Our Story
The Story of Captain Kava "Small-Tide" Tonga
In the salt-crusted annals of Key West’s early days, one name bobbed above the rest—Captain Kava "Small-Tide" Tonga, the midget pirate from the South Pacific, a terror as fierce as he was short. Barely clearing the height of a rum cask, Small-Tide commanded his sloop, The Kava Wraith, with a machete’s edge and a devil’s grin, raiding the Florida Keys’ turquoise veins. From his Polynesian roots, he’d carried kava—a gnarled root he’d mastered pounding into a murky brew during his far-flung voyages. It sharpened his crew’s wits and dulled their fears, a secret weapon he’d sip before slashing into merchant hulls, his guttural laugh a storm’s herald.
Small-Tide had no love for Cornelis Jol, the Dutch pirate dubbed "Peg-Leg" for his wooden stump. Where others saw a legend, Small-Tide saw a rival to outshine. “A peg don’t make a pirate,” he’d snarl, spitting kava into the sand. One sweltering night off Bone Island—Key West’s old moniker—he decided to prove it. Fueled by pride and a bellyful of his brew, Small-Tide hacked off his own leg above the knee with his machete, the crew gaping as he seared the wound with a glowing iron. “Jol’s a cripple by chance,” he roared, tying a peg of mangrove wood to the stump. “I’m a pirate by choice.”
But legends twist in the wind. In 1723, a howling squall devoured The Kava Wraith, and Small-Tide vanished—ship, crew, and all—leaving only whispers. Folks swore he still stalked Bone Island, a pint-sized wraith with a peg-leg’s limp, kava fumes trailing his shadow. Centuries later, under the warped boards of Kava Key—a rough-hewn bar in Old Town Key West—workers unearthed a grim relic: a lone leg’s bones, femur to fibula, lying with a kava root and a notched machete. No skull, no ribs—just the leg he’d cleaved to mock Jol’s fame.
Now, they say Small-Tide haunts the island still, his one-legged ghost tapping through the mist, proving to the ether he was more pirate than Cornelis Jol ever dreamed. At Kava Key, where his severed bones rest, the air hums with his defiance, a South Pacific specter sipping kava in the dark.
Kava numbers speak
Construction Progress
Much has been done to turn our little corner of Key West into a premier sober bar hot spot! We're turning the corner on putting the finishing touches in place to provide an incredible social gathering location just steps from Duval!
