Boca Chica Lounge

When Key West bartenders delivered their 4 a.m. eviction edict and turned on the "Death Rays" (those 200-watt incandescent bulbs), hardy folks headed over the Cow Key Channel bridge to the Boca Chica Lounge on Stock Island to keep the party going. Monroe County had no law about bar closing times and the "Broken Chicken" stayed open 23 hours a day. The disco boomed and the lights flashed, and the shrimpers were kept separate from "regular" patrons by a chain-link fence... inside the bar! Fights and brawls were commonplace, as were shady deals, and needless to say, the local deputies were always busting something up at the place. Characters of every color were on hand: fishermen, gamblers, criminals, gay, straight and undercover law enforcement, too!