It's been a very long time coming but the old Fishcutters Restaurant has finally returned and is now called The Wharf, on Summerland Key:
Fishcutters was rather rough and ready restaurant in it's original incarnation. Fishing boats came by the canal and sold fish to the ice house that made them available to the public, raw on one side of the room or cooked on the other. There were a few tables and eventually they got a license to sell beer and wine. Then the owner wanted to sell the place so it got tarted up and it languished for a long while as the boom had passed and the place sat empty. 
After months of rehabilitation the place is back and we've eaten there twice. My wife pronounces it good. She spent the last several years continuing to lament Fishcutters disappearance almost every time we drove by and she has watched the construction work progress slowly. Then one day we got to have dinner there and she finally tasted her favorite BLT sandwich once again. BLT stands for Bacon Lobster and Tomato and it was quite well known in the Lower Keys. She pronounced it as good as ever.
The new Wharf is clean bright and cheerful and seems to be supporting some metal artist as fish sculptures are everywhere. Meat is on the menu, which is focused on fish as one might expect. We went for Sunday brunch, a rare treat for us, because we wanted a chance to hang out with Robert and Dolly who live close by. Benedicts seemed to be the thing to order for brunch so we did. I had shrimp:
My wife and Dolly had lobster, complete with body parts:
While Robert, the former commercial fisherman who only likes to eat seafood that he catches, contented himself with a ham and cheese omelette. He wasn't exactly sacrificing himself:
The food really was quite good. I am no expert on hollandaise sauce but the one they turn out at the Wharf was excellent spiced up we believed, with some key lime juice. They don't have an espresso machine at the wharf but the coffee suited me just fine, sweet and lots of it in huge mugs. I liked the attention to detail at the Wharf too, from the linen napkins to the full service bar.
The owners also seem to be keen to join the 21st century in terms of technology. I found it odd that a two button toilet needed instructions but I guess the rest of the world caught on to this innovation first:
The reduce water consumption button:
We hung out for some considerable time talking and there was quite an ebb and flow of customers in the cheery restaurant. I expect this place will be popular in winter when the snowbirds and their deep pockets come back to the Keys and discover that this strategically placed restaurant is serving excellent fish right off the Highway on Summerland Key.
We spent $58 plus tip for the four of us which seemed reasonable for the high quality meal. We are looking forward to returning, perhaps for some outdoor seating amongst the art work:
The 19th century Navy Garrison at this location consisted of wooden barracks which were torn down, according to J Wills Burke's Streets of Key West and declared surplus in the 1970s. The city leased the land for a dollar a year and I well remember using Peary Court as a short cut from my dinghy in Garrison Bight to my breakfast at the El Cacique greasy spoon downtown. The free range chickens of Key West have made their home in Peary Court since the Navy reclaimed the land in the 1980s and planned to build housing on the land when the city's lease expired in 1990. 
This area used to be recreational in nature, with grass and a softball court beautifully captured in the film "Criss Cross" a film set in Key west with Goldie Hawn and well worth a screening. The Associated Press reported in 1991 on a 21 year old woman called Molly Logan who tied herself into a tree for five days to protest the changes planned for Peary Court. She slowed them down but now the 29 acre site holds 160 homes.
More changes are in the works for Peary Court. The guard shack off White Street is empty and the homes are to be offered to people who are not Department of Defense personnel:
City of key west employees have been offered a chance to rent these homes for the not unreasonable sum of $2,000 a month. They look like nice homes with decent facilities but it's not exactly affordable housing for anyone below the rank of manager. It felt decidedly odd to cycle onto the former base without so much as a by-your-leave, past the old signs:
The old military cemetery lies alongside White Street past the fence. By my calculations the boat is parked roughly where the old softball diamond used to be:
Most of the houses I saw are what are known to Americans as "town homes" and are known to the English as "semi-detached" homes:
Another curiosity is the bank, used by civilians but that found itself surrounded by Navy property. Keys Federal Credit Union, existed as an enclave inside the base but accessible to the world outside by a winding, fenced-in street that leads to Palm Avenue on the other side of Peary Court. The pedestrian gate to Peary Court is still locked:
Peary Court is named for the Arctic explorer, Robert Peary, who was according to J Wills Burke a "one time key west resident." It so happens Judge Peary Fowler in Key West is a great-granddaughter of the explorer.
It would be odd living in this neat suburban semi-gated community in the middle of Key West, so unlike any other area of the city, and so very similar to so many self contained communities across the United States.
It was a breezy afternoon and the palm trees were waving back and forth:
Sirugo Avenue dead ends, but there is a street to turn off onto, called Atlantic Drive, much less lush than Sirugo:
This house is for sale for anyone who wants some greenery and a nice high wall.
A bird sanctuary for a neighbor on street filled with trees and no Historic Architecture Review to deal with. Sounds perfect.
A ground level porch wouldn't be bad either, except that none of them were in use on a lovely breezy, cool, overcast afternoon.By cool I mean 80 degrees (27C) but the wind was quite refreshing.
Winter has much of the country in it's grasp but down here we are eying one more tropical storm, Ida which is currently ravaging the mosquito coast of Nicaragua. Hurricane season doesn't officially end until the 30th of November and not even then on some rare years when a storm can develop in December. This late in the season it's the warm waters of the Western Caribbean that has the energy to spawn tropical storms. Meanwhile in Key West, it's business as usual, warm and muggy and cooled by breezes.
So, the question is, what to do with those left over Fantasy Fest beads:
Hunt's Lane is quite delightful for lots of little reasons:
I have mentioned previously that homes in Old Town Key West are of modest proportions and don't have much in the way of offsets from their neighbors. By way of illustration:
And I like random pictures...randomly while I wander looking for things to photograph:
And looks like this toward Southard Street:
The best of Key West living, a quiet leafy alley.
