Food History of Key West

Key eras

1822-1860s, the wrecking town

John W. Simonton bought the island from Juan Pablo Salas for $2,000 in 1822 and the town was divided between four founding proprietors. After the Federal Wrecking Act of 1825 the salvage trade made Key West, by the 1830s, the wealthiest city in the United States per capita. The money that came off wrecked hulls paid for the first proper kitchens and imported provisions on an island with almost no farmland.

Mid-1800s, Bahamian settlers bring the conch

Bahamians arrived in numbers from the middle of the 19th century and went into fishing, sponging, turtling and shipbuilding. They brought conch with them, along with the word Conch itself, which is still what a Key West native is called. Conch fritters, cracked conch, conch chowder and conch salad all date from this community, and Bahama Village remains the neighbourhood where the cooking is most legible.

1860s-1886, the Cuban cigar city

Cuban refugees came across after the Ten Years' War and turned Key West into a cigar-manufacturing centre. With them came the pressed sandwich, the coffee window, the bakery bread and the bollo. The Great Fire of 30 March 1886 caused $1.5 million in damage and burned out 18 cigar factories, hastening the industry's move to Tampa. The food stayed behind.

1912-1935, the Overseas Railroad

Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad was completed in 1912, running 128 miles from Homestead to Key West and connecting the island to the mainland for the first time. Fresh produce, ice and tourists came down the line. The 1935 Labor Day hurricane destroyed long stretches of track, and the roadbed became the highway that still supplies every restaurant here.

1949-1989, the pink gold rush

Vast beds of Tortugas pink shrimp were discovered in Gulf waters off Key West in 1949 and trawlers filled the Bight almost overnight. The fleet worked the seaport through the 1950s and 1960s in what the island calls the pink gold rush. Catches declined in the 1980s, the last dealers left the Bight by 1989, and the working fleet moved across to Stock Island.

1970s-1985, the conch fishery closes

Key West alone was taking 250,000 queen conch a year in the 1960s and the population could not sustain it. Florida imposed a moratorium in 1978 and banned all queen conch harvest in 1985. The dish stayed on the menus; the supply chain changed. Conch served in the Keys today is imported, mostly from Honduras, Belize and Jamaica.

Late 1800s-2006, key lime pie becomes the state pie

The pie's origin was never documented. The Curry Mansion credits Aunt Sally, cook to the salvage millionaire William Curry, with baking the first one in the late 1800s; local historians credit sponge fishermen who set condensed milk with key lime juice at sea. Florida made it the official state pie on 1 July 2006.

Immigrant influences

• Bahamian: Arriving from the mid-19th century into fishing, sponging and turtling, Bahamians gave Key West its conch repertoire and the Goombay festival that still fills Bahama Village each October.
• Cuban: Cigar workers who crossed after the Ten Years' War brought the cafe con leche window, the pressed mix sandwich, Cuban bread, bollos and ropa vieja. The street hatch is still the island's signature format.
• New England and Southern merchants: Shipwrights, salvors and merchants from the northeast and the Gulf South supplied the wrecking-era town, leaving the chowder tradition and the seafood-house format of the Historic Seaport.
• Haitian: A smaller and more recent community, but the source of the island's Creole cooking. Mo's Restaurant on White Street cooks Haitian Creole from scratch, with oxtail and goat stew as its anchors.

Signature innovations

• Key lime pie, set with condensed milk and citrus acid rather than baked
• The cafe con leche walk-up window, inherited from the cigar-worker era
• The Cuban mix, ordered as a mix rather than a Cubano in Key West
• Bollos, black-eyed pea fritters ground raw rather than from cooked beans
• Grits and grunts, the Conch household breakfast of fried reef fish over grits
• Bahamian-style conch fritters with a key lime or mustard dipping sauce
• Key West pink shrimp served peel-and-eat, a legacy of the 1949 gold rush