Beloved waterfront bar says goodbye after three decades of drinks, music, friendships, memories
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
After 32 years, the last call has come for one of downtown Beaufort’s most recognizable watering holes.
Hemingway’s Bistro closed its doors for the final time early Tuesday morning, Sept. 29, following one last night of drinks, music, stories and goodbyes at the small basement bar overlooking Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park.
The closure was announced Monday morning in an emotional post on the bar’s Facebook page by co-owner Kanani Robinson.
“I honestly don’t even know how to write this,” Robinson wrote. “So I’ll just rip it off like a bandaid….. After 32 years, Hemingway’s is closing its doors. Today is our final farewell.”
Robinson attributed the closure to “unforeseen circumstances,” but did not elaborate on what led to the sudden decision.
For generations of locals and visitors, Hemingway’s was a fixture of downtown Beaufort, tucked beneath the historic Thomas Law Building on Bay Street with its entrance facing Waterfront Park.
It was the kind of place that could be easy to miss if you didn’t know where to look, but difficult to forget once you found it.
“Hemingway’s was never just a bar,” Robinson wrote. “It was a place people came to celebrate, to forget, to laugh, to cry, to meet someone new, to see an old friend, to have one drink that somehow turned into an entire night.”
That description was echoed by hundreds of people who responded to the announcement Monday, sharing stories that stretched across decades.
Some met their spouses there. Others played their first shows there, worked behind the bar, celebrated birthdays and homecomings or made Hemingway’s their first stop whenever they returned to Beaufort.
Terry Goff Tripp said she met her husband, Jim, at Hemingway’s on April 13, 2001. Jim died Sept. 2.
“I guess that 2 chapters of my life closing at once,” she wrote.
Jeffrey Aivaz shared a photograph taken at Hemingway’s while he and his partner were dating in 1997. Now, nearly three decades later, the couple was traveling in Greece celebrating their 27th anniversary.
“It all started at Hemingways!!!” he wrote.
For others, Hemingway’s was intertwined with Beaufort’s local music scene.
Musician Chris Jones said he met his wife, Katy, at Hemingway’s and played his first solo shows there 30 years ago. Walker Dean remembered Hemingway’s as the first place he played music in Beaufort, while Shark Rodeo Band called Hemingway’s a favorite place the group had the privilege of playing.
The memories extended beyond late nights and live music.
Hemingway’s became known for opening its doors on holidays, including its Orphans & Strays gatherings, which provided Thanksgiving meals and a place to spend the holiday for those who otherwise might have been alone.
Commenters recalled Thanksgiving dinners, New Year’s Day collard greens and black-eyed peas, fundraisers, Water Festival celebrations and a bar that had a reputation for staying open when storms brought much of Beaufort to a standstill.
Jamie Millard remembered getting Bloody Marys at Hemingway’s the morning after Hurricane Dorian, when she said it was “the only bar open on Bay!”
Others remembered finding something more important than a drink inside the little basement bar.
Haley Pederson said Hemingway’s was one of the first places she visited after moving from Minnesota to Beaufort for a six-month travel nursing assignment. She arrived knowing no one and said she left Beaufort with lifelong friends, all of whom she met at Hemingway’s.
“A bar is really just four walls, some stools, some bottles and a sign outside,” Robinson wrote in her farewell. “The people are what make it matter. And because of all of you, Hemingway’s mattered.”
Robinson thanked the employees who worked at Hemingway’s over the years, singling out longtime bartender Moe and former owners Lea and Andina, who she credited with carrying Hemingway’s for 20 years.
She also reflected on her own 18 years inside the bar, pouring drinks, listening to stories and watching strangers become regulars and regulars become family.
“To every single person who ever walked through our doors, thank you,” Robinson wrote.
The announcement left many asking the same question: Why?
Dozens of commenters asked what had happened and whether the community could do anything to keep Hemingway’s open. Others asked whether the business could be sold to someone willing to continue it.
Hemingway’s had not publicly provided additional details about the circumstances surrounding the closure as of Tuesday morning.
Instead, the bar invited Beaufort to do what it had done there for decades – come together one more time.
“WHO’S READY FOR ONE LAST HURRICANE PARTY?” Hemingway’s posted Monday.
The bar invited patrons to tell stories, play music, have another shot and hug their bartender before the doors closed.
“We’ve partied through literal hurricanes before,” the post read. “We can damn sure throw one hell of a party for our last day.”
And Beaufort said goodbye.
For Robinson, however, closing the doors does not erase what happened behind them.
“Thirty-two years of memories don’t disappear just because the doors close,” she wrote. “Hemingway’s will still exist every time someone says, ‘Remember that night at Hemingway’s?’”
Perhaps the simplest description of what the bar meant to the community came from one of the hundreds of people who responded to the news.
“Hemingway’s is Beaufort,” Christine Marie wrote.
For the people who met spouses there, found friends there, played music there, spent holidays there or simply knew there would always be a stool waiting for them, downtown Beaufort will now look a little different.
“Goodnight, Hemingway’s,” Robinson wrote. “You were loved more than you’ll ever know.”
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
