Kelly's Carribean Bar Grill & Brewery: a menu full of Key West history
Remember when restaurants offered more than a chain-approved generic menu and a gimmicky theme? Kelly’s Caribbean Bar Grill & Brewery in Key West still does.
The rambling white house on the corner of Whitehead and Caroline Streets may look ordinary, but do not be fooled. In addition to offering a mouth-watering menu, the likes of which would send the typical chain’s kitchen into a tailspin, the restaurant also offers tantalizing amounts of history and celebrity – all for the price of a delicious meal.
Before Kelly’s was home to the Black and Blue Ahi or the Key West Golden Ale beer, it was home to Pan American World Airways – better known as Pan Am, the first airline to make an international flight. The company completed the short 90-mile flight between Key West and Cuba in 1927 and the rest is aviation and Key West history. Since then, the building has been moved several blocks up, next door to the Robert Frost Cottage (where he wrote many of his most famous poems) and vacated by the famous company that once used it as offices and to sell tickets from. After Pan Am left, it was used as a trading post during the mid-century and then as the Pigeon Patio, a piano bar and restaurant during the 1980’s.
In 1991, the actress Kelly McGillis – of Top Gun fame – and her husband, Fred Tillman, purchased the property and turned it into Kelly’s.
The sprawling indoor/outdoor restaurant – with aviation paraphernalia throughout, including a plane wing as a bar – has attracted the praises of both locals and Key West visitors every year.
Appetizers such as the Crispy Coconut Shrimp ($7.95) the Flash Fried Calamari ($8.95) and the Island Baked Brie ($9.95) are just setting you up for the main event.
Since it’s the Keys, Kelly’s serves some of the freshest catches around. At dinner, try the Mahi Mahi ($19.95), Whole Yellowtail Snapper ($21.95), or the Kelly’s Crab Cakes ($20.95, served with mango salsa and a spicy papaya remoulade). Land lubbers will enjoy the Jerked Chicken ($15.95), the Shrimp and Grits ($17.95, with prosciutto and mushrooms over cheesy grits) and the Steak Santa Fe ($19.95).
The restaurant also serves as the Keys only brewery, serving up unique beers in a 14 day brewing process made to German standards.
- by Christine Foster, Costa Rica Reporter for HelloMetro
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Christine FosterChristine is a freelance writer currently living in North Atlanta. She has worked as a reporter for numerous newspaper, magazine and online media companies, including the Florida Keys Keynoter and The Sunday Paper in Atlanta. When she's not working Christine enjoys baking and antiquing.
