A Minted Location day guide
Dock & Dine in Middle Keys
Dock-and-dine in the Middle Keys orbits one harbor and two shores. Boot Key Harbor is the social center — the mooring-field dinghies converge on Dockside every evening — while the gulfside works the water it feeds on: the restaurant dock and the lobster dock at Keys Fisheries are the same dock. The verified stops below publish their own arrival-by-boat welcome; the landmarks that don't are listed with exactly what their sites say.
The harbor
Burdines Waterfront guards the mouth of Boot Key Harbor — non-ethanol 90 and diesel at the fuel dock, slips for rent, and the upstairs grill whose key lime pie is the house claim to fame. Inside, Dockside at Sombrero Marina sits between the A and B docks with live music seven nights a week and dinghy dockage stated plainly on the marina's site. Lazy Days South on the channel offers to cook your catch, though its site stays silent on docks — check local dockage options; Safe Harbor Marathon is on the same street.
The bayside
Keys Fisheries is the Middle Keys in one stop — restaurant, market and wholesale fishery on the working dock, with first-come slips and a lobster reuben that justifies the detour. Up at MM 54, The Island Fish Co. claims the longest tiki bar in the Keys and publishes its own GPS coordinates so you can arrive from either the bay or the Atlantic.
Duck Key
Angler & Ale sits beside the ship's store at Hawks Cay — pull into the marina, in the resort's own words, and step straight into the resort experience. Sixty-six slips, fuel until five, and a Slip & Stay rate if dinner turns into a weekend.
The bridge
Sunset Grille & Raw Bar closes the run at Knights Key, its thatched deck staring straight down the Seven Mile Bridge — the site is silent on docks, so check local dockage options; the Coast Pilot's Knight Key anchorage lies off the point. And Castaway, the 1951 institution at the end of 15th Street, keeps the old waterfront's memory — shrimp boats once tied a stone's throw from the tables.
Before you go
The whole Keys are a No Discharge Zone — seal the through-hull and use the city pump-out. Boot Key Harbor moorings are strictly first-come (VHF 16, no reservations), currents run hard at Moser Channel on big tides, and the call-ahead is the culture at every dock on this run. Bigger plans than lunch? The form on this page reaches the brokers who run this water.
The stops, as their own docks describe them
| Spot | Where | Arriving by boat |
|---|---|---|
| Keys FisheriesThe Middle Keys' most popular restaurant, market and wholesale fishery in one — the lobster reuben landed at the same dock you tie to. | Marathon — gulfside on Florida Bay, 35th Street | “Visit for lunch or dinner by water” — first-come slips at its own marina |
| Burdines Waterfront Bar & GrillThirty-plus years at the harbor mouth: fuel up, tie off, and order the key lime pie the site is famous for by its own telling. | Marathon — MM 47.5 oceanside, mouth of Boot Key Harbor | “Boat slips available for rental” — fuel dock below, grill upstairs |
| Dockside at Sombrero MarinaBoot Key Harbor's living room — the bar and grill on the docks with live music seven nights a week, where the mooring field dinghies in for sunset. | Marathon — Boot Key Harbor, between the A & B docks | “Dinghy dockage also available” — per its host marina's own site |
| Angler & Ale at Hawks CayThe marina-side grill at the Middle Keys' resort flagship — dock at one of 66 slips and the hook-and-cook culture does the rest. | Duck Key — beside the Hawks Cay ship's store | “Pull into the marina and step straight into the resort” — transient slips subject to availability |
| The Island Fish Co.The longest tiki bar in the Florida Keys, by its own claim — with a marina page that navigates you in from either side of the island. | Marathon — MM 54 bayside | “Reach the Island from either the Bay or the Atlantic” — slips for dock booking by contact; it publishes its own GPS coordinates |
| Sunset Grille & Raw BarThe thatched tiki landmark under the Seven Mile Bridge, with an oceanfront deck and one of the largest pools in the Keys — free for customers, by its own page. | Knights Key — at the foot of the Seven Mile Bridge | Check local dockage options — its site is silent on docks; Knight Key anchorage sits off the point |
| Lazy Days SouthOceanfront dining on the Boot Key Channel side with a cook-your-catch welcome — the boater's offer is on the menu even though the dock isn't on the site. | Marathon — MM 47.3 oceanside, 11th Street | Check local dockage options — “we'll even cook your catch”; Safe Harbor Marathon is on the same street |
| Castaway Waterfront Restaurant & Sushi BarThe 1951 waterfront institution where shrimp boats once tied a stone's throw away, by its own history — seafood, sushi and 32 taps at the end of 15th Street. | Marathon — MM 48 oceanside, end of 15th Street | Check local dockage options — 15th Street Marina shares the same street end |
Dockage notes are what each restaurant publishes on its own site — space is first-come and dinner-hour rafting is real, so hail ahead. Where a venue states nothing about docking, we say so rather than guess.
Planning more than lunch?
This run is our backyard — the same docks where we shortlist, survey and sea-trial boats for buyers. Tell us the mission and we'll tell you which boat, and which slip, it calls for.