dressed up, sadly even in their exaggerated state, they weren’t all that distinguishable from the other cruise ship passengers who packed downtown.







I met them at 10:30 AM at the Lazy Gecko bar on Duval where even at that early hour they had packed the place and the libations were flowing freely. You’d have thought it was late on a weekend night as there were people dancing on the bar, only the bright light pouring in from outside gave a clue that this was daytime.








The next stop was at Fat Tuesday where Jello shots were consumed by all as well as many of the strong frozen concoctions that the place is known for. Graf’s group completely took over the place again, and they even managed to wrangle everyone up for a group photo. Graf took a large tray of Jello shots to go and headed back down Duval in the general direction of the next stop at the Conch Farm, where Graf works.

Trevor & Nadene

Graf's family

Eileen's family

At the Conch Farm, Graf had made arrangements for a private birthday party with free drinks for all and an amazing spread of food and even entertainment. It was a perfect lunch and provided some time to get to meet many of his family and friends, and to wish that we were going to join them for the remainder of the cruise. I can’t imagine that it could possibly have been anything but an amazing time. I was thrilled to catch even that small portion of it with such a fun group. Happy 40th Graf.

Happy Birthday Serenade.

Happy Returns

February 2, 2010

At Kelly's with the Tobins

Lucky Street Gallery

Grunt's

Happy Returns



It isn’t often that when things disappear from the Key West landscape that they ever make a comeback. Many of my favorite places have gone away over the years, places like Barefoot Bob’s, The Deli Restaurant, Viva Zapata’s, the Woodenhead Gallery and countless others that were once vital elements of the Key West landscape are now only found in the memories of those they served. So this week, we have small reasons to celebrate as one of our favorite haunts returned, another staved off their demise and even some old friends found their way back to the island.

Kathy & Deanna



Our friends Dan & Deanna Tobin moved with their kids a few years back to Annapolis, Maryland. We have made it up to see them a couple of times and this week they returned here once again for a visit. We didn’t get to spend as much time together as we might have liked, but thankfully we were able to join them and other old friends for a great evening together. It started with a get-together at Kelly’s restaurant which was surprisingly crowded for a chilly week night and ended with a visit to Grunt’s bar.



Grunt’s originally opened in 1993 and was a favorite bar for locals for the time it was open. Low key and relaxed, Grunt’s took full advantage of its off-Duval Street location, which though right downtown, seemed far removed from the wacky scene just up Caroline Street. It closed down some years ago and has sat, empty and vacant all that time. Now it has made a welcome return, having changed little. It was like a flashback hanging out there with Dan & Deanna- a welcome return to a wonderful era.



Michel Delgado & Lynn Sherman



The Lucky Street Gallery is back as well, though it never actually went anywhere, it seemed on the brink of closing with the retirement of owner Dianne Zolotow, only to be resurrected when the business was sold to a new ownership group that includes our good friend Darene Cahill. The hosted their first show a Grand Opening called appropriately enough “Lucky Again” to a packed house of art lovers who flocked to the gallery to check out the work. The gallery kept most of their mainstay artists and added a few new artists including our friend, the talent Michel Delgado.

Gae, Kathy, Darene & Bonnie

Rebecca Bennett

Michel Delgado

The rest of the week has been fairly busy, shipping off a container to Malta full of supplies for the RPM vessel Hercules kept us busy at the office. The chickens that we caught last week, were replaced and then some with the hatching of 12 new chicks in our yard by a hen that we had no idea was even roosting there. And we even managed to sneak off to the Green Parrot to see another in the ever expanding array of excellent bands from the Miami music scene. This band, Locos por Juana, was amazingly good. I can’t wait to see them again when they come back.



Locos Por Juana