It was 1984. Michael Jackson’s hair caught fire. MTV awarded its first Video Music Awards. Kevin Bacon cut “Footloose.”
In Key West, that was also the year Evalena and Paul Worthington had sailed into Key West on a stormy night — and stuck around. They started selling drinks and single cigarettes from their sailboat, unaware that the makeshift bar would evolve into a beloved landmark.
“We filled an Igloo cooler with beer and the top drawer of a filing cabinet held the top shelf liquor,” Evalena told the Keys Weekly in 2020. “It quickly became the ‘living room’ of the waterfront community.”
A few years later, that living room moved onto dry land, when the Worthingtons leased one of the waterfront properties around the harbor from the city, which had bought all the properties to prevent overdevelopment.
That lease launched what we know today as Schooner Wharf Bar, 202 William St, “a last little piece of Old Towne Key West,” and home of the annual Minimal Regatta, the lighted boat parade, Mel Fisher Days, New Year’s Eve and so many more.
That same lease is now in someone else’s name. Evalena Worthington is selling the iconic business. (Paul Worthington died in August 2020.)
The city board that’s appointed to manage the Key West Bight, or harbor, on Oct. 14 voted unanimously to approve the transfer of Schooner Wharf’s lease from Evalena Worthington to Pat Croce and Co., the company that already owns Half Shell Raw Bar and the Green Parrot Bar in Key West, along with eight other bars and restaurants in St. Augustine and Pennsylvania.
Captain Kelly George, a longtime Key West skipper, told the bight management board on Oct. 14 that the lease transfer was a “win-win.”
He spoke of the 42-year legacy of Paul and Evalena Worthington and their impact on the island city. George called Schooner Wharf Bar “iconic,” and thanked Worthington for four decades of drinks, charity events, New Year’s Eve parties, the infamous morning Breakfast Club and more.
“The 42-year legacy of Evalena and Paul Worthington is simply iconic,” he said.
The Keys Weekly is awaiting comment from Worthington.
