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Paco

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Had dinner tonight at Shells. That place fucking sucked. Wife’s pasta was over cooked to mush and I’ve had a better steak at Chili’s. I had their version of surf and turf with a ribeye and blackened drum. The drum was so so but the steak was a briquet.
And they didn’t seem to have worried about turning on their AC.


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On ‎7‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 1:08 PM, Larry T. Spider said:

I went to the gaffe a couple of weeks ago. Quite an interesting bar. Too bad I missed the belt sander racing.

 I have a friend who races at The Gaff.  He actually has three  sanders, Burning Rubber Duck, Turbo Trout and Frantic Flamingo. That is a huge amount of fun. 

He's in the tye-dye shirt with Turbo Trout at the 44 second mark in this video:
 






 

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22 hours ago, Hornius Emeritus said:

 I have a friend who races at The Gaff.  He actually has three  sanders, Burning Rubber Duck, Turbo Trout and Frantic Flamingo. That is a huge amount of fun. 

He's in the tye-dye shirt with Turbo Trout at the 44 second mark in this video:
 






 

That looks awesome. 

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On 7/2/2018 at 2:01 PM, Longboard Horn said:

Will be heading to Port Aransas later this summer. Besides fishing and the beach, which bars and restaurants would y'all recommend? 

Had a meal at Beach and Station Street, very good.  The place isn't much to look at but the food was great.  Bring cash.

 

 

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On 7/24/2018 at 9:14 AM, Skipper said:

Heading down next week.  Mosquito issue any better for those that have been recently?

I’m in town this week.  They are spraying for mosquitos every night, but the wise man will bring some repellant. Other than that, the weather is beautiful. Tonight, the surf is as low as I’ve ever seen it in 40+ years of coming to Port A and Padre Is.  Calm winds and a full moon.  Crowds are down this summer.  My fishing guide says that everyone in SanAntonio and Austin thinks it’s a third world country down here, but on the contrary, it’s fantastic.  Most restaurants are open. Most damage is either repaired or under repair, so there’s lots of contractors on the island, but it’s not bad.  Fishing is great. 

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10 hours ago, Al Czervik said:

Had a meal at Beach and Station Street, very good.  The place isn't much to look at but the food was great.  Bring cash.

 

 

 

I can second this recommendation.  The gumbo is out-of-this-world good. The stuffed flounder is excellent, too, but that gumbo is the best I've ever had. Better than when I make Paul Prudhomme's recipe. 

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we just got back from Port A. when we first drove by beach and station st grill, we thought it was closed, it definitely looks in worse shape. We did go to the phoenix, did not have sushi but contributed to the Dave fund. the crab cakes are phenomenal. i was disappointed at liberty hall, phenomenal meal, but i learned he no longer makes the french silk pie from pelican club. In the 14 years we've been going, never ate a mexican dinner in port a. the kids wanted mexican food, so I said, we have to try la playa. that place is legit! 

my big takeaway, I have never seen so many campers on the beach. tons of tents and travel trailers all the way to Cinnamon Shores. One site had four travel trailers. we were parking anywhere form marker 27 to 31, and we were on the beach before 9am each morning. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Am in Port A now.  Very quiet, things are slowly starting to look more put together but the scars are definitely still visible.  La Playa closed on Sundays now (boo, understandable).  Wanted to pop on here real quick and give a thumbs up to Billy Joe's Crafthouse.  I don't know the full story - my sister said it's run by a guy who ran a kitchen after the storm and helped keep the island fed, and is very popular.  Was expecting something more like The Brewery, interesting... ambiance (brightly lit smallish room with a bar and some TVs, a few high tables and some low tables, and a bigass stage taking up one end).  But this pizza is legit, the burger looked good too.

F03-BDB1-F-52-C7-43-B8-9-CA8-648-C90665-

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  • 6 months later...

So much has changed and/or is new that I’m not sure where to really even start. Yes, like everything else the golf course was damaged but I think it’s back to at least decent shape from what I have heard. Billy Joe’s mentioned above is still open but he was recently indicted for embezzlement so I’m not sure where that is going.

Most of the old bars have reopened (Salty Dog just started building) and there are some new ones. Lovett’s is gone but they cleaned it up and it’s a new place called Red’s Riviera. It’s pretty generic. There is also a new outdoor bar called Red’s at the golf course. There’s a new bar next to La Playa where Wild Horse was called Lelo’s. It’s sort of trying to be a family friendly place with food. There’s a wine bar out in the big shopping center near Kody’s. The other new bar is a combo drive thru beer barn and outdoor bar by Whataburger where Neptune’s/Marcel’s/whatever it was called after that was located. And I’ve been hearing this for a few years now, but the owner of Tarpon Inn keeps telling me he is going to open an upscale bar in the building behind the hotel next to Roosevelt’s restaurant. Latest ETA mid or late summer.

La Barataria reopened but had a fire over the winter so it’s gone. The owner bought the building on Cutoff where drop anchor was and is doing some sort of Caribbean type place. It opens soon. I still think Inferno/Liberty Hall is the best food in town. Venetian is a favorite too. For more casual food I’ve been eating more lately at Moby Dick’s and it’s surprisingly good. Far better than the other “tourist” places. Castaways demolished their old building and moved across the street to where Phoenix was. Upgraded the menu, raised the prices and still serve shitty food.

Since I’ve been “homeless” since the hurricane I’ve stayed in a lot of different rentals and hotels. If anyone is looking for one of the cheaper hotels I’ve got a new rec- Red Roof Inn. Of course it’s nothing fancy but it was totally gutted after Harvey so it’s all brand new on the inside, decent location, free breakfast, good staff.

Edited by justhookit
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Nope, it’s still Harvey. Almost none of the large condo buildings are open. They all had flat roofs and they all failed, flooding all the units. Aransas Princess is the only one that I know of that’s open for rentals. Most of the buildings are still gutted. Slow/poor insurance hasn’t helped matters but people don’t realize how much damage Port A had and it wasn’t limited to the condos. A lot of the damage wasn’t noticeable from the outside of buildings.

Even the smaller, older 3 story condo buildings like Aransas Harbor (to the right just off the ferry), Island Retreat, BeachHead, etc. had severe damage and are partially to totally closed.

You also have to remember that most of the buildings were old so even with lesser damage there is a lot of work to bring everything back up to code.

I ended up knocking my house down and am only about a month into the new build. 3 houses on my block did the same thing and are on my timeline. 3 other houses are way behind, 2 are tear downs and one is still undecided. I’m just a block off the channel and my street was absolutely wrecked. The coast guard station just down the street from me was just torn down early this month. It’s still going to be quite a while before Port A is really back to normal.

And good luck to everyone trying to find good contractors to do the work in a timely manner. There’s still a huge shortage of places to house the construction people. Add it all up and it’s kind of amazing as many places have been able to reopen.

Edited by justhookit
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13 hours ago, kevwun said:

We ended up staying at Palmilla Beach Resort a few week ago because VRBO screwed up and rented us a house that had been sold.  It was very nice, but it's also very expensive.  They have condos and houses for rent though.

That. is where we are staying as well.

i know it is expensive but it sure looks nice.

 

Did you eat there and if so how was it?

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Stayed at Palmilla Beach  last year and the food at the Black Marlin is great.  They served a scallop leak bacon butter dish that was one of the best scallop dishes I have ever tasted.  Everyone is our group was impressed at the quality of the food for such a small place.

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34 minutes ago, obigbo said:

Stayed at Palmilla Beach  last year and the food at the Black Marlin is great.  They served a scallop leak bacon butter dish that was one of the best scallop dishes I have ever tasted.  Everyone is our group was impressed at the quality of the food for such a small place.

The photos on the menu looked great so looking forward to it.

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9 hours ago, obigbo said:

Stayed at Palmilla Beach  last year and the food at the Black Marlin is great.  They served a scallop leak bacon butter dish that was one of the best scallop dishes I have ever tasted.  Everyone is our group was impressed at the quality of the food for such a small place.

is lisabellas open in cinnamon shores?  that was the best meal I ever had in port a, back when she was off alister.  don't know anything about black marlin but will have to check it out.

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Had rack of lamb at the Venetian. It is good. Waiting on food at Billy Joe’s right now - haha hadn’t heard about the indictment. I think Lisabella’s is open, but that’s just from a list of “now open” places I saw.

Beach is pretty narrow near the seagull/sandpiper
a3aae8137b6508db8afea3a1b36ee472.jpg

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On 5/25/2019 at 6:23 PM, Celery Man said:

Had rack of lamb at the Venetian. It is good. Waiting on food at Billy Joe’s right now - haha hadn’t heard about the indictment. I think Lisabella’s is open, but that’s just from a list of “now open” places I saw.

Beach is pretty narrow near the seagull/sandpiper
a3aae8137b6508db8afea3a1b36ee472.jpg

I hope that is high tide!

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Seashell Village was one of the first places to reopen, we've stayed there 2-3 times a year for about the last 15. love that place, great pools (one heated), nice common grilling areas, convenient location. not on the beach directly if that's what you need, but we always drive anyway. pet friendly and nice, family owned. love it there!

they housed about 20 Port A families for many months post-Harvey. they are on a slight rise so had minimal flooding damage. good people. 

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