Key West Florida Weekly

Seaside Café a Southernmost treat for food, views




Savor the sunset at Seaside Café, adjacent to Key West’s Southernmost House. COURTESY PHOTOS

Savor the sunset at Seaside Café, adjacent to Key West’s Southernmost House. COURTESY PHOTOS

Steps away from the hustle and bustle of where Duval Street meets the warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean, you will find the Seaside Café. Vibrant blue and yellow umbrellas pave the way through sand and bricks to your dining table where you can hear the ocean tell her story. The island’s family-owned outdoor eatery is at the historic Southernmost House.

The pastel 1897 mansion was originally built to be a one-bedroom home to house Judge Vining Harris and his wife, Florida Curry, the youngest daughter of Florida’s first millionaire, William Curry. Only the best of the best would do for Curry, which is why Thomas Edison himself played a vital role in the construction of the mansion, installing all of the electricity and leaving a phonograph as a present for the family.

The massive estate would go on to be a speakeasy during Prohibition and later, in 1939, a nightclub called Café Cayo Hueso, owned and operated by the Ramos family (one of Florida’s oldest merchant families with ties to the Spanish royal family). The nightclub served the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Tallulah Bankhead and jazz master Louis Armstrong, to name a few, not to mention some U.S. presidents.

In 1949, the Ramos family renovated the estate to become their residence and in 1998, Michael Halpern joined ownership of the mansion with the Ramos family.

Lobster pizza is a decadent dish at Seaside Café.

Lobster pizza is a decadent dish at Seaside Café.

Enough about the history of the mansion, let’s talk about history in the making.

Two words: Lobster pizza.

The Seaside Café is making headlines with its lobster pizza. Imagine a bed of cream sauce topped with fontina, loads of fresh lobster and finished off with a garlic puree and fresh parsley.

Seaside Café, the brainchild of father and son duo Michael and Chef Rafe Halpern, was founded after demands from hungry guests made the hotelier expand into the restaurant business. The father and son team opened their food truck café at the Southernmost House in 2019 on the cusp of the pandemic. With the world being put on pause, the duo worked hard to establish themselves. Locals were being laid off and visitors were slim to none. Michael and Chef Rafe, known for their involvement in philanthropy on the island, used their business as a means to help anyone in the community that was hungry during this difficult and uncharted time. They served over 5,000 meals, proving they were more than just another hip restaurant on the strip.

Chef Rafe, a Key West native and graduate of Johnson and Wales University in Denver, curated a decadent yet affordable menu, putting his own spin on classics. He prides himself on using the freshest ingredients and says he believes providing exceptional service and high-quality food should go hand-in-hand.

The menu includes honey butter biscuits, parmesan truffle fries, coconut-encrusted shrimp served with a side of piña colada dipping sauce, a medley of salads and mojitos.

If pizza is your thing, then make yourself at home and try one of the six original pies. From traditional red sauce with three cheeses to the unique Duval Street Corn pizza which features a combination of cream sauce, four cheese blend, roasted corn, bacon, basil aioli and, of course, parsley. The restaurant also serves a twist on classic Italian with its wood-fire caprese sandwiches that come with or without prosciutto. As we all know, there is always room for dessert and believe me you will not want to miss the Piña Colada Key Lime pie that you will only find at the café.

The Seaside Cafe boasts of being one of the only establishments in town where all of the management working was born and raised in the Florida

Keys.

Michael Halpern’s late wife, Michelle, who died of cancer, was the inspiration for this business. Halpern’s philanthropic work has provided education and aid to not only people, but animals as well. The family supports the Michelle Keevan Halpern Center for Learning, the FKSPCA and the Cancer Foundation of the Florida Keys, among others.

If you want to try one of Trip Advisor’s Top 100 Pizza Restaurants in America, then lather on your sunscreen and head to 1400 Duval St. The Seaside Café is open 11:30 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. Info: www.seasidecafekw.com. ¦

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