Rotgut.org Blog: #5655 - Tiki Bar Behind Low Key Hideaway, Cedar Key, FL

Wednesday, April 03, 2024

#5655 - Tiki Bar Behind Low Key Hideaway, Cedar Key, FL - 3/25/2024

Low-Key Hideaway and Tiki Bar
Cedar Key, FL

People who are seriously into tiki generally have exacting standards for what constitutes a "tiki bar," and the state of Florida in particular is full of thatch topped "tiki bars" that don't meet the criteria. The "Tiki Bar Behind Low Key Hideaway" is one of those, but whatever you want to call it, it is a wonderful bar -- one of my very favorites in the country.

The bar is part of a small, eccentric complex that also includes 5 motel rooms, nine RV spaces, a food truck, and a "tiki taxi," sitting on the waters edge in Cedar Key off the Gulf of Mexico, and with the entire space restricted to adults only. The bar is set in an old fish house, and looks exactly like one would want a beach bar to look, appearing to have been constructed of various flotsam collected from the beach.

Tiki Bar Behind Low-Key Hideway
Cedar Key, FL

A place like this would have been one of my favorites whatever its history, but one thing that makes it even more remarkable is that it was severely damaged by Hurricane Idalia just nine months ago. Video (Facebook) of the place after the storm waters crested at 8.9 feet shows the bar filled up to the windows with several feet of water, with extensive damage throughout the business. But with the owner, staff, and a small army of volunteers on the job, they were almost miraculously reopened within about a week, including rebuilding walls made of old bottles, and the deck being rebuilt just one week after that. The place got power and water restored in a day or two and immediately offered the hotel rooms to displaced locals, and free meals from the food truck.

Just looking at the place on this visit one would have trouble finding any clue that anything like that intense damage and immense recovery effort had every happened. The bar cat looks out over the marsh from a perch above the glass bottle wall, as the bartender serves frozen cocktails and elaborate Bloody Marys in front of a bar formed from an inverted piano. The various nautical knick-knacks and eclectic pieces of folk art look like they could have been sitting undisturbed for decades. Were it a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday Night, the bar would probably feature live music as well.

I can only put so much into words, but if the pictures don't make you long to spend some time relaxing here, well, we're just made of different stuff. The Low-Key Hideaway, the entire "arts community" of Cedar Key, and the surrounding small towns of this region are now very high on my list of places I'd like to return to and spend more time exploring.