History | Cabbage Key Inn & Restaurant

Cabbage Key continues to enthrall with old Florida charm, dollar bill bar and storied past

Posted on April 11, 2025
By Robyn George, The News Press
Cabbage Key, History, Reviews

The small tropical island of Cabbage Key, Florida, accessible only by boat, is a beloved destination with an inn, restaurant and bar keeping it afloat

Story Summary:

  • Cabbage Key is a small, 112-acre island accessible only by boat, located in Pine Island Sound near Pineland, Florida.
  • The island, once home to the Calusa Indians, is now a popular destination featuring an inn, restaurant, and cottages.
  • The restaurant’s “Dollar Bill Bar” is a unique attraction, with thousands of dollar bills stapled to the walls, some of which periodically fall off and are donated to charity.
  • Cabbage Key is rumored to be the inspiration for Jimmy Buffett’s song “Cheeseburger in Paradise,” though the connection is anecdotal.
  • The Wells family has owned and operated Cabbage Key since 1976, maintaining its “Old Florida” charm and laid-back atmosphere.

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Cabbage Key: Old Florida Island for Kayaking, History, Atmosphere

Posted on February 11, 2020
By Bonnie Gross, Florida Rambler
Cabbage Key, History, Kayak & Canoe, Reviews, Southwest Florida

The Cabbage Key Inn atop a small hill with clear, blue sky in the background

The Cabbage Key Inn was built as a private home in 1937. It was converted into an inn in the 1940s and has been owned by the Wells family since 1976. (Photo by Bonnie Gross)

Cabbage Key, a little island west of Fort Myers reachable only by boat, is famous for a lot of things — its historic Dollar Bill Bar, papered with more than $70,000 in signed dollar bills from patrons; its association with Jimmy Buffett. Cabbage Key is familiar to thousands who visit on a popular luncheon cruise from Pine Island or Captiva and spend perhaps two hours.

But visiting Cabbage Key for a longer period of time, in the quiet mornings before day visitors arrive and in the golden evenings when the iconic bar has only a handful of boaters and fishermen, reveals a different side of Cabbage Key.

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Cabbage Key: Worlds Away

Posted on June 6, 2018
By Barbara Linstrom, Florida Weekly Correspondent
Cabbage Key, History, Reviews

A SMALL, SECLUDED ISLAND ACCESSIBLE BY BOAT or helicopter, Cabbage Key is beyond the real deal when it comes to experiencing the old Florida lifestyle. “We’re right off what I call the I-75 for boaters — the Intracoastal Waterway,” says Rob Wells III, whose family stewards the island and runs the iconic inn and restaurant there. Located at mile marker 60, about eight miles north of Sanibel and Captiva, the historic island is worlds away from both mainland and mainstream culture.

With an “open air” restaurant and bar, the Cabbage Key Inn and Restaurant thrusts you into another time as you sit in awe at how well the breeze flows from the mesmerizing waters of Pine Island Sound into the screened-in patio, through the bar into the back screened dining area.

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