Time for a toast! Sloppy Joe’s bar is back open in Key West after a 6-month shutdown
Key West isn’t in short supply of bars.
But an iconic one is open again. Welcome back, Sloppy Joe’s.
The watering hole is best known for its ties to Key West author Ernest Hemingway and the annual look-alike contest. Sloppy Joe’s, the granddaddy of the Southernmost City’s drinking houses and a Duval Street heavyweight, shut down on March 17, six months ago. It reopened at 10 a.m. Thursday after an abundance of caution over COVID-19, managers said.
“We’ve been trying to do everything in our power to gather information and make sure the safety was right,” said Chris Mullins, president and CEO of Sloppy Joe’s. “We were prepared to open in June, but we waited to look at the numbers. We took our time to make sure we could create the best environment we could.”
The bar at 201 Duval St. closed ahead of the governor’s shutdown order, which came later that day, on one of the most lucrative holidays of the year, St. Patrick’s Day.
“At this time, we feel this is the right thing to do, and are placing safety first,” the bar’s management posted on Facebook that morning. “As a leader in the community we are responding to the advice of the CDC and Monroe County by doing our part to help suppress the spread of the coronavirus.”
Sloppy Joe’s, with its restaurant license, could have stayed open because its menu went beyond liquor and beer. A subsequent order prohibited people from consuming alcohol at bars. But bars that started to serve food were granted an exception.
“The rules kept changing,” Mullins said. “On balance, we have to look at what’s best for our staff and our customers. We could have opened at different times.”
But Sloppy Joe’s didn’t reopen right away. It started serving to-go drinks this month. But its dining room and bar were empty until Thursday, four days after bars across Florida were cleared to open again, except in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
“There were some opportunities to do that,” said Donna Edwards, the bar’s brand manager, of reopening earlier. “But we needed to look at it from a business and a profit standpoint and when it would be safe to do so.”
The bar and restaurant on Thursday didn’t have a problem filling 50% of its tables, per the state’s restrictions. People were waiting to get in when the doors opened and quickly filled half of the available tables, or 25% of the place.
By noon, it was bustling, and people were waiting for a table.
The old saloon’s rich history includes a strong connection to Hemingway. It also stands apart for its size. It’s a sprawling place in tiny, land-strapped Key West. Then there’s the Hemingway Lookalike Contest, which every July for a week fills the Old Town streets with stocky men with snowy white beards and huge smiles.
Sloppy’s feels more like a restaurant during the day and draws families to the tables. At night, before COVID-19 changed things, live music blasted from the stage. To visitors from around the world, Sloppy’s just feels like home.
“We’ve all been looking for some good news,” said Charlie Boice, of Jupiter, who drove down Thursday just for the reopening.
In 2015, Boice won the Hemingway contest and became an honorary member of the “Papas,” as he called it. The contest, though, was canceled this year due to COVID-19.
“This is Papa’s house and there’s nothing better than coming down as a Papa,” Boice said, holding a cup that contained the remains of a punch drink. Boice wasn’t sure what the drink was called.
“These people are family to us,” Boice said of the staff at Sloppy Joe’s.
Sloppy Joe’s, which has been in its current location since 1937, started out across the street. It opened on Dec. 5, 1933 — the day Prohibition was repealed, according to the bar’s history page.
The story goes that saloon owner Joe Russell balked when his rent at 428 Greene St. — home to Captain Tony’s Saloon since 1958 — rose to $4 a week from $3. So he found a new spot.
Legend has it that Sloppy’s never closed for the move, that customers grabbed their drinks and every piece of furniture in the place and carried them down the block to 201 Duval St. Captain Tony’s website reports customers picked up the entire bar and moved it.
So, Sloppy’s is open again, but isn’t hiring.
The bar employs 110 and lost only five workers during the pandemic, Edwards said.
“We’re bringing staff back, and as occupancy goes up, we’ll bring back more,” she said.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 4:26 PM.
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