Formerly: Sanchez Corner Grocery (1890–World War II) · The Brown Derby (World War II–early 1970s)
Key West, Florida · Founded 1942 · Building: 1890
A Key West live-music fixture in an 1890 building that evolved from a corner grocery into the Brown Derby and, in the early 1970s, the Green Parrot.
The Green Parrot Bar occupies a building erected in 1890 at the corner of Whitehead and Southard streets in Key West. The building started as Antonio Sanchez’s grocery, became the Brown Derby during World War II, and was remade as the open-air Green Parrot in the early 1970s by Judy Sullivan.
Antonio Sanchez opens Sanchez Corner, a grocery store, at the southeast corner of Southard and Whitehead streets.
Source: The Green Parrot Bar, “Since 1890.”
At the beginning of World War II, the former grocery becomes the Brown Derby, an air-conditioned bar associated with Navy submarine sailors stationed in Key West.
Source: The Green Parrot Bar, “Since 1890.”
In the early 1970s, Judy Sullivan buys the Brown Derby, renames it The Green Parrot, replaces the glass-block windows with open-air shutters, and shifts the former sailors’ bar toward Key West’s emerging countercultural scene.
Source: The Green Parrot Bar, “Since 1890.”
Former bartender Saul Paul Stewart paints Smirk, the Green Parrot’s enduring wall portrait.
Source: The Green Parrot Bar, “The Story of Smirk.”
Jim Bean and his wife Linda purchase the Green Parrot.
Source: The Green Parrot Bar, “Since 1890.”
Every claim gets rated. A business's own website can never earn "documented."
The Green Parrot’s own history says Antonio Sanchez opened a grocery at the site in 1890. The location became the Brown Derby bar only at the start of World War II, and it did not become The Green Parrot until the early 1970s.
The claim appears on an intentionally absurd commemorative plaque at the bar and is treated as a joke. There is no credible evidence for the event, and the plaque’s story is part of the bar’s irreverent folklore rather than Key West history.
The Green Parrot’s official history says the Brown Derby became Key West’s submarine-sailors’ bar and quotes a period Key West Citizen description of it as an air-conditioned sailor’s bar. The actual contemporary Citizen report should be located before this claim is rated documented.
The Green Parrot’s published history states that Jim Bean and his wife Linda bought the bar in 1983.
The Green Parrot Bar was established as a bar in 1890.
The 1890 date belongs to Antonio Sanchez’s grocery store at the site. The location became the Brown Derby bar at the beginning of World War II and became the Green Parrot in the early 1970s.
Source: The Green Parrot Bar, “Since 1890.”
Elvis Presley slapped Ernest Hemingway at the Green Parrot in 1957.
The plaque describing the event is an intentionally fictional novelty; no credible evidence supports the story.
Source: Boarding Completed, “Green Parrot auf Key West,” 2020.
The Green Parrot has stayed relevant by treating its historic setting as a working neighborhood bar rather than a museum. The open-air layout, long-running live-music program, eccentric interior details, and persistence through changing versions of Key West have made it a destination for locals and visitors alike.
The building now occupied by The Green Parrot Bar was erected in Key West in 1890 as Antonio Sanchez’s grocery store. It became the Brown Derby at the beginning of World War II and was renamed The Green Parrot in the early 1970s, when owner Judy Sullivan converted the former sailors’ bar into an open-air Key West gathering place.
No. The Green Parrot occupies a building dating to 1890, but the building began as a grocery store and did not become a bar until the start of World War II. The Green Parrot name itself dates to the early 1970s, so its historic building date should not be treated as an uninterrupted bar-operating date.
The Brown Derby was the World War II-era bar that preceded The Green Parrot at Whitehead and Southard streets. The Green Parrot’s official history describes it as an air-conditioned sailors’ bar frequented by Navy submarine personnel stationed in Key West.
No. A plaque inside the Green Parrot claims that Elvis Presley slapped Ernest Hemingway there on June 9, 1957, but the story is an intentional joke and has no credible historical evidence behind it.
601 Whitehead St, Key West, FL 33040
(305) 294-6133
Current listings show the Green Parrot open from 10 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily, with Friday and Saturday hours extending to 4 a.m.; check its current music calendar before visiting.