I will be in Key West for the week of thanksgiving. Looking for a good bottle shop or any breweries or places I should try out.
It's been a few years but the Walgreens on Duvall had a solid selection of beer, very convenient if you're staying in that area.
Well I’m not sure I’d call them “good” bottles shops, but Fausto’s (two locations) and The Restaurant Store are generally where I go to look beside the supermarkets. The Restaurant Store also has a nano called Bone Island Brewing. Waterfront Brewery is worth going to. Also, what used to be a brew pub called Kelly’s Caribbean is now First Flight. Kelly’s beer was not good. Haven’t been to First Flight yet. The changeover was recent enough that I’m not even sure if they have brewed yet. For craft bars on Duval, the Porch and Cork & Stogie are the main ones. Shots & Giggles too behind Sloppy Joe’s. Let me know if you have any other questions. ETA: Looked at First Flight’s website. Same beers as Kelly’s. You can pass on it as a beer destination. Their food, OTOH, should be great based on the other restaurants run by the same guy.
@KeyWestGator pretty much nailed it. Just got back from a short trip. The Porch was a decent spot to grab a beer. Cork and Stogie looked pretty cool, but I took one step inside and then turned around and left. If you are at all sensitive to smoke (like me) you might as well skip this one as there was a noxious cloud hanging in the air. It was a shame, looked like a decent place for a pour. I went to both Faustos and the Publix Liquor store as well as the Restaurant Store. Publix was pretty limited unless you want fairly generic 6-packs at decent prices. Restaurant store had a lot of interesting stuff but watch those dates. I picked up some B-Necktar cidars from them. And Faustos had a very limited selection but between the 2 locations they had all the Funky Buddha bottles at slightly inflated prices. I bought some anyway because I want to support the local KW economy. Key West is not really a "craft beer" town although there is some to be found there. It's more of a drinking town in general. I also went to Florida Keys Brewing Co. which seemed pretty decent; I liked their collab sour with hibiscus.
Glad you had a good time. Yeah, the Restaurant Store has gone downhill in the past few months. I think their main beer guy left. I think Key West as a whole has leveled off as far as Craft expansion/adoption. I agree with you that while it’s definitely a drinking town, it’s certainly not a craft first drinking town. Also, for anybody who reads this in the future, I find the actual Publix store is better than the liquor store. Not great, but better. And Key West has inflated prices for everything.
I'd like to revive this thread as "Key West for Valentine's Day." So I'll be flying into FLL 2/14 and making the drive down to Key West until the 19th. I plan to stop at Funky Buddha after landing, and J Wakefield if I stall long enough for them to open. Are there any good bottle shops around either brewery, or on the way down through the Keys? Is there anywhere to get 3 Sons? Thanks in advance!
A lof good, timely information here: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/visiting-miami-reccomendations.550785/ One of my SE Florida friends would know better than I but my presumption is that 3 Sons’ brick-and-mortar brewery hasn’t yet opened since that news would’ve broken the internet.
The only things I would add for the Keys are a potential stop at Florida Keys Brewing in Islamorada (I’ve never been so I won’t say anything good or bad) and Summerland Wine & Spirits as a bottle shop at MM25ish.
