Businessman Allen Merrill has spent 37-years in the hospitality industry in Key West and has seen bad business years turn into profitable ones and expects the Keys to maneuver successfully through the current worldwide financial crisis.

“My father was vacationing in Key West in 1972 and called and asked if I’d like my own restaurant,” Merrill said recently while working in the kitchen of his Allen Merrill’s Café at The Inn at Key West, 3420 N. Roosevelt Blvd.

Merrill, a South New Jersey native, graduated from the hotel and restaurant management degree program at the University of Denver. He was working in Southern California when his father called.

“I said yes,” he recalled. “I came to Key West for the first time and found myself the owner of the boarded up Hukilau restaurant, across from Garrison Bight.”

The Hukilau’s Hawaiian theme was in place when Merrill walked through the door for the first time.

“We kept the theme,” he said. “And for some reason, everyone accepted it and the restaurant became popular.”

The Hukilau’s bar was a local political hangout.

“Happy hour found Mayor Sonny McCoy sitting with the local newspaper publisher, and a mix of city commissioners, most afternoons of the workweek,” Merrill laughed. “I guess it was within the Sunshine Law, since the bar was always filled with locals and there wasn’t a backroom available.”

In 1974, Merrill saw things change, as the Navy pulled out.

“The Navy downsized in ‘74, there were gas shortages that almost stopped the drive-down tourist and, remember,” he said, “the new bridges weren’t in, so the ride from Miami was long and, some would say, treacherous, along the old road.

“You could walk down Duval in the summer of ’74 and shoot off a canon and not hit anything,” Merrill recalled. “Key West was a ghost town after the Navy left.”

Merrill remembers the many boarded up businesses along Duval Street.

“Things began to turn around slowly,” he said. “Ed Swift Jr and Chris Belland began buying closed-up property, renovating it and getting tenants back in.”

Merrill draws his thoughts on the future of Key West from past experiences.

“Who has a crystal ball to help make predictions for tomorrow?” he said. “I have a lot of faith in Key West. I don’t think we will see an exodus of money, like when the Navy left. I talk to locals and visitors daily in the café, and I hear optimistic attitudes from most of them.”

Merrill said he too is optimistic, especially that Key West will see a lot of drive-down business from the mainland because people still look upon Key West as a Caribbean destination they can drive to. A destination, he added, where smugglers and writers mixed to make history.

“Thirty, thirty-five years ago, the island had its characters, some with dubious reputations,” Merrill laughed as he put dishes in the sink. “Today, our characters are artist of all sorts and the arts bring people here. I think places like The Studios of Key West are great additions to our island, as are our art galleries, and people will travel for the arts. And, the island has a history people want to know about.”

Merrill began a catering business in 1978, because the popularity of the Hukilau stayed strong with local support. When he sold the Hukilau in 1989, he kept the catering business and it became Great Events Catering.

“I had a local customer, Stan Whitehead, who ate almost daily at the Hukilau,” Merrill said. “One day he offered to buy the place and it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

Without Merrill’s business and restaurant savvy, the Hukilau fell on hard times and had a few different owners. In 1995 the property and business was sold on the courthouse steps. It never matched its early success and today, the Homeland Security building sits on the property.

In 1998, Merrill sold his catering business to Louis and Christine Scaramuzzi. Unlike the ill-fated Hukilau, Great Events Catering has continued to be a successful business, with its new owners.

In 2000, Merrill and his partner, Linda Sorensen, opened Allen Merrill’s Café at The Inn at Key West resort. Merrill’s father once told him to put his name on his business, so he did and added the name of the resort, too. Most locals refer to the restaurant as Allen Merrill’s, he said.

“We start our 10th year in business at the hotel this June,” Merrill said. “Our business is about 40-percent local and the rest comes from hotel guests.”

The resort was recently sold to Key Wester Charlie Toppino.

“Nothing changed, for us, with the sale,” Merrill said. “But it’s nice to know a Key West family has enough faith in the future of the island to invest in it.”

The café is open daily for breakfast and lunch.

“We service the hotel guests and the pool area,” he said. “So we have to be open every day of the year.”

During season, Merrill shows up at the café daily.

“This is the smallest restaurant I’ve had, a small staff, too,” Merrill said while he checked the kitchen’s French fry basket. “It has allowed me to cut back on a lot of things the large places demanded of me, so I am kind of semi-retired, I think.”

Sorensen laughed from the kitchen door. “Cut back,” she said, “but he still runs everything.”