This past week, I was able to combine my two favorite pastimes – drinking cold, hoppy new drafts and pretending to be an artist.
Nestled between the Celtic Conch Public House and Key West’s First Legal Rum Distillery, the Retro Room, 126 Simonton St., is easy to miss if you’re not looking for it.
I found the Retro Room’s weekly “Drafts and Crafts” event while scouring the Facebook events page for things to do in Key West. Little did I know I’d be walking into one of the Keys’ largest man caves. They have everything from classic arcade machines and boxes of board games stacked 5 feet tall to dolls – er, I mean, “action figures” – climbing to the ceiling. The bar is a true love letter to ’80s and ’90s pop culture.
Having done no research other than to click “going” on the Drafts & Crafts Facebook event page, I was confused when I didn’t find a dozen or so easels set up with jars of black, blue or orange paints so I could create sunset silhouettes while laughing with housewives sipping cabernet.
I was greeted instead by Garth Holtkamp – a local artist, a first-generation Conch and bartender extraordinaire who that night was both working (and apparently teaching) at the Retro Room.
Leaving all expectations at the door, I plopped onto a bar stool, ordered a Death and Renewal weizenbock beer and asked Garth, “Hey, are you guys still doing the Drafts and Crafts thing here?”
Much to his own surprise and mine, Garth said, “Yeah, we are. I’m teaching that.” He told me I was one of the first people to actually come to one of these events they had started a few weeks back.
I looked around. People next to me were talking about board games, and a few others were enjoying their drinks in the back. I said, “All right, let’s do it.”
Garth grabbed a few squares of paper and a couple pencils and said, “OK, let’s start with hands.” We drew cylinders for the fingers, circles for the knuckles and triangles for the palms. Bizarre as I thought it was in the moment, I was sort of “getting it.” What I thought would be a public arts-and-crafts night turned into a private lesson from an actual professional artist.
As I tried to copy Garth’s pencil strokes on the page, I felt like I was in an episode of Cheers. People cycled in and out of the place yelling “Garth!” as they came in, with some wisecrack to follow it. I kid you not, one person walked in with their wife and said, “Hey, Garth, this is my wife.” He poured up their “usuals” as I asked for another round. What the hell, I thought – the story demanded it.
I put down the pencil for a few minutes and chatted with Garth and the other bar patrons as they strolled in. Nothing gets conversation going like a nice buzz and missiles flying into the Middle East on the establishment’s TVs. We talked about everything from world affairs, backstories, love interests (past and present), local drama, art, music and, God knows, too many jokes of poor taste.
I was reminded of just how tightly knit Key West is. Sure, everybody knows everybody and gossip spews freely after a few sips of anything with an alcohol percentage on it, but you learn so much about complete strangers.
One such stranger was Kyle, a veteran born in the South who decided four months ago that Key West would be his new home. I found out he’s currently training as a brewmaster at one of my favorite brewpubs on the island, Southernmost Pint, and is also learning to sail.
Garth and I started talking about a few of our favorite artists. That’s when he pulled me back into drawing again. I showed him these single-line doodles I occasionally do when I’m on the phone or trying to find the next word in whatever Keys Weekly piece I’m writing at the time.
As my pencil began to glide, I saw Garth “the artist” come out. Facing the opposite end of the bar, he started giving me pointers.
“Look, we can even do this,” he said, his pencil coming in unison with mine. “And then take it here.”
He scribbled along, and as we went, it became an artistic collaboration.
I looked at the time and – after a few glasses of water – made my way home with a pocket of my own drawings, some of Garth’s personal doodles and the memory of a night spent in good company.
You may have seen some of Garth’s wood-carving statues at Williams Hall, an old church building on Fleming Street, for the annual Key West woodcarving exhibition. I drove by on Friday and saw Garth the artist again, smiling and schmoozing, talking passionately about his work. I realized I was lucky enough to have met him in his true form, both at the bar and this show. People are a lot like sketches; they get better the more time we spend with them.
