What has Paul Menta — the wildly creative renegade, Key West rum-maker, high-flying kiteboarder and daredevil chef with a Quaker upbringing — been up to lately?

Menta, a globe-trotting rebel, has often described himself as a “culinary gangster.” But these days, it’s a more subdued Menta who prefers to be known as an ambassador and cheerleader for The Florida Keys & Key West.

Paul Menta, in red cap and turquoise tank, celebrates the late Jimmy Buffett during the 2024 inaugural “Just a Few Friends Key West” festivities over Labor Day weekend, with singer Howard Livingston (far l), Key West Mayor Danise “DeeDee” Henriquez (center in yellow T-shirt) and others in Key West.

“Key West has given me more than I’ve ever given it,” said Menta, owner of Key West First Legal Rum Distillery, which he founded in 2012 and billed as the first legal rum distillery in Key West since Prohibition.

He’s gearing up to host Key West’s second annual “Just a Few Friends Key West,” a four-day Labor Day Weekend celebration Friday, Aug. 29 to Monday, Sept. 1 to honor Jimmy Buffett’s legacy.

After the death of Buffett on Sept. 1, 2023, Menta, within hours, brainstormed a way to honor Buffett with a 5 p.m. second-line procession. Details of the event spread throughout the island with the word-of-mouth local “coconut telegraph,” and thousands of parade-goers flocked to downtown Duval Street.

A year later, Menta launched the inaugural “Just a Few Friends Key West” to honor Buffett, who put The Florida Keys on the global map. Just months before his death, Buffett held several concerts in Key West, and throughout his life maintained personal connections to the southernmost island city known as “Margaritaville.”

Chef Paul Menta whips up gluten-free lobster mac ‘n cheese for the Star of the Sea Foundation (S.O.S) in Key West. SOS was created to increase the health and well-being of low-income individuals and families in Monroe County.

This year, local artist Cliff Cody will unveil a new song about Buffett, recorded at the local Shrimp boat Sound Studio, during the “Just a Few Friends Key West Party in the Park.” The event will take place at Truman Waterfront Park on Sunday, August 31.

Another Menta initiative “Salt Cured Life” which he calls a “movie with a mission.” This award-winning documentary about community life in Key West, first screened at the 2024 Key West Film Festival and went on to win Best Short Documentary at the Sunscreen Film Festival in 2025.

“Each day, I try to live like it’s a hurricane, because when storms hit, we show up for each other. That’s the kind of energy this film is about,” said Menta.

Menta is no stranger to the camera, traveling to promote his documentary at local film fests to encourage donations for good causes in those communities.

Menta starred in television productions like National Geographic’s “Gordon Ramsay: Unchartered.” In fact, producers clandestinely scouted and chose The Florida Keys and Menta because of the 125-mile-long island chain’s unique culinary traditions.

“The producers wanted major blown-out characters, and I gave them a list,” Menta recalled.

Wife Crystal and Menta on a red carpet during Germany’s oldest film fest, “die Seriale” in Frankfurt, Germany, to promote Menta’s “movie with a mission” documentary “Salt Cured Life,” about community life in Key West.

Menta hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in high school, attended Media Providence Friends School, a private Quaker-based academy in Media, Pennsylvania.

A self-proclaimed “troublemaker,” Menta learned to cook from his Sicilian and Italian grandmothers, who sheltered him in the kitchen and taught him to cook meals for large gatherings, when mischief landed him in hot water.

Menta earned a marketing degree from the Community College of Philadelphia, graduated from Philadelphia Restaurant School, did cooking internships in France and Spain, and roared across the country on his Harley Davidson.

The adventurer, waterman, and rum runner has kiteboarded to Cuba from Key West and pursued the sport at Guatemala’s Lake Atitlan, near three volcanoes at an elevation of 10,000 feet. Recognized as a kiteboarding pioneer, he’s traveled around the world and settled in Key West in 1989.

Wife Crystal and Menta on the red carpet during the “die Seriale” film fest in Frankfurt, Germany, to promote Menta’s documentary, “Salt Cured Life,” celebrating community life in Key West.

And ever since, he’s been cooking up ways to market the Keys.

Menta founded “Key West 200th,” initiating a 12-day public celebration in late March 2023 of Monroe County’s bicentennial or the 200th anniversary of the Florida Territorial Legislature’s founding of Monroe County. He led the organization in various activities, including an event with a commemorative time capsule and local school children.

Menta and Key lime chef Kermit Carpenter created a gargantuan Key lime pie, during the bicentennial’s July 3, 2023, grand finale celebration on Big Pine Key. The massive pie measured a record-setting 13.14 feet in diameter,

During the covid crisis, Menta produced, sold and gave away thousands of bottles of “ruminizer” hand sanitizer, helping more than 10,000 residents. He packaged the product with T-shirts to support the Sister Season Fund, which assists hospitality workers. He also promoted a “Shop Mom & Pop Key West” initiative for local businesses.

As a former executive chef at The Stoned Crab Key West restaurant, Menta launched a “Three Hands” concept to showcase the freshness of Keys seafood. That means only three sets of hands touch harvested fish in a chain of custody: the fisherman, fishmonger and consumer.

Paul Menta, an adventurous globe-trotting kiteboarder since 1994, brought the sport to Key West when he founded his company, Kiteboarding Key West.

He’s the publisher-author of three cookbooks, “Key West Native Fuel,” “Native Fuel: Key West, Cookbooks for Your Coffee Table,” and “Key West Native Fuel: Cookbooks for your Coffee Table.”

In 2006, Menta established the popular waterfront Cuban Coffee Queen stand on Margaret Street. And although he sold it, the company has grown, with four locations on the island.

Menta and wife Crystal first met during spear-fishing expeditions.

“One time she tried to spear me. But I was an elusive fish,” Menta recalled, laughing. “She keeps me grounded.” Menta also has a 31-year-old son named Paul (the 4th) who lives in Maryland.

Menta is already brainstorming more event ideas for the 2026 “Just a Few Friends Key West” celebration, which he would like to expand into a week-long celebration.

His motto: “Well done is better than well said!”

Where he dines: Boat House Bar & Grill, MISOHAPPY, Little White House Subs and El Siboney Restaurant, in Key West, and The Docks Restaurant + Raw Bar, Stock Island.

Where he explores: The sides streets of Key West, offshore in the ocean’s sand bars, the Florida Keys History Center at Key West’s Monroe County Public Library. “Anywhere on a bicycle to say hello to people as I go around this amazing island.”

How he relaxes: “Wing foiling, kiteboarding, Conch Baseball games, cooking for my family or community, helping out the underdog, watching the sunset with my wife at different places and celebrating with the community in parades.”