It is
Restaurant Week in Galveston. Well,
actually it’s Restaurant Two Weeks, but that is a bit harder to market. The idea is to fill in the traditionally
totally dead space in the tourism calendar that covers pretty much the entire
month of January. December is Dickens on
the Strand and, well, Christmas. February
is Mardi Gras, and then comes Spring Break in March, which kicks off the beach
season. But there is just nothing going
on on the Island in January. So, inspired
by the creative actions of the greeting card companies before them, our board
of tourism came up with an idea to spotlight several of the restaurants in
town. They agree to have a cut rate menu
for the “week” and the tourism board takes care of advertising the big
occasion.
Chris
and I decided to dive in and check out one of the downtown hotspots. We went for a Mexican food lunch at a place
called Taquilo’s. We found a place to
park within a few blocks of the restaurant.
Free for two hours, too. Free is
always a plus, especially in downtown Galveston. There was no waiting for a table at all. In fact, we were greeted outside by the
hostess. They did have an outside table
option, but we were directed inside to a booth.
The centerpiece of the room was a bar.
A sports bar, actually, with two TV screens playing ESPN. The guy who asked what we wanted to drink was
one of the bartenders. Then a different
guy approached to ask what we wanted to eat.
I told him he had changed a lot since he asked about our drinks. Without missing a beat he said, “Well, I did
grow a beard. Maybe that’s it.” Nice reply.
Between the two of them, they embodied what I look for in a waiter. Not pushy.
Fun personality that seems true to who he is. And finally – and this is a big one – he doesn’t
call you “Hun” or “Sugar” or “Sweetie.”
As we
ate I took in the general atmosphere of the place. My take on it was that they were consciously
trying to appeal to the local young yuppies who live and work downtown. There seemed to be regulars at the bar. I didn’t get a sense of desperate tourism appeal
at all. That was a pleasant
surprise. Oh, and Chris noticed the city
manager was in there for lunch as well.
The
food arrived in a reasonable amount of time.
Chris had a summer plate with several typical Mexican food items. One was supposed to be one of those big round
chips with queso on top. I know there’s
a name for that but I can never remember it.
This one was fried to the shape of a bowl, but they turned it upside
down and poured the queso on the bottom.
Seems to me that it would be a better idea to just fill it up with
queso. But no one ever asks me. I was a bit adventurous. I usually order either cheese or beef enchiladas
at a place like that. Or some
combination thereof. Yesterday, in the
spirit of trying new things, I ordered the shrimp enchiladas. They were just soft flour tortillas filled
with crab meat and shrimp. Lots of crab
meat, actually. Also a plus. It came
with rice and beans, and if they hadn’t been on the plate I would have never assigned
the dish to be called “Mexican.” Oh, it wasn’t
bad at all. Just didn’t taste Mexican. The problem?
There was no cheese anywhere on the plate. How can it be Mexican food without
cheese? The best part of the meal came
when he brought us some churros. Sweet cinnamon
pastry-kind of things with a caramel dip for added tastiness. Yes.
Yumm.
We
are talking about trying one of the other places that we have never been to
sometime next week. It’ll be for lunch
for sure. Probably won’t be Mexican food
this time. My pick is generally seafood,
but I may branch out. After all, it is
Restaurant Week.
Philippians
4:6-7 says, “Do not be anxious about
anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present
your requests to God. And the peace of
God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.”
Father,
thank you for all the types of food you have created for us to enjoy. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment