Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Wave Your Freak Flag Proudly!!!!

Well, it's that time of year again.... It's Fantasty Fest in Key West!!!


I'll keep you updated with pictures and stories, as we are bound to have some!! Fantasy Fest is kind of like Key West's version of Mardi Gras and Halloween combined. There are theme-parties every night all around town, all culminating in "the Big Parade" Saturday night. This parade has huge floats, amazing costumes, LOTS and LOTS of beads being thrown... it is a true spectacle.
Our nights here at Damn Good Food TO-Go tend to be fairly slow during the week of Fantasy Fest because everyone is out partying and generally being on display. However, each morning, people wake up in a fog, body paint smearing on their pillows, and need to eat!! Lots of Biscuits and Gravy (our secret recipe and a well-regarded hangover cure!!!) and LOTS of Gatorade are sold this week!!!
At night, I always look forward to our customers coming by to show off their various costumes, and they range from the fancy and creative, to the down-right naughty!!! Take a look above and below at the first couple of Fantasy Fest pictures we have.... more to come throughout the week.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Best Wishes for a Life of Happiness!!

I had a lovely experience this evening, and feel honored to have played any part in it. A really nice couple came in around 10pm - Mark and Dina, from New Jersey. They just wanted to have some coffee and to sit and relax. As I brewed them a fresh pot, we chatted quite a bit. They had stopped in earlier in the day to pick up a menu, and Mark looked familiar to me; I knew he was someone who had visited before.

As we talked, Mark told me that they had gotten married at sunset this evening, out on Smather's Beach! They had gone out the night before for a very romantic dinner at "Latitudes" Restaurant (http://www.sunsetkeyhomes.com/lattitudessunsetkey.htm), and so decided that today they would let their wedding be the highlight of the day and not try to top that romantic dinner from the night before. No bridal party with 16 attendants, no tuxedos in the humid Key West evening, no big frilly wedding reception. Just a nice walk around town, and a cup of coffee in their favorite local spot, a little of the beaten trail.

So instead, they came and spent a piece of their wedding night with me, drinking coffee, chatting, and watching the fascinating parade of characters that comes through our door every night.

I feel blessed and honored to have played a role in their wedding night, a night they will remember and talk about forever!!!

It's kind of neat to think of all the different things that Damn Good Food is to people. We are their morning coffee spot, their place to pick up lunches to take fishing, their room service. We are their place for bar snacks as they sit at The White Tarpon (bar, directly next door to Damn Good Food To-Go), their place for desserts after walking off a big dinner....

And we are the place to spend a quiet, memorable evening after a beautiful, private, sunset wedding in Key West.