"You may as well have been in an alley."
When it opened in the Florida Keys in 1982, the Safari Lounge wasn’t known for its waterfront location or its menu, which consisted of drinks and snacks.
It was known for all the dead animal heads on the wall.
Now, after being closed for six years and a huge renovation, the Islamorada landmark, which was damaged by Hurricane Irma in 2017, has reopened as Oceanside Safari Restaurant and Lounge.
The new restaurant has a full menu and waterfront seating — and, while there are no more dead animal heads, there are a few nods to the original concept.
General manager Frank Scottoline said the animal heads came from the original owner, a hunter who went on safari, collected trophies and displayed them on the bar’s walls. (You might have glimpsed the lounge on an episode of the Netflix TV show “Bloodline.”)
“People didn’t know what we meant when we said we were reopening the Safari Lounge,” he said of the spot, which was a neighborhood hangout. “They said, ‘Oh! You’re reopening Dead Animal Bar!’ They called it Dead Animal Bar or DAB. No one actually knew the name Safari Lounge. But when we took over, we wanted to keep the memories.”
Read more at the Miami Herald