According to Keys News, the busiest corner on Duval Street belonged to a national chain for thirty years. Hard Rock Cafe ran its Key West location at 313 Duval from 1996 until it closed in April of this year, a national brand operating in a building that predates almost everything else on the block. Then the building sold. For $13.5 million, according to local news coverage of the sale, one of Duval's most valuable footprints changed hands. The building's next occupant will be Smokin' Tuna Saloon, a bar that started on a side street a block off Duval and spent thirteen years building a reputation on live music and a courtyard crowd before closing its original location in 2024.
The change at 313 Duval is one of several business developments around Key West this year.
Thirty Years on One Corner
The Smokin' Tuna story has more detail worth sitting with. The original bar opened on Charles Street in 2011 and built a following as a songwriter-driven live music venue, the kind of place regulars mention by name before they mention the menu. It closed in 2024. For over a year, its future was an open question. Then, this summer, a reveal party gathered former employees and longtime patrons at 313 Duval, the same address Hard Rock had occupied since 1996, to confirm what the building's new listing already showed: Smokin' Tuna is coming back, on the biggest stage it has ever had. Renovations are underway now, with an opening date still to be announced.
Smokin' Tuna Saloon is preparing to reopen at 313 Duval.
The move places the longtime venue in the building Hard Rock Cafe occupied for three decades.
Key West's First Michelin Selections
According to Miami New Times, Michelin released its first-ever statewide Florida selection on May 28, covering 200 restaurants across 41 cuisine types, and two Key West restaurants made the list.
Blue Heaven, the longtime Thomas Street courtyard restaurant known for its roaming roosters as much as its menu, earned a Michelin Recommended listing. Moondog Cafe & Bakery, tucked in a Victorian house just off Duval on Whitehead Street, became the island's first-ever Bib Gourmand, Michelin's category for food worth the trip at a fair price.
Both restaurants have spent years building loyal, repeat-visit followings. Michelin's first Key West selections included two established restaurants.
A New Duval Street Restaurant
Not every new opening this year fits neatly into a story about nostalgia, and Dragon & Rooster is the useful complication. According to Key West Tourist, Dragon & Rooster opened in January at 626 Duval, in the space that used to hold Pho King Awesome at the corner of Duval and Angela. It is a new concept in a high-traffic tourist corridor.
The restaurant came from Scott Taylor, already known on the island through Kaya Island Eats, working with executive chef Chris Gaskill, a Marathon High School graduate whose background is entirely Keys-rooted. The menu draws from Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Filipino cooking, and the dining room offers a sit-down dining option on Duval Street. Dragon & Rooster is a new concept from people with roots in the Keys.
Coffee Butler Amphitheater's Next Chapter
Coffee Butler Amphitheater, the city-owned stage at Truman Waterfront, has been run by Rams Head Presents since it opened in 2019. That arrangement is ending. Rams Head is not expected to continue under its current extension option, which leaves the amphitheater's next chapter genuinely open.
In the meantime, the calendar keeps moving. Gov't Mule and Ziggy Marley are booked there for September 30 on their Dreaming the Same Dream Tour, so the near-term concert schedule isn't in question. Who will manage the amphitheater next remains unresolved, and that decision will shape hotel demand, restaurant traffic, and the island's ability to land larger touring acts.
The Rhythms That Don't Change
Not everything on this list is about a business changing hands. Some of it is just the island's calendar doing what it always does. Tropic Cinema, which has spent the season showing films and running its own Key West Picture Show, announced its usual temporary hurricane-season closure starting June 28. It's not a story about loss, just the rhythm of running a single-screen theater through the slow months, the same pause the theater takes most years before reopening for the fall lineup that feeds into the Key West Film Festival later in the year.
And on White Street, nothing about this year's biggest local tradition has changed at all. Walk on White has run every third Thursday since 1998 or 1999, depending on who you ask, starting at the Historic Armory on the corner of Southard and White and stretching a half mile down to United Street. More than twenty galleries, studios, and shops still open their doors from 6 to 9 p.m., the same format it's held for decades. If Duval Street is where this year's changes are concentrated, White Street is the reminder that some of the island's best cultural infrastructure never needed to change to stay relevant.
This year, Duval Street saw business changes, while White Street's monthly art walk continued in its longstanding format. Together, they offer a snapshot of Key West's changing businesses and ongoing cultural events.
If you're weighing what any of this means for property values along Old Town's commercial core, or you're curious how a block-level shift like this ripples into residential demand nearby, that's exactly the kind of on-the-ground read The Karen Haack Team tracks year-round. Talk to a Lower Keys real estate expert today.
