Like many Key West residents, Andrew Morawski began his career in hospitality, working as operations manager at Rick’s Key West entertainment complex and managing Roostica restaurant on Stock Island. And like many southernmost island city couples, Morawski and wife Jaylin met through a mutual bartender friend. Jaylin worked seasonally at Smokin’ Tuna Saloon as a server hailing from the Toledo, Ohio area.
But unlike many of today’s Keys hospitality executives, Morawski’s family heritage is deeply rooted — going back nearly a century with business ties to Key West.
Morawski directs Key West’s landmark Hemingway Home and Museum, one of the Keys’ top attractions that’s especially popular among visitors during the annual Hemingway Days festival, slated Wednesday, July 23 to Sunday, July 27.
Morawski (l), attired as the ‘Poetic PussyCat’ in homage to his role as Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum’s director, participated in the 2023 Miss Island Queen contest benefiting nonprofit Samuel’s House, amusing friend Terry Cranney, a bartender at the Tree Bar at Rick’s Key West. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Morawski)
“I started as a tour guide and I’ve done everything from the ground up, a lost art,” Morawski said. An avid golfer, he’s also worked at private golf and country clubs in North Carolina.
Ownership of the Hemingway Home & Museum — both a National Historic Landmark and a Literary Landmark of America — has been in Morawski’s family since Hemingway’s death in 1961. The Spanish colonial estate — famed throughout the world — is located at 907 Whitehead St. Built in 1851, the house later fell into disrepair and was purchased for $8,000 by wife Pauline’s uncle as a wedding gift for the couple.
Morawski’s maternal great-aunt Bernice Dixon lived at the home for several years in the early 1960s. She purchased it for $80,000 in a silent auction after Hemingway’s death.
In 1964, Dixon opened it as a museum, charging $1 admission for adults. Today, year-round admission to the landmark attraction is free to locals.
Family time (l to r): Wife Jaylin, daughter Emersyn, son Miles and Morawski frequently spend time together in all aspects of island living. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Morawski)
Dixon had first moved to the Keys in 1937 with husband Ralph, a bridge engineer, and opened The Beachcomber Jewelry Store, frequented by Pauline and Ernest, on Duval Street.
Morawski’s plans for the Hemingway Home in the near future include expanding opportunities for incentive, private and educational events; hosting events to raise money to support the community, continuing to operate as a wedding venue; implementing upgrades and enhancing visitor experiences through use of Hemingway’s favorite music.
Morawski directs a staff of about 40, including several “cat-takers” in charge of herding nearly 60 resident felines, about half of which are polydactyl or six-toed. A ship’s captain gave Hemingway a white six-toed cat named Snow White, and today many of the Hemingway Home’s polydactyl felines are her descendants.
Hemingway, who loved cats, considered the polydactyl creatures to be good luck. The extra toe allowed shipboard cats to easily catch stowaway mice and rats. The author once wrote in a letter that he taught a kitty to drink whiskey and milk.
Wife Jaylin and Morawski participate in fundraisers to benefit nonprofits such as Wesley House in Key West. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Morawski)
“Hemingway named cats after famous humans,” Morawski said. “My favorite is a cat that’s black and white named Holly Golightly, who’s two years old.”
The author was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954 “for his mastery of the art of narrative … and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style,” according to the JFK Library.
Hemingway wrote “To Have and Have Not” — set in Depression-era Key West and the author’s only novel set in the United States — while living at his Key West home during the 1930s.
Morawski, meanwhile, hopes to get Hemingway novels back onto approved Florida Department of Education reading lists. Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and others are among banned books in Florida public schools, according to PEN America.
For several years, Morawski has served as president of the Key West Attractions Association’s board of directors. A role, he says, that’s allowed him to give back.
“I’ve made the association more of a community-driven organization,” he said.
He’s also implemented quarterly “mix and mingle” after-hours events with half of ticket sales earmarked toward local non-profits. “We’re giving members a way to help the community,” he said.
Morawski, as president of the Key West Attractions Association, presents a check to Kelly Norman for the nonprofit Michelle’s Foundation, giving student scholarships. Partial sales from FKAA’s Vacation Pass benefit local nonprofits. (Photo courtesy of Andrew Morawski)
Morawski grew up on Cudjoe Key and in Tampa, and graduated from Florida State University in 2014, earning a B.A. in hospitality management.
In the Keys, Morawski and Jaylin are raising daughter Emersyn, 5, and son Miles, 4, as Conchs, known locally as native residents (so named after the hardy and resilient marine mollusk) born in Key West. “With 90 years of family history in Key West, my kids are the first to be born and raised on the island,” Morawski said.
His motto: “Life is more fun when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party.”
Where he dines: Big Cheezees Pub and Grub, La Trattoria and First Flight Island Restaurant & Brewery in Key West.
Where he explores: Historic places such as The Hemingway Home & Museum and The Butterfly Conservatory in Key West and sandbars throughout Monroe County.
How he relaxes: With family, at home or on an adventure.