My first trip to Key West was almost my last.
My wife and I were newlyweds. We didn’t have much money. We could barely afford the gas for the drive down US 1 to Key West from our home in Cooper City.
Roger Simmons/Orlando Sentinel
A crowd gathers for the daily sunset celebration at Mallory Square in Key West.
But we fell in love with the Overseas Highway – one of the most beautiful drives in the world – and, before we knew it, we’d gone all the way to the end of US 1. We parked by the water and watched the sun go down from the pier on Mallory Square, like everyone else in Key West.
It was the best place we knew in Florida.
It was getting late. We didn’t want to drive all the way home in the dark on a road we didn’t know well, so we started to look for a place to stay for the night.
I won’t tell you the name of the first place we tried, but you’ve probably heard of it. Jimmy Buffett used to play there – which doesn’t narrow it that much, I know, because a lot of places in Key West have plaques that say Jimmy Buffett played there.
But this place had a little beach – a rarity in the Keys – and we thought it would be fun to splash into the Gulf of Mexico the next morning and get some sun on our backs before heading home.
Until we tried to check in.
As mentioned, we were newlyweds, and we didn’t have much money. The man at the front desk began by saying – before we could say anything – that they didn’t take our credit card, and we didn’t have enough cash between us for the room. (This was before ATMs were everywhere, children).
We were also getting a vibe from the man behind the front desk that we didn’t fit the profile of the typical clientele at the no-name hotel. We were low on money, we probably looked rumpled after a 157-mile drive and we didn’t have any luggage.
“Why don’t you go over to La Concha on Duval Street,’’ he said. “It’s a place for people like you.”
For people … like us? Did he mean people who’d been thinking a moment ago that we’d found the best place in Florida?
Because it didn’t seem that way to us anymore. We wondered whether to leave right away and drive back up in the dark, or try the place the guy who clearly didn’t like us had recommended over on Duval Street.
We were tired, and getting hungry, so we figured we’d at least give La Concha a try because it was on the way out of town.
And they could not have been nicer there.
Mark Gauert
La Concha on Duval Street in Key West.
The man behind the front desk took our credit card. He gave us a room key on the spot and didn’t ask about luggage. He smiled and gave us directions to the bar and the restaurant upstairs where we could get something to eat.
True, the landmark hotel – built in 1926 – didn’t have a beach. But it was right on Duval Street, and a tide of interesting people ebbed and flowed all day and night, right outside the door. Ernest Hemingway even used to write there. It said so on a plaque by the door.
And just like that, Key West became the best place we knew in Florida again. We had the best time.
I told this story the other day to Monroe Holloway, Rooms Division Manager now at La Concha. He said he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, about our experience in Key West almost 40 years ago.
“Wow, that is remarkable,’’ he said, slowly. “Just … wow!”
I told him La Concha had always held a special place in our hearts, because they’d treated my wife and I decently that night. More than decently, really.
“Well, I can tell you La Concha is just delighted that you’re here,” said Holloway, the fifth generation of an old Key West family. “What they told you at that other hotel is an unacceptable statement. I can’t even imagine that kind of service nowadays.’’
I think back to other stays at other places over the years. We try to remember the good ones over the bad. At least the ones that greet us with simple warmth and welcome.
The Breakers in Palm Beach, for example, where the staff somehow remembers your name – and how to pronounce it – even years after you stayed there. The Embassy Suites in lower Manhattan, where the nice man behind the front desk gave our two little boys sacks of goodies to play with during their first stay in the big city. The W Fort Lauderdale, where the waiter at Steak 954 brought me a plate of warm cookies because I said I didn’t want anything fancy for dessert.
Mark Gauert
Reading room off the recently refurbished La Concha hotel on Duval Street in Key West.
And La Concha in Key West. I’m so happy they’re still there to welcome travelers over on Duval, now freshly renovated and doing fine. Like 40 years ago. Like always, I hope.
A place that became one of our favorites, with just a little kindness for a couple of travelers. A place we’ll always remember, for people like us.