La Te Da

About this place La Te Da

La Te Da occupies a historic property at the southern end of Duval Street that has been a centre of Key West's gay social life since the 1970s. The complex includes the La Te Da hotel, the Crystal Room upstairs cabaret venue, the downstairs garden bar, and the rooftop bar — a layered social space that operates at multiple registers simultaneously. The Crystal Room is the finest cabaret venue in Key West: it has hosted Jimmy Buffett in his early career, nationally recognised drag performers, and a consistent programme of quality entertainment across its decades of operation. The format is different from 801 Bourbon's high-energy drag bar: La Te Da aims for something more intimate, more theatrical, and more oriented toward the visitor who wants to sit at a table with a proper cocktail and watch a well-produced show. The garden bar at ground level is one of Key West's most pleasant outdoor drinking spaces — tropical plantings, the ambient noise of the street filtered through the vegetation, the specific pleasure of drinking in a garden in a subtropical city. La Te Da is the correct choice for a gay couple seeking a special evening rather than a bar crawl, or for visitors who want the best of what Key West's entertainment tradition has produced.