420 Lounge

I was skeptical when I heard that the famed Square Grouper was opening a tapas bar upstairs. Mind you the Square Grouper needed a refresher, even though it is packed every day the menu isn't really eclectic any more. the 420 Lounge upstairs, known as My New Joint, has changed that completely.

Robert and I saw a movie which he liked a lot and I quite liked even though Quentin Tarantino plays a lot for effect when he makes a movie. The Hateful Eight was clearly a joke at the expense of the Magnificent Seven and the continuous use of the hated N word referring to Samuel Jackson's character was an effort to strike a blow for...something? Equal rights for racists, perhaps? Authenticity in post Civil War relations in the Western States of America? It got tedious to hear characters refer to him constantly in that provocative way. And then there was the blood, lots of it and equally authentic we got to see heads explode, projectile blood vomiting and dismemberment. Be warned as if you needed any warning where Tarantino's name is involved. Actually the plot held together and the sets and the scenery were quite enthralling. The music by Ennio Morricone was a take off of the vast canvases spread by epics of the 60s and 70s and effective nonetheless. Another boy movie under my belt. Now back to movies with subtitles and gentle plots.

We ordered appetizers as you do and it turned out the menu was quite interesting MENU LINK. Check out this absurd and delicious soft pretzel Robert  ordered. Three dipping sauces and the ability to tear chunks like savages made this a particularly satisfying shared dish.

They use blackboards like they do downstairs. And downstairs was so busy on a weeknight there was an hour's wait. Winter sucks in the Florida Keys if you don't like waiting in line. The whole 420 thing does indeed refer to what you think, just as the name of the main eatery Square Grouper refers to the old time name for bales of marijuana smuggled in vast quantities into the Keys, once upon a time.

We stuck to more mundane food, sliders, and a rather decent soup which foods have become popular with this prolonged cold spell giving us cold nights and warm dry days.

It's a nice spot and people waiting for the main dining room downstairs are encouraged to come up here to spend time and money. Frankly I'd rather go to Bella Luna for a sit down dinner and come up here for assorted small plates. And that big bad pretzel.

And as always there is a tip of the hat to the fishing past.

That's the real fish, actual grouper maybe not the square ones. Not legal now nor likely to be in my lifetime in Florida.

Square Grouper

I like Square Grouper and you can take that as a recommendation if you want though there are no guarantees you will like what I like. Certainly if you drive to Key West and pass through Cudjoe (pro: Kud-joe in American English) you probably won't spare a second glance at the barn like building on the south side of the Overseas Highway: There's a beauty spa of some sort upstairs but downstairs there is a transformation awaiting anyone ready to risk lunch or dinner is such an unpromising building:

Yes, the pyramid in the back of the dining room is a wine rack:

And if you wander all the way back past the second dining area you come to the dessert room. In the Lower Keys there is no better place to order chocolate fondue and sit around on cubical poofs and dip your fruit in melted chocolate:Fish is the theme here. In American English grouper is pronounced group-er. In British English for reasons I can't hope to understand they call these fish: grope-er. Which sound weird to me. But a trophy is a trophy to an angler and the walls are lined with them:

As is often the case lunch is a better deal than dinner and this place is packed every day it's open. We came late to lunch on the weekend and enjoyed a quiet nook with a friend.

Though the front room was buzzing with people still:

Whoops, more trophies. Goliath groupers, formerly known as Jewfish are no longer allowed to be caught. They changed the name because they thought Jews would be offended, however as far as I know no Jew spoke up on the subject so mostly people still call them Jewfish, including my wife, the preeminent expert on Judaism in my family, what with her being one (a Jew I mean, not a fish).I hoped someone would order panko encrusted yellowtail but Kathy and I both ordered the bistro steak while my wife got a plate of tuna, a dish she loves but finds it difficult to have it prepared as she likes it. Square Grouper is apparently reliable in the raw tuna (ugh!) department. I nearly surrendered to the blandishments of the blueberry banana bread pudding in rum sauce but heroically held off. You don't have to have a table full of people to enjoy Square Grouper either, they have a very welcoming bar. That flash of white is high speed bar service in action:

Wine by the glass at seven dollars a pop:

And time to lounge and talk and wonder at how lucky one is to live around the corner from this place:

And here's my wife's raw fish.

And my well cooked steak:

One has to explain the name of the place I suppose, and there was a clear illustration in the men's loo. That serious minded coast guardsman is presiding over a catch of square grouper somewhere in the Caribbean:In the 1970s the Keys were major entryway for marijuana and later cocaine into the Keys. Bales of marijuana such as those seen in the picture above were known jocularly as "square grouper" as they were frequently dumped at sea and could be found bobbing around in the water as smugglers evaded law enforcement and tossed the evidence over the side.

Smuggling has always been a component of life in the Keys, I read Charlotte's Story (reviewed March 20th, 2008 in this blog) about pioneering life in the Keys, and discovered much to my astonishment that they too encountered smugglers and the Border Patrol playing high jinks on the high seas much as today. I have always found talk of piracy in the Keys to be rather unlikely, yet smuggling is rooted here in reality and gets no place in the popular imagination. Aside from the posters in the loo there is a tongue twister above the bar. And a splendid bar it is too.

we closed the place after lunch and stepped back out into a drizzly hot summer afternoon in the Lower Keys.