The contest’s second preliminary round is set for Friday, the 124th anniversary of Hemingway’s July 21 birth, and the 2023 winner is set to be chosen Saturday night. Many are repeat contenders who bring their own cheering sections, and most attempt to copy the “Papa” persona and appearance adopted by Hemingway in his later years. The three-night look-alike competition is held at Sloppy Joe’s Bar, where Hemingway often spent time with local and literary friends.Ĭlosely observed by a judging panel of previous winners including 2022’s Jon Auvil, of Dade City, Florida, contestants take turns pontificating and parading across Sloppy Joe’s stage. The challenge is a highlight of the island’s Hemingway Days festival that salutes the literary talent and adventurous life of the Nobel Prize-winning writer.ĭuring his Key West years, Hemingway penned classics including “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and “To Have and Have Not.” Famous for being the favorite watering hole of Ernest Hemingway, we always have a blast. Almost 140 bearded men who resemble Ernest Hemingway converged on Key West, the late author’s home during the 1930s, to compete in the Hemingway Look-Alike Contest that began Thursday evening. A visit to Key West is not complete without a trip to Sloppy Joes. The motley history of Sloppy Joe’s encourages thousands of tourists and literary lovers to take a seat under the creaky fans, hoping for a little inspiration and good karma from the historic notables who came before them.KEY WEST, Fla. The long wooden bar, once the longest in town, has well-worn patches and dings in it that celebrate the beloved establishment’s hallowed past. A 119-pound sailfish, proudly caught by Hemingway, shares space on the wall with a bat used to inspire fear in otherwise rowdy patrons. Today, the bar is an amalgamation of 1930s glory days memorabilia and trinkets that unassumingly remind patrons that Sloppy Joe’s isn’t a tourist trap, but a cultural experience you won’t find elsewhere. His cohorts, including Waldo Pierce, Captain Eddie Saunders, and John Dos Passos could often be seen spread out comfortably at the bar, drinking tequila, and enjoying the ocean breezes filtering through the structure’s jalousie doors. Hemingway wasn’t the only person from the early 20th century literary and artist scene to patronize the iconic establishment. Then owner, Joe Russell, a proprietor of illegal speakeasies and a personal friend of Hemingway's, agreed to name the institution after the writer's favorite drinkery in Havana, Cuba. The bar has been associated with Ernest Hemingway, who, drawn to the laid-back lifestyle of the area, purchased a nearby Spanish-style villa and set up shop in Key West in the 1930s. That’s the kind of easy-going attitude you’ll find in Key West, and certainly inside Sloppy Joe’s. Patrons simply got up from their stools, walked across the street to the establishment's present-day location, sat down, and resumed their drinking and conversation. The story goes that the move was less of an official endeavor, and more of a slight interruption in the bar’s daily activity.

Four years later, in 1937, the watering hole moved into a vacated Cuban restaurant on the corner of Duval and Green streets. On the day Prohibition was repealed, the liquor lovers of Key West, Florida, rejoiced by opening Sloppy Joe’s Bar.

Sloppy joes key west