Hemingway Hangout on Jax Beach

Pete’s Bar up on the northern end of the Jacksonville Beach, Florida, strand, looks exactly as it did when I hung out there in my early twenties and exactly as it did when Hemingway hung out there way before me. In fact, the owners say it hasn’t changed since day one in 1933.

Owned by the same family, the Jensen’s, for almost 80-years Pete’s Bar has a rich history. During prohibition the bar’s first owner, Peter Jensen, used to sell bootleg liquor from his nearby grocery store. When prohibition ended in 1933 Pete’s Bar was the first in Duval County to receive a liquor license. This and other information about Pete’s Bar on Neptune Beach can be found here (scroll down after the 404 notice).

* So did author John Grisham. He not only wrote about the bar in his book, “The Brethren,” but wrote part of the book in the bar while staying at the beach.