‘That man has a pie. Is he going to throw it?’ How the Key lime pie king found fame
People who know Key West also know the king of Key lime pie by his first name.
Or at least his limecolored chef’s hat.
For nearly 30 years, at the corner of Elizabeth and Greene streets, Kermit Carpenter has been hawking the classic Keys dessert, which he makes using his grandma’s simple recipe.
These days, Carpenter — who on this island is known as just Kermit — stocks a whole Key lime industry on the shelves of Kermit’s Key West Key Lime Shoppe. His 150 items with Key lime flavor include jellies, barbecue sauce, salsas, lip balm, soap and lotion.
And of course, there is the Key lime pie.
At 78, Carpenter has built a business by feeding tourists, posing for photos and landing on TV shows. He’s the ultimate Key West ambassador.
And the Southernmost City has recognized all that by declaring July 6 as “Kermit Carpenter Day.”
Whether you want pie or not, Kermit will get your attention on the street. How can you ignore the mustached pie man in his lime-green chef’s hat and uniform?
On an island filled with colorful characters, Kermit holds his own.
“You don’t have to know Kermit personally to feel like he’s a friend,” said Darlene Lovell Thomas of Key West. “Who can resist that smile and enthusiasm. I’ve seen many businesses on that corner over the years. Kermit makes it into Island fun.”
Fran Decker, an artist whose paintings include one of Kermit outside his shop, has been a fan for years.
“I love seeing him out in front of his store aiming a Key lime pie at the Conch Train,” Decker said. “In addition to being a Key West icon, he is one of the most generous and kind people in our community.”
Carpenter hasn’t slowed down. In March, he made his first trip to California to appear on the CBS show “The Talk.”
He’s done plenty of TV before. But this was his first invitation to Hollywood. And he found a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that suited him, even though it was planted there to honor the Muppet character Kermit the Frog.
“I covered up the frog,” he said, laughing.
LANDING IN KEY WEST
Carpenter first saw Key West when he was in high school, coming down on vacation from his native Pennsboro, West Virginia, with his grandmother.
He later learned business skills from working for 20 years in Washington, D.C., as a buyer for the Woodward & Lothrop department store.
One day, he had enough of that, and headed south, all the way to the end of the road.
For a year, he worked at a friend’s store. Then he learned a corner spot on Elizabeth Street was available.
“That was 30 years ago this year,” Carpenter said, seated outside the yellow and green shop next to a fountain.
Key lime pie was always a big deal in Key West.
But Carpenter launched his own shop stocked with pie, cookies and candies — and never looked back.
So what does Key lime pie mean to the Key lime pie king? Meringue or not? What about whipped cream?
Carpenter remains neutral, pointing out that the original pie was known as a modest, undressed custard that didn’t see an oven.
“They’re all good,” he said. “I always tell people, try them all.”
Any secret ingredients?
Three, he said: Key lime juice, milk and egg yolks. That’s it.
Carpenter buys lime juice concentrate from Mexico, where he said the lime is the same as the
Key lime.
“You couldn’t squeeze enough limes,” he said, smiling.
Kermit runs a family business. His sister, Anita Meyer, helps out. She made his lime-colored uniform and his chef’s hats, too. She lives in DeLand, Florida, where her husband, John Meyer, the managing director, runs the shop’s warehouse that houses all the supplies.
But the pies are baked in house at the Key West shop.
Key lime pie is Carpenter’s niche.
But personally, he’ll take the tiramisu when dining out.
HOW THE PIE MAN GOT NOTICED
As for his sidewalk shuffle, it came out of necessity. Blame Bond. James Bond.
The 1989 Bond film “License to Kill” included some on-location Key West scenes. One was across the street from Carpenter’s shop — a warehouse that today is the Conch Republic Seafood restaurant. The Conch Train would take tourists past the corner to point at the warehouse where Bond had spent time — ignoring the pie shop.
“I’d be out there waving but nobody would see me,” he said. “So one day I went out there with a pie and I started threatening the trolley with a pie. One of the drivers one day said, ‘Oh, that man has a pie. Is he going to throw it at us?’ And everybody went, ‘Oooh.’ And ever since then, they all picked it up and started talking about it.”
Carpenter has fans in government, too. In 2019, he was cited by Key West code officers after someone complained he was blocking the sidewalk outside his shop with his pie shtick. He was ordered to stop.
The pie man’s marketing team jumped on Facebook, urging people to email the city in protest and to detail his contributions in promoting Key West as a tourist destination.
“Kermit is too old to begin a new career… unless he goes into politics,” his shop chimed in.
Greg Veliz, then the assistant city manager, soon announced that the city had retracted the citation, leaving Kermit Carpenter free to stand outside his shop with a pie.
“He is an institution,” Veliz told FLKeysNews.com/Miami Herald in 2019. “It’s over.”
Carpenter may have annoyed one anonymous complainer. But to many, he blends right in with his sidewalk pitch.
“He is both an icon and what success looks like for a small business in
Key West,” said Paul Menta, a rum distillery owner who made a video to commemorate Kermit earning his own day. “He created a character and a need in Key West out of Key lime pie. What a success story.”
Gwen Filosa: KeyWestGwen