Galveston – When it comes to getting a bite to eat down on the Island, lots of folks head to the seawall. But if you venture to the strand side of Galveston, you’ll come across Katie’s Seafood sitting on famous Pier 19, the same spot where Jean LaFitte’s Pirate Ships and the Texas Navy sailed from. “Katie’s my mom,” said Rick Gutirrez.
Rick’s family owns this restaurant that his Step-Dad Buddy named after the biggest catch he ever brought home, his wife Katie. “You don’t want to mess up your mom’s name,” said Rick. “Yeah, there’s a little bit of pressure in that you don’t want to mess your mom’s name up, right? You don’t want to run something that your mom’s not proud of.”
Now Rick and his family didn’t start off in the restaurant business. They were originally fishermen and first opened the fish market next to Katie’s where you’ll find Rick’s brother Nick selling fresh fish. The catch is, all the fish you’ll find at Katie’s come straight from here. “It’s a pretty unique thing to have your own boats, especially for a restaurant, and it makes a difference in the quality of seafood that we’re selling here,” said Rick. “Once it comes to shore, they’re cutting it and they’re getting it ready for this restaurant.”
Since all this fish is fresh as can be, don’t expect to find fish from a different sea. “We got a rule here that we’re only using Gulf seafood,” said Rick. “So, we don’t use farm-raised fish, so you won’t see red fish on our menu.”
General Manager Brett Otteman has been with Katie’s since they opened in 2019. “I asked Buddy in our interview, I said, ‘What kind of fish do you want me to write on the menu?’” said Brett. “He says, ‘Well, I won’t know until the boat comes in.’ That was like a Cupid’s arrow to my heart, man. I can say I’m selling the freshest fish in town.”
Well I was ready already hooked on getting some fresh fish and the sizzling grouper platter has a trifecta of Texas gulf seafood. “So, the sizzling grouper platter, it’s going to have eight ounces of grouper,” said Rick. “It’s going to be topped with crab meat, and then they’ll have jumbo shrimp and they’ll have some tortillas and they’ll have some Mexican street corns and rice and beans.”
Brett got things started by getting the fresh grouper and gulf shrimp ready for the grill. “We’re going to baste our fish with a little garlic butter just for the flavor,” said Brett. “And then, we’re going to season with our lemon herb pepper. It’s got a lot of herbs in it that bring the flavor out versus adding flavor in, and we’re going to char grill it just like you would a nice fajita or a nice steak.”
Veggies and crab meat get sauteed while Brett throws in one of Katie’s specialties, the Snapper wings. “The story is that those things came from the early 1900s on the end of this pier right here, and all the rich people from Houston would come down and go snapper fishing,” said Brett. “The guys that would come from Galveston to fillet the fish for them, would cut the throats off and the heads off and throw them in a bucket, and the people would take their fillets and go back to Houston. As soon as they left, those guys would pull those snapper heads out and cut those little throats off, and now everybody across the Gulf coast is serving them everywhere.”
The snapper is seasoned and deep fried while the grouper plate comes together on a sizzling platter. It gets one last table side touch, a house made butter concoction gets drenched over the grilled seafood. “That’s a little Worcestershire butter that we pour over the top of it,” said Brett. “It’s almost like a New Orleans butter, but it’s got a little Galveston kick to it with our own seasonings.”
I didn’t waste any time when it came time to sample the snapper. The snapper wing is fried perfectly with a fantastic crunch, and the meat inside stays soft and delicious. The tortilla is a perfect vehicle for a smorgasbord of grouper, crab, shrimp and buttery vegetables, and that all comes together to create something truly beautiful. No matter if it’s a grouper or the crab or the shrimp, you get each flavor profile when you bite into that taco, and it is amazing.
Well, when it comes to getting some of the freshest Gulf seafood here on Galveston Island, coming to Katie’s is definitely well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “We’re really proud to sell Texas Gulf shrimp and sustainable fish that we’ve caught,” said Rick. “That’s the goal, is to make our economy work here in Texas and to provide people fresh seafood.”