Blue Heaven

Top choice in Key West


This is one of the quirkiest venues on an island of oddities – customers, together with free-ranging fowl, flock to dine in the ramshackle, tropical plant-filled garden where Hemingway once officiated boxing matches. This place gets packed with customers who come for the delectable breakfasts (blueberry pancakes) and Keys cuisine with French touches (like yellowtail snapper with citrus beurre blanc).

There's also ping-pong, artwork for sale (JW Sherrington's rooster paintings are famous) and live music most days (from 11am to 1pm and 7pm to 9pm).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Key West attractions

1. Hemingway House

0.13 MILES

Key West’s biggest darling, Ernest Hemingway, lived in this gorgeous Spanish Colonial house from 1931 to 1940. Papa moved here in his early 1930s with his…

2. Key West Lighthouse

0.13 MILES

You can climb up 88 spiraling steps to the top of this snowy white lighthouse, built in 1846, for a decent view (perhaps not as enjoyable as it was in the…

3. Duval Street

0.2 MILES

Key West locals have a love-hate relationship with the most famous road in Key West (if not the Keys). Duval, Old Town Key West’s main strip, is a miracle…

4. San Carlos Institute

0.25 MILES

Founded in 1871 by Cuban exiles, the San Carlos is a gorgeous building constructed in classical Spanish mission style. The current structure dates from…

5. Strand Building

0.26 MILES

The historic Strand Theater was one of Key West’s great old-time movie houses, and it was used as a theater in the 1993 film Matinee. Today it’s a…

6. Key West Distilling

0.27 MILES

This tiny craft distiller, basically a one-man operation, creates some excellent rums, two types of vodka (including one with horseradish), one gin and…

7. Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center

0.29 MILES

This 6000-sq-ft center is one of the best places in the Keys to learn about the extraordinary marine environments of South Florida. Start off with the 20…

8. Nancy Forrester’s Secret Garden

0.39 MILES

Nancy, an environmental artist and fixture of the Keys community, invites you into her backyard oasis where chatty rescued parrots and macaws await…