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The Florida Keys just got its first Michelin stars — and one of them has chickens in the yard

Plus: the bar where Jimmy Buffett played for drinks, a church built around another church, and the best places to eat this summer.

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Florida Keys Road Trip
June 09, 2026

THE FLORIDA KEYS ROAD TRIP NEWSLETTER

Hey Keys lovers! Big news out of the islands this week — for the first time in history, restaurants in the Florida Keys have been recognized by the Michelin Guide. One of them is a legendary outdoor brunch spot where the chickens roam free between your table legs. The other is a bakery that locals have been quietly hoarding for years.

We've also got the story of a Key West bar where Jimmy Buffett played for drinks, Mel Fisher planned a $450 million treasure hunt, and the regulars are literally buried in the countertop. Let's get into it.

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❓ KEYS TRIVIA

What famous treasure hunter charted his search for a $450 million Spanish shipwreck from a bar stool in Key West?

Answer at the bottom of the newsletter.

📣 THE MILE MARKER ROUNDUP

⭐ Florida Keys Gets Its First Michelin Recognition: On May 28, 2026, the Michelin Guide released its first statewide Florida selection — and for the first time ever, two Florida Keys restaurants made the cut. Blue Heaven in Key West earned a Michelin Guide recommendation, while Moondog Cafe & Bakery received a Bib Gourmand (the Michelin designation for exceptional quality at a great value). Neither restaurant has ever appeared in the guide before. https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/florida/key-west_2883507/restaurant/blue-heaven

🪸 Coralpalooza Celebrates World Oceans Day: The Coral Restoration Foundation hosted its annual Coralpalooza events June 5–7 across Key Largo and Key West, mobilizing hundreds of ocean lovers for reef restoration. The CRF, headquartered in Tavernier, has planted more coral on the Florida Reef than any organization in history. https://coralrestoration.org/meet-us/

🏆 Bubbas Nominations Are Open: The 13th Annual Bubbas - Key West's beloved People's Choice Awards are accepting nominations through June 21 at keysweekly.com. Nearly 100 categories, over 1,200 winners crowned since 2013, and nearly $200,000 raised for local nonprofits. This year's beneficiary is Keys AHEC. The awards gala is July 25 at Key West Theater. https://keysweekly.com/42/the-bubbas-are-back-nominations-open-today-at-keysweekly-com/

🪸 FWC Bans Export of Threatened Marine Life: The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has banned the export of threatened marine species from the Florida Keys, including pillar coral, staghorn coral, and elkhorn coral. https://keysweekly.com/42/fwc-bans-export-of-threatened-marine-life/

🎣 Mahi Madness Continues Offshore: Mahi-mahi are still running strong offshore, while yellowtail snapper are biting well on the reef edge. Tarpon season is winding down but still producing in the backcountry. https://keysweekly.com/42/florida-keys-fishing-report-wind-yellowtail-and-mahi-on-the-edge/

🌴 YOUR SUMMER DINING GUIDE TO THE FLORIDA KEYS

The Michelin Guide just told the world what locals already knew.

If you are planning a trip to the Keys this summer, the Michelin recognition of Blue Heaven and Moondog Cafe & Bakery is your permission slip to eat well. But those two spots are just the beginning.

Blue Heaven (729 Thomas St, Key West) is the quintessential Keys dining experience: outdoor tables under massive tropical trees, roosters wandering between your feet, and a Caribbean-influenced menu that has been drawing lines since 1992. Go for brunch. Order the French toast. Arrive early — the wait is real and worth it.

Moondog Cafe & Bakery (Key West) is the kind of place locals don't want you to know about. Fresh pastries, creative breakfast dishes, and the kind of coffee that makes you reconsider your whole morning routine. The Bib Gourmand designation means Michelin's inspectors found it exceptional and affordable — a rare combination anywhere, let alone in Key West.

Beyond those two, the Keys dining scene rewards the curious. Keys Fisheries in Marathon for the lobster reuben. Hogfish Bar & Grill on Stock Island for the namesake hogfish sandwich. Hobo's Cafe in Key Largo for no-frills, fresh-off-the-boat perfection. And anywhere that tells you what came in that morning — order that.

🧩 THE CHURCH BUILT AROUND ANOTHER CHURCH

How Key West's oldest Methodist congregation built a stone fortress — from the inside out.

At 600 Eaton Street in Key West stands the Old Stone Church — the oldest Methodist church in Southeast Florida, and one of the most quietly remarkable buildings in the entire Keys.

The congregation at this site dates to 1832, when a man named Samuel Kemp hosted the first Methodist services in his home. Over the following decades, four successive wooden churches were built on this lot — and four were destroyed, one by one, by fire and hurricanes. By the 1870s, the congregation had made a decision: the next church would be built to last.

They chose coral rock — the same dense, fossilized limestone that forms the foundation of the Keys themselves. The quarry was dug directly on the church grounds, and workers began cutting and stacking the stone in 1870. But here is the part that stops people cold: they built the new stone walls AROUND the existing wooden church.

For 14 years, the congregation held Sunday services inside the wooden church while stone walls rose around them. When the roof was finally installed in 1884, workers dismantled the wooden structure from the inside and carried the pieces out through the front door — one board at a time.

The massive quarry hole left behind became a cistern, providing fresh water for the community and passing ships for decades.

In the 1950s, workers doing renovations discovered the church had been built directly over a small, unmarked cemetery. And today, descendants of Samuel Kemp still attend Sunday services at the same address, nearly 200 years later.

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🕰️ THE CHART ROOM BAR: WHERE JIMMY BUFFETT PLAYED FOR DRINKS AND MEL FISHER FOUND HIS FORTUNE

The most important bar in Key West history is hidden inside a hotel lobby.

If you walk into the Pier House Resort at 1 Duval Street and turn left past the front desk, you will find a small, dark bar with a mahogany counter, a jar of free peanuts, and a ceiling covered in photographs, dollar bills, and plaques. This is the Chart Room Bar.

The bar was born in 1967 when the management of a 50-room motel decided one of the rooms would be more useful as a drinking establishment.

In November 1971, Jerry Jeff Walker drove down to Key West and brought along a young, largely unknown singer-songwriter named Jimmy Buffett. Their first stop was the Chart Room. Bartender Tom Corcoran gave Jimmy his first beer on the house. Jimmy started playing for drinks, and a career was born.

"A Pirate Looks at Forty" is widely believed to be about Phillip Clark — a Chart Room regular who worked as a smuggler, gun-runner, and self-described pirate. Clark drowned in San Francisco Bay in the mid-1980s.

At the old spool table in the center of the bar, treasure hunter Mel Fisher spent years charting his search for the Nuestra Señora de Atocha — a Spanish galleon carrying an estimated $450 million in gold, silver, and emeralds. Fisher found it in 1985. The table is still there.

The most unusual feature: regulars who died left instructions to have their ashes embedded in the mahogany bar top. Florida law prohibits the disturbance of human remains. As a result, the Chart Room Bar can never legally be torn down.

Open today, 5 p.m. to midnight. Free popcorn, peanuts, and hot dogs as long as you keep drinking.

✅ TRIVIA ANSWER

Mel Fisher.

Treasure hunter Mel Fisher spent years at the old spool table inside the Chart Room Bar at the Pier House Resort in Key West, charting his search for the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha. In 1985, after 16 years of searching, Fisher found the wreck — along with an estimated $450 million in gold, silver, and emeralds. His daily rallying cry: "Today's the day."

Bonus: The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum at 200 Greene Street in Key West still displays artifacts from the Atocha — including gold bars, silver coins, and a 77-carat emerald cross.

Keep your windows down and your watch off.
The Florida Keys Road Trip Team

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