In 1958 Mr. Tam Winkie, wanted to move from South Africa where he lived and decided to take a cruise and check out other countries on the continent. His ship landed in Zanzibar and he liked the look of it and though he could settle his family there but the next port was Mombasa and he liked that even more. He thought it looked like Florida, USA with its beautiful palm trees and beaches…

He went back home and sold off his businesses then and came back to Kenya. When he got to Mombasa he bought out the Dolphin Swimming Club and ran that. He later changed the name to the Monsoon Club and it became a dinner and dance club as was popular in those days. The music was by a live band and sometimes people came in with their own band or instruments to play - especially the military bands whenever their ships docked in Mombasa. The cost of a beer was 30¢! On any given night you would find couples dancing on the sand under palm trees to the sounds of the live band and the ocean tide against the beach. Unfortunately most of the memorabilia of the day was lost in a flood in the 80’s.

The clientele was more disciplined back then, but there was an askari (guard) named Saidi who made sure that the more horizontally inclined patrons behaved themselves. As this was still in the colonial era, he had to be very careful in his approach especially to the wazungu clients. When he noticed a couple going off to a dark corner he would follow them shortly and tell the gentleman that he was there to escort him back to the club in a very proper voice, while saluting (as he turned a blind eye to the culprit hurriedly rearranging his clothes). Then he would wait for him and actually lead him back to ensure that no matata (harm) came to him.

In those days there were international strippers with very memorable names such as Chiquita, Maybelle & Daphne and Champagne was the drink of choice back in those days. There was a client who one night who, in his very inebriated state, thought that after buying Chiquita champagne all night that he had struck gold when, after insisting, he was given assent to come back to her room with her. When they got to her room, which was on the premises of the club as the girls all lived within, the lady told him she would be right back. The guy proceeded to undress, no doubt thinking how this was his lucky night. Little did he know that Chiquita, the snake charmer (who was very insulted that he would think it possible to spend the night with her), had gone out to get her pet snake-a huge boa constrictor. She came back opened the door a crack and threw in the snake. Unfortunately the Guinness Book of World Records guys were not there to document it but it must have been one of the fastest dressing times in history.

In 1974 Mr. Robert and Mr. Ramcke joined with Winkie as partners in the club business. The movie ‘Saturday Night Fever’ came out in 1979 and changed the whole club scene. Now clients wanted disco instead of live bands and the partners, keen as ever to clients demands obliged and changed the club name to the Florida Nightclub because Winkie still remembered his first impression of Mombasa. They got in the disco equipment and a DJ and a new era in entertainment began.

As they looked for more business opportunities, they decided to explore Nairobi…

They opened La Tour Restaurant in Kenyatta International Conference Centre at the heart of Nairobi. Then they decided to continue with the dance club business and opened Florida Nightclub Nairobi in 1979 on Koinange Street in Nairobi. Still as industrious as ever, the partners decided to add on a casino to the original Florida in 1980 as there was only one other casino in Mombasa.

Business in Nairobi was good, and they had already opened another restaurant – The Wagon Wheel – on Moi Avenue. In 1981 the name and basic menu changed from steaks at the Wagon Wheel to authentic Chinese food at the Kowloon Restaurant.

But the dance club business was still in their minds and they decided another club would be a good idea and thus the Kowloon died and Florida 2000 was born in 1983.

Currently the three clubs have the distinction of being amongst the oldest running discotheques in Kenya and still cater to a very mixed clientele. The local crowd is there on an almost daily basis and as the club is internationally known for its entertainment, tourists make sure to stop by to their favourite club whenever they are within Kenya. Some clients make a pilgrimage to the Florida on a yearly basis from their homes abroad.

Here have been a lot of different stage shows over the years. One of the early dancers, Chiquita, did a snake charming show that was very popular back in the 60’s. There were the erotic dancers who came in from all over the world - Britain, Lebanon, The Philippines, Russia and Japan to name a few. There have also been jugglers, acrobats, knife swallowers, flamethrowers and knife throwers over the years. One knife thrower almost got one of the DJ’s back in the 70’s when he miscalculated a throw… Fortunately all the other show people have been more accurate than that and we’re yet to have any major accidents. But the dancers are the main attraction as far as floorshows go and we are the only major clubs in Kenya providing them. Our dance troupes have always been a major crowd puller. You have to see it yourself to believe the show they put on!

Our in-house contests are also very popular. In recent years we’ve had the ‘Big Mama’, ‘Wet t-shirt’, ‘Big Bum’, ‘Hot Pants’ and ‘Beer Drinking’ competitions which have all been a lot of fun. The beer drinking competition had 4 entrants – 3 big guys and 1 lady who was all of 5”3’. Guess who won? The guys were totally put in the dust!

There have been some other memorable events like the ‘Egg run’ where ladies had to move a boiled egg from the bottom of a guys trouser leg all the way up to the waist using a spoon in the fastest time. And yes the guy was in the pants…

Also unforgettable was the horizontal bungee run. Imagine one very large male in socks trying to get at a beer that is about 50 meters across from him on a very slippery dance floor, tied to a short length of bungee rope… The crowd was literally rolling on the floor in laughter.

The Floridas have always been innovators in the area of entertainment and have been the first to bring a lot of things to Kenya. We made dance competitions popular in the early 90’s and it became an almost nationwide fad to hold the contests. We were the first clubs to play the popular Ndombolo music extensively and we were also the first to push Reggae music onto the mainstream disco scene. A lot of the currently popular local artists got their start at The Florida Jams where we give opportunity to new artists to sing and rap.