The Breakfast Club – ‘Once a bubba, always a bubba’

The Breakfast Club – ‘Once a bubba, always a bubba’ - A group of people sitting at a table in a restaurant - Lunch
The Long-Time Local’s Breakfast Club meets daily at Kennedy Café.

There is only one written document more closely guarded than Vice Honcho Lenny Salazar’s breakfast club book, and that’s the United States Constitution. “I am going to share this with you, but you have to protect it with your life,” he said at Kennedy Café.

The Long-Time Local’s Breakfast Club book is filled with pictures and mementos from its years of daily meetings. One time the group put out a wanted poster for one of the founding members, Chippy Fernandez. The next day, he showed up incognito with a wig and mustache. They’ve brought in cans and strings to make phones, and all enjoy a good jab at the members in attendance.

The original group was five members; it now boasts about two dozen. They reminisces, sharing funny stories of the good old Key West days. Salazar, savvy about making newsletters and keeping the books, photoshops the group’s members walking on the moon, on vacation, on magazine front pages for baseball, golf, and the AARP, “sporadically published when remembered.” 

The group is made up of retired locals, whose past Key West jobs included arcade owner, Sears salesman, postmasters, public works, and more. They started meeting for breakfast at Dennis Pharmacy, then The Deli, Lulu’s, Lucky Day, and now Kennedy Café. 

“We tried Denny’s, but we linger for more than an hour, and they weren’t too happy about that,” said Salazar.

Since incorporation, the group has a logo and membership cards for inductees. Fernandez has been the unanimous pick for mayor since inception. There is only one commandment: don’t touch someone else’s coffee carafe; you could lose a hand.

Kristen Livengood is a Marathon High School and University of South Florida grad, mom of two beautiful little girls, and wife to some cute guy she met in a bar. She enjoys red wine, Tito's, Jameson, running (very, very slowly), and spearfishing.