Hide-Outs in Key West
by Susan Wadia-Ells

ove Lane, Curry and Catholic Lanes, each filled with history from past and current inhabitants; each hidden from view, unless you happen to see the sign and are willing to walk down into their secret worlds.

And what about those courtyard dining rooms, dance floors and hidden tiki bars also spread around town? These establishments all look fairly mundane at first glance. But to those who know, once inside each dooryard or gate, a surprise world surrounds you.

Stephen LaPierre
Stephen LaPierre

Take Dons’ place, that low-profile watering hole down Truman at the corner of Grinnell.
It’s a small bar, as Key West bars go, unless you know about the action out back, under the Tiki Bar’s canopy of trees and fans and the cacophony of TVs. Some locals say this is their favorite venue for baby showers! Everyone knows it’s the best place to watch Sunday afternoon football, what with their potluck cookouts. You just can’t know, unless you know.

More folks do know the one-and-only Pepe’s; operating down on Caroline since 1909. But the little white conch shack is not the half of Pepe’s. Well you know; it’s all happening in the court yard with the bar and the mouth-watering food and the non-stop people filling the place… breakfast, lunch, happy hour, and dinner.

Last summer, my first time living in Key West, we would end each Duval Crawl by gliding into a dark alley off the 200 block. Half way down the narrow pot-holed street, slipping into a faintly lit courtyard, we would drink El Alamo’s $1.00 sixteen ounce beers, as we sat on bar stools, stood or settled into plastic chairs set on the dirt surrounding the small dance floor under the stars, as another lousy band pumped forth from the stage. I once played pool there with Boston Ray, a guitar-playing street performer, who was unbeatable.

El Alamo is history now, replaced recently by the upscale Smokin’ Tuna. The dirt court yard has been bricked over, and beer now costs a few bucks, but the music is good or better, or sometimes the best. Happily, you still need to wander down that dark, often flooded, side lane off the 200 block, to reach this magical kingdom. You just have to know.

My friend, Steve La Pierre, came to Key West in April, 2010, to make this place his home, recording the city’s architecture and colors within his plein air oil paintings that catch the ever-moving shadows, the multi layers of city people and always the bikes. La Pierre’s dayscape of Pepe’s gives us a quick glimpse of the fun that keeps happening inside that courtyard. However, his painting of El Alamo, now an historical piece, captures that darkened lane, offering few hints about the good life inside the gate; La Pierre’s nightscape of Dons’ Place, on a sultry rainy summer night, also keeps the Tiki Bar’s secret. Still…the locals know.

Susan Wadia-Ells can be contacted at susan.we@verizon.net
To see these and other images of Stephen LaPierre’s Key West paintings, visit www.stephenlapierre.com