Key West’s famous bars are closed. One opened so Conchs could phone home
With no water, no electricity and a curfew, the famous bars of Key West are not open for business after Hurricane Irma rolled through town.
Still, the Green Parrot opened its doors this week.
The staff isn’t slinging drinks and there’s no live music — but the place is still drawing quite the crowd.
The Parrot, you see, has a working telephone.
Right now, that’s almost as good as a cold beer in post-Irma Key West.
Buzzfeed’s Amber Jamieson found the scene at the popular watering hole off Whitehead Street.
Jamieson describes a colorful gathering — as one could only expect from the Conch Republic — in which hundreds lined up to use the bar’s working landline.
According to Jamieson, there are only a handful of working phones on the island, which is basically cut off from the mainland although sea and air deliveries are being made.
How is their phone working? According to the story, the bar’s mechanic rigged up an old handset to the live connection at a closed restaurant next door.
“He pirated the thing. He did it for the people,” a local named Rick said.
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The bar isn’t charging for the calls — the bill, one would think is going to the closed restaurant next door, after all — but is placing a time limit so those in line can use it.
The Green Parrot mechanic who fixed up the phone is the one who dials the numbers and keep track of the call durations. He told Jamieson few remember any individual numbers from memory except for one.
“It’s always their mother’s number that they remember,” the man named Buco said.
George Richards: 305-376-4995, @GeorgeRichards
This story was originally published September 14, 2017 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Key West’s famous bars are closed. One opened so Conchs could phone home."