TASTE OF THE TREASURE COAST
VINTAGE CHIC DINING
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GREG GARDNER
The ornate Ashley Table at Café Martier in the historic Post Office Arcade is great for large gatherings under one of the restaurant’s signature chandeliers.
The room’s Dade County pine beams and tiled walls are original features of the almost 100-year-old building.
From secret recipes to secret entranceways,
eclectic only begins to describe Café Martier
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teeped in early Stuart history, Café Martier at
the Post Office Arcade has been restored to its
original grandeur and now boasts an eclectic
fine dining menu with Prohibition-era cocktails
served in the original speakeasy bar.
The Post Office Arcade opened in 1925 to attract new
business from travelers taking Henry Flagler’s railroad to
Stuart. It was billed as “the most modern grand post office in
America” and introduced the first 24-hour post office boxes
in the country, says Café Martier co-owner Lisa Councilman,
who loves to retell the history of the building and the 1920s
era in Stuart.
Behind those very boxes was the speakeasy, which had a
secret entrance to the east where the ladies room is today.
“This place was something else in 1925,” Councilman says.
“People paid a small fortune to drink. The speakeasy was
built because people thought Prohibition would never stick,
but it kept Stuart alive.”
Part of that “small fortune” presumably went to bootlegger
William Frederick McCoy. Known as the “Real McCoy,”
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BY GREG GARDNER
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