Key West Museum Celebrates Bahamian, Cuban Food Traditions at Annual Conch Picnic

Recipes that were fading from Key West dinner tables found their way back to them Wednesday evening, when the 10th annual Conch Revival Picnic brought communal outdoor dining and live music to Clinton Place Park outside the Key West Museum of Art & History at 281 Front Street.

Chefs Martha Hubbard and Dave Fuhrman prepared the picnic-style feast, drawing on historic Bahamian and Cuban recipes that the Key West Art & Historical Society has worked for a decade to keep alive. Many of those dishes trace directly to the postwar Key West Woman's Club Cookbook, edited by Wilhelmina Harvey, an original Conch who became the first woman mayor in the Florida Keys. Additional recipes came from archival cookbooks held by the Society and the Key West Public Library.

The event was presented by the Key West Art & Historical Society alongside Great Events Catering and Unity Table at Williams Hall. Registration was required and admission was set at $100, according to the Florida Humanities event listing.

The picnic's origins stretch back to 2016, when the tradition was launched in memory of Dianne Zolotow, a Key West Art & Historical Society board member and island native whose passion for Conch culture shaped the event's mission. The Key West Art & Historical Society described that mission plainly: the recipes honored at the picnic were "created and consumed by Conch families for generations but which have, over time, been disappearing from memory and tables."

Wednesday's gathering coincided with the museum's newly opened exhibition, "FOOD: Celebrating Conch Cuisine," which runs through January 3, 2027, and is free with museum admission. The exhibition, one of seven statewide presented under Florida Humanities' shared food experience initiative, was developed by the Key West Art & Historical Society in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution's Museum on Main Street program and is sponsored by Florida Humanities with funding from the Jacarlene Foundation. It opened February 27 and gave picnic guests a second dimension to the evening: culinary heritage explored indoors through the exhibition galleries, then lived outdoors through the meal itself.

Key West's food traditions reflect the island's history as a Caribbean shipping hub, shaped by Cuban, Bahamian, and African immigrant influences that arrived alongside trade. The arrival of Henry Flagler's railroad in 1912 further transformed the island's pantry, opening access to fresh produce and seafood and enabling the development of dishes that have defined the local table ever since.

The Florida Humanities listing for the picnic closed with a line that captured the evening's intent: "Come hungry, come curious, and help keep the flavors of Key West alive.