The Old Tavern

Back in college, and later law school, my friends and I would sometimes go to a great tavern called Duffy's. It's on Red Road, a few miles north of the U. The beer was cheap, and they always had several TVs going with different sports. Of course, the tvs were big and wide, then, and pro sports in Miami meant only the Dolphins...

A typical college move was dinner at the Blue Grotto, just up the street, and then a stop at Duffy's. The Grotto was cheap and delicious. You could get a dinner for $5.99, and it included unlimited minestrone and garlic rolls. My friends and I often made them regret the garlic rolls offer...

I took my long time college girlfriend to the Blue Grotto on our first date. She was raised far richer than I was, and the whole time there she looked around mildly disgusted. I should have known then that our futures were not destined to merge...

Anyway, the Grotto was closed years ago -- it became a German place for awhile, and I don't even know what it is now. But Duffy's has endured. A year or so ago, Wifey and I were at a swank private banking event at the Biltmore, and I met a Coral Gables based, wealthy WASPy couple. It turned out they owned Duffy's -- started by the man's Dad, I think. I told him I loved the place, but hadn't been since maybe, oh, 1985 or so.

There was no real reason for my absence. I LOVE old taverns -- the antithesis of fake, fern bar places like TGIF, or the now closed Bennigans...Tobacco Road and Fox's were my two favorites , and now both are gone. But Duffy's is just a tiny bit out of the way, I guess, and so hadn't visited, until yesterday.

I took a pass from a visit with mi suegra horible, and told Pat McGrath I was free to watch the Dolphins. He suggested Duffy's. And so I cruised up Red Road in the girlie Caddy, on a spectacular Miami Fall early afternoon.  I said hello to the ghosts as I passed the U, and pulled into the Duffy's lot. I went inside. Nothing had changed, except for the tvs -- now all flat screens instead of the big tube jobs...

We sat, and ordered wings. Pat was drinking beer -- I had a few Absoluts (they have Absolut, Goose, and Gordon's vodka -- like I said, this is a REAL bar).

Pat is in some type of fantasy for play league, and so he was as interested in Bengals/Browns as Fins/Bills.  An elderly buddy of his from Rivieria CC came by --former president of the Orange Bowl Committee. I knew his name from the papers -- Sherrill -- and he drank red wine and we talked Canes football -- making ample fun of Pat and his Gators.

The Fins game turned out to be a great one -- they came back against the better Bills, and won.  I drove home in the still gorgeous weather, and met Wifey on the porch for some iced tea. She had avoided her toxic mother for the day, too -- she'll see her during the week before we leave for Chicago.

And Duffy's is back on my list -- my next visit will be far before the next 31 years...