Mile Marker 99: Where the Mainland Gives Up

Key Largo doesn't really have neighborhoods. It has mile markers, and each one has its own personality.

Mrs. Mac's Kitchen at MM 99 has been serving conch fritters and Key lime pie since 1976. Cramped, colorful, license plates on the walls, chili that's famous for reasons nobody can fully explain. The parking lot is terrible. The food makes up for it. Sundowners at MM 104 has a bayside deck where the sunset turns mangroves into silhouettes and the sky runs through its full color range in about twenty minutes. Fish dip and a beer and let the day end the way the Keys intended.

The strip isn't pretty in any conventional sense, but it has the honest scruffiness of a place built by fishing guides and dive shops rather than developers. Bayside is always better than oceanside for sunset — locals all know this, tourists still crowd the ocean-facing bars.