Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Texas Highways Magazine

Do you feel as lucky as I do that here in Texas, we have such a gorgeous natural landscape of wild, flowers that welcomes us to spring each year? TEXAS FIRST LADY CECILIA ABBOTT The original owners [of Gilhooley’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar] had the motto “We don’t fry so you don’t die.” KAREN BLEYL HECK, SMITHVILLE Socially responsible folks like my dad taught me from a young age to never throw trash out the window. Someone has to keep things clean, and that job is yours. ROBERT GARCIA, HARLINGEN Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram…

WHEN EVACUEES KAREY AND DAVID SWART-wout returned to Rockport in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, they assumed their old boathouse-turned-restaurant would be part of the devastation they’d been watching on TV. Driving down Broadway for the first time post-Harvey was “very disorienting,” Karey said, “because so many landmarks and buildings were just gone.” She took a deep breath when the car reached the 1800 block and then exhaled in relief when, at the end of the long driveway, she saw a magnificent GLOW: Their little seafood restaurant was still standing. The costly wall reinforcement materials required to pass code before opening in 2011 turned out to be well worth the red tape. The restaurant was back in business as soon as power was restored a couple of weeks later. “It…

HOUSTON STRONG MURAL by artist Nicky Davis JENNIE ASH The executive director of Art League Houston was scrambling as rain streamed through the ceilings and pooled on the gallery floor: The annual Texas Artist of the Year exhibition, honoring contemporary artist Trenton Doyle Hancock, was a week away. To Ash’s relief, she found a new home for the show at Rice University’s Moody Center for the Arts. “It’s times like these that bring out the best in people,” she says. THE HOUSTON SYMPHONY Displaced by flood damage for seven weeks, the orchestra relocated to Rice University’s Stude Concert Hall, where it performed six concerts for free to the public. More than two dozen of the symphony’s musicians, some with damaged homes of their own, also brought their instruments to perform…

Many towns on the Texas coast harbor aquariums and science centers that explore the local environment. Texas Sealife Center, at 14220 South Padre Island Drive in Corpus Christi, opens Wed-Sat 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and Sun noon-4 p.m. Guided tours cost $5 per person. Call 361-589-4023; texassealifecenter.org. UT Rio Grande Valley Coastal Studies Laboratory, at 100 Marine Lab Drive in South Padre Island, opens for self-guided tours Mon-Fri 1:30-4:30 p.m. Call 956-761-2644; utrgv.edu/csl/visit/aquarium/index.htm. The Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge Big Slough Recreation Area, at 2022 CR 227, northeast of Freeport, opens daily sunrise to sunset. Call 979-964-4011; fws.gov/refuge/brazoria. Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, at 22688 Buena Vista Road in Los Fresnos, opens sunrise to sunset. The visitor center opens Thu-Mon 8-4. Call for a schedule of tram tours, 956-748-3607; fws.gov/refuge/laguna_atascosa. Lower Rio…

WHAT: WHOOPING CRANES WHERE: ARANSAS NATIONAL WILDIFE REFUGE WHEN: TYPICALLY MID-OCTOBER THROUGH MID-APRIL Whooping cranes, as you might guess, are pretty noisy. With their slender, snow-white bodies and black-tipped wings, they’re also the tallest birds in North America, standing nearly 5 feet from toe to crown. “Whoopers” almost went extinct in the mid-1900s; today, only one natural flock remains in the wild, though others have been reintroduced. Each fall, the wild ones leave their marshy breeding grounds in Canada and fly 2,500 miles to the Texas coast, where they spend the winter whooping it up and hunting for blue crabs, frogs, clams, and other treats in and around Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Just to the south is Rockport, a family-friendly town, but the refuge is decidedly for couples: whoopers mate…

GOT SOMETHING TO SAY? 93 days of summer? That’s cute. We all know summer lasts 1,789 days here. @TXHARLOWEEN Greener Pastures The April article “Welcome to Mattie’s” reminded me of the friendship my parents had with Mary and Chester Koock, the originators of Green Pastures. Chester helped my dad start a small frozen meat business while Mary Koock got her restaurant off the ground. Green Pastures was growing, and Chester chose to stay there and help Mary, so my dad closed the meat business and concentrated on his other businesses. The two families were always in touch with each other, and when my sister got married her reception was held at Green Pastures where they served milk punch, something we preteens couldn’t have. Years later, after my wife and I…

Relics of the Storm 28º 02’ 34.26” N 97º 01’ 36.79” W ALONG THE TEXAS coast, telltale signs of past storms endure in the occasional skeletal remains of piers jutting into the Gulf and bays. Until they are rebuilt, these structures on Key Allegro along Aransas Bay recall the impact of Hurricane Harvey, presenting a hauntingly beautiful scene in the wake of last August’s storm. Key Allegro—a resort community with residences, second homes, and rentals—is located on an approximately 200-acre island near the northernmost end of Broadway Street between Rockport and Fulton. For more information, visit rockport-fulton.org.…

CUSTOMERS ONCE CAME to the Star Drug Store for their medicinal needs, but today they come for a different kind of pick-me-up: meals and merchandise. For more than a century, the Star has been a fixture in Galveston’s historic downtown. A glowing neon-lit Coca-Cola sign shines like a beacon above its sidewalk awning on 23rd Street, a few blocks south of the Strand, the island’s main commercial artery. This vintage porcelain sign, which dates from the late 1940s, is said to be one of the last of its kind. Set in an 1886 building, the store’s interior also harks back to olden days. A local druggist named Charles J. Michaelis bought the building in 1906 and added the soda-fountain counter in 1917. The original glass-fronted cabinetry lining the walls once…

ON A MERCIFULLY COOL FRIDAY EVENING IN the acre-size backyard of Houston’s 8th Wonder Brewery, the post-workweek crowd streams in, ready to cut loose. And just as you’d expect of the fourth-largest city in America, the vibe is delightfully diverse—a 20-something couple canoodles in a seating area made from a retrofitted shipping container; a group of coworkers roll up their sleeves, setting newly freed elbows on a picnic table; and a trio of pals stare up at a television watching the tense last moments of a basketball game. Different races, ethnicities, and age groups have come together, cradling amber and coffee-colored pints of beer, carrying on the centuries-old tradition of breweries, pubs, and taverns as centers of their communities. But the 5-year-old brewery, located in East Downtown, doesn’t just facilitate…

Ask Houstonians what they love about their city, and they’re bound to bring up its first-rate dining scene. Houston’s culinary offerings have been strong for a while but never more so than in recent years, with high-profile restaurants capturing attention on a national stage and the number of eateries in the Houston metro area swelling to a record of more than 12,000 featuring cuisines from about 75 countries. However, the Houston foodie scene’s proudest achievement may lie in the heart and grit of its close-knit chef community. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, restaurateurs banded together, feeding thousands displaced by the floods. Like so many individuals affected by Harvey, the city’s restaurants struggled in the aftermath of one of the most costly natural disasters in U.S. history. This is the…

The ferry to St. Jo Island is running again after months of rebuilding from Hurricane Harvey. WHEN HURRICANE HARVEY STRUCK last summer, it made landfall on San José Island, a coastal retreat where U.S. presidents have come to fish and fundraise, and everything but a broad and empty beach is owned by a family of billionaires. San José, widely known as St. Jo, is one of seven barrier islands on the Texas coast. Unlike the state’s more popular island destinations like Padre and Galveston, no bridges connect St. Jo to the mainland. There is no hotel or restaurant, or even a public restroom. The owners of the island have a private airstrip to get there. The rest of us have Jetty Boat. For half a century, Jetty Boat has ferried…

After reading the Nacogdoches article in the March issue, my husband and I made a reservation at the Fredonia Hotel, gassed up the car, and drove down to Nacogdoches eager to see the azaleas in bloom during the Azalea Trail. We were a little too early to see the azaleas in all of their glory, but we so enjoyed visiting Nacogdoches and learning about its interesting history. One of our favorites was a tour of the Sterne-Hoya House; the docent there was very knowledgeable and gave us a wonderful tour. We ate at some wonderful places—Maklemore’s and Clear Springs for dinner and Dolly’s Diner for breakfast. It was a great springtime road trip. KERRY AND SHARON ROACH, Wichita Falls For tourism information, call the Nacogdoches Convention and Visitors Bureau, 888-564-7351;…

I GET MY FIRST CLEAR VIEW OF SOUTH Padre Island from the summit of the Queen Isabella Memorial Causeway. At 85 feet above Laguna Madre, the bridge reveals the island stretching majestically on a north-south line, like a thin ribbon of sand floating in a cobalt sea. To the south I can see the jetties and the ship channel cutting through to Brownsville and Boca Chica Beach. Tracking north, South Padre’s sweep of beachfront hotels and high-rise condos give way to white dunes that eventually disappear in the island haze. That’s where I’m heading today as I descend from the bridge onto South Padre Island to explore State Park Road 100, known in town as Ocean Boulevard. The island’s main artery, 100 starts on the west side of the Queen…

BARBECUED CRAB, A COASTAL DELICACY born in a tiny corner of Southeast Texas, is tender, juicy, and laced with spice. This misnamed meal isn’t barbecue, though, which I realized some years ago when my friend Carolyn invited me home from college to visit her family in Beaumont, promising we’d eat something not found anywhere else. On a mild spring evening, her parents piled us into the car for a 45-minute trip from their Beaumont home down to Sabine Pass, where we pulled up to a local shack called Sartin’s and stood around for about an hour before a table opened up. I breathed in the salty air, looked at the fish swimming beneath the aged dock beside the small café, and marveled that people would hang out and chat about…

Houston has more than 75 categories of cuisine, 600 vegan-friendly restaurants, and 150 farm-totable restaurants, as of 2017. The number of Houston-based restaurant and chef semifinalists for the James Beard Foundation awards has been rising each year since 2015: That year, it received five nominees. In 2016, eight. In 2017, nine and in 2018, 12. Houston chefs won James Beard’s Best Chef Southwest competition the last three out of four years*, taking home the region’s top prize in 2014 (Chris Shepherd), 2016 (Justin Yu), and 2017 (Hugo Ortega). Houstonians dine out almost more than any other city—6.9 times per week, compared with the national average of 4.9, according to Zagat. Houston has more than 700 food trucks and is ranked among the top 10 food truck cities in the U.S.,…