Texas Bucket List

Texas Bucket List

Simmons Bank

The Texas Bucket List – Elotes Bravos in Hempstead

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Hempstead might be nicknamed the Watermelon Capital of Texas but there’s a new colonel in town when it comes to something to snack on. It’s corn!

“Fun, easy, quick. It’s so easy to grab. I mean, it is good,” said customer Geovanni Sernn.

“The corn is soft and full and it’s fresh and we don’t see anywhere else, so this is the spot to come and buy some,” said customer Maria Medina.

Robert Mandujano and his family started shucking out elote back in 2018 when they created Elotes Bravos. Situated in Cielo Plaza, right across from the Waller County Courthouse, Robert stalked out the perfect location for this trailer when his family started cooking corn. “We’ve been pretty successful here. The town’s been able to take us in,” said Robert.

Before Robert and his band of brothers helped their parents start the elote endeavor, they grew up rocking out in of all places, churches! “We helped churches build their bands,” said Robert. “So, it was me and my three brothers. I played drums, my brother played piano and my other brother played the guitar. So, it’s like a little trio. We would go in there and teach the upcoming churches to get the youth together and try to come up with a little band, a worship team.”

Eventually, the boy band broke up but in a good way. Robert’s brothers William and Johnny went on to become aviation mechanics, Robert, a data analyst. But when dear old Mom and Dad needed some help with their little corn stand, the boys were back in town. “I always say it’s easy to get by when you have parents like mine, who are loving and supportive. So, it was a no-brainer for us to just kind of push and work hard and elevate the business to however big we can get it,” said Robert.

Since getting involved, Elotes Bravos has blossomed and now you can even find it at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston during Dynamo and Dash games. “It took a while and a lot of hard work, but we got in,” said Robert.

“I like how they’re like persistent, they’re out here every day working hard,” said customer Gianna Rogel.

“Elote’s easy. I mean, it’s at a soccer stadium, so we hope it’s going to be a big hit and a fan favorite,” said Robert.

“It just shows you a lot, how you can come from a small town to somewhere big, too,” said customer Geovanni Sernn.

Well, I needed to get a piece of that corn, so we joined Robert’s Mom Rosalia next to the roaster. “She’s a chef. Think of me as a sous chef,” joked Robert.

Sous chef Robert started things off by grabbing an ear of corn off the roaster after about 45 minutes of getting nice and toasty. Then proceeded to make elote en vaso.  “First thing we do is we make sure it’s nice and cooked,” said Robert. “Go ahead and peel it. Rather hot, so just got to be careful. We’re used to this. So we shave it and then we’ll go ahead and dress it with the typical ingredients,” said Robert.

Mayo makes its way into the cup after the corn. Next, Robert adds some butter, cotija cheese, and then a squeeze of lime.  “We always recommend a little bit of lemon pepper,” explains Robert. “Little bit of some cayenne pepper, just a little bit. And then some of our salsa, homemade sauce, got a little kick to it.” That’s corn in a cup. Perfect. And now we have to make corn on the cob.

Once again, Mom shows off her moves. “So, my mom’s been doing this for so long, it’s like muscle memory at this point,” said Robert. “We add some cotija, mayonnaise, some lime juice.” Rosalia is not shy with that cheese, putting it all over the corn.

So, we’re going to start off with the vaso, and in case you don’t know your español, vaso obviously means cup. So, we’re going to try the corn in the cup first.  After popping it in, it was the unicorn of corn. Holy moly, that’s one heck of an elote. The subtle roasted flavor of that corn, combined with that mayonnaise and then that lime juice, is fantastic. But then the cotija cheese mixed in with that spicy sauce, so many different layers of flavor in this elote that it is worth coming all the way to Hempstead for.

“Very good. For me, the flavor, the taste, is very good,” said customer Jose Sanchez.

When it comes to the corn on the cob, what’s amazing is every time you take a bite of it, it just pops in your mouth and releases all that roasted flavor. With a bit spicier sauce on the cob, this elote had a bit more kick.  Just a whole different food experience than eating it out of a cup. “I’ve tasted a whole bunch of variety of corn and this is my favorite,” said customer Maria Medina.

Well, if you’ve got a hankering for some elote, coming all the way to Hempstead to visit Elotes Bravos is definitely well worth a stop on The Texas bucket list. Or just go see a soccer game in Houston. “Working with family is always dynamic, there’s ups and downs. But there’s no one better to do it with, you know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, you go home, and you know what you did is well worth it. So that’s why we do it. That’s why we’ve all done it. It’s not about vain or glory or anything like that. No, it’s really just about them,” said Robert.

The Texas Bucket List – Overfly (Powerbull) Bats in El Paso

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El Paso – When it comes to the game of baseball, there’s nothing like the smell of the grass and leather, or the sound of bat when it hits a ball or a ball hitting the back of the catcher’s mitt. Here in Texas, you can find some of the finest gloves in the game being made in Nacona. But you can also head out West to find bats being produced in El Paso, of all places.

Kurt Gross runs the Overfly bat manufacturing facility in El Paso. He only recently got into the bat business, while shopping for a bat for his son. “I actually met my business partner, Raul Salazar, when my son needed a bat and when he was just starting his career in high school,” said Gross. “So Raul was making Powerbull bats at the time, and so that was the very first Powerbull bat that I bought was for my son. Then it led to Raul and I becoming business partners in 2018, and then eventually getting our MLB license for the 2019 season.”

Powerbull bats had been in business in Mexico long before Gross became involved, and Salazar’s bat making know-how quickly meshed with Gross’s business prowess. “Raul’s vision was to bring it to the United States and to get our MLB license,” said Gross. “He wanted his bats used in Major League Baseball. He just didn’t have the business sense or know how to do it in the United States.”

The duo’s ability to produce high quality, MLB-ready bats quickly produced into opportunities with major and minor league teams, including the hometown El Paso Chihuahuas. “Being located here in El Paso, we do a lot of work with minor league players,” said Gross. “Obviously we have a great relationship with the El Paso Chihuahuas and the great team that they have there, but those minor league players that come through, not all of them will make it to Major League Baseball, but there’s a lot that will play professionally around the world.”

You may be asking yourself why Gross would decide to open up his bat business in El Paso, and his main reason is the same reason that many avoid the desert city. “El Paso’s a great place to make bats because it’s so dry,” said Gross. “A lot of bat manufacturers have a problem with humidity. They have to extract the moisture out of the air. There are times in El Paso where we have to bring moisture into the shop to maintain our moisture levels here, humidity levels in the shop.”

So the weather makes for great bat making conditions, but El Paso is also lacking in one seemingly important resource for wooden bat manufacturing; wood. “The number one question we get is ‘where do you get your wood?’” said Gross. “Because in El Paso there’s not that many trees. But all of our wood, and a little known secret in the bat business is that all of the bat manufacturers, with the exception of one, get either all their wood or the majority of their wood from the same mill we do in upstate New York, because that’s where it’s a cold, wet, damp winter, which makes a very dense, hard tree.”

Gross makes all the bats himself using a computer-controlled machine called a lathe. The lathe spins the bats at a rate of around 3000 revolutions per minute, and the machine can quickly and precisely shave down cylinders of wood called billets into a bat of any shape or size a player could want. “It goes from billet to bat in about 3 minutes,” said Gross. “Major League Baseball says that the minimum weight that you can use requirement is 88 ounces,” said Gross. “Anything under 88 ounces will be either a youth bat or a fungo for coaches. 88 to 89 ounces is the absolute sweet spot to make a major league bat.”

After handling so many bats during his time in El Paso, Gross is now able to recognize the smallest differences in bat sizes without any need for a machine. “It’s funny, you get to the point where you’re making bats, and I can just grab it and say that’s 24.2 or 22.3. I can be within a 10th of a millimeter, no doubt,” said Gross. “I can honestly say I’ve had my hands on every bat that’s been used at the major league level and to see the players and to know their stories behind the scenes and then have them use our bats at the highest level in Major League Baseball, hit home runs, win ball games, that kind of stuff is incredibly rewarding.”

Gross’ passion for making bats is fueled by his love of the game, and he feels a sense of pride that he’s able to help today’s players succeed on the biggest stage. “I mean, it’s just a cool feeling that we created something here that not just won ball games but made that player successful, made those fans cheer in the crowd and those kinds of things,” said Gross. “It’s a great feeling.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Texas Bucket List – The Globe Theater in Odessa

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Despite its rowdy roughneck persona, Odessa has been expanding its horizons in many ways over the past few years.  We’ve experienced the recent culinary creations this town has to offer but one thing we’ve never checked off the list is a cultural hot spot on this side of the petroplex.  That was until we headed to Odessa College and came across The Globe Theater.

“OC has a really good fine arts department just all around, and the theater is a big part of that,” said Randy Ham, the Executive Director of Odessa Arts, an organization that promotes the arts in Ector County. “It is by far the best job I’ve ever had, and I like to brag that I have the best job in Odessa because I get to dream about things, and I get to make them happen,” said Randy.

When it comes to facilities that galvanize the creation of expression, The Globe Theater is their crown jewel.  “We have Stonehenge, and we have the Globe,” said Randy. “I like to say that the two colleges are competing for the award of best Anglophile in Odessa.”

Now if you aren’t into the Renaissance, poets, plays, or just history in general, The Globe is a reproduction of William Shakespeare’s famous theater in London, England that was first built in 1599.  The Globe in Odessa was completed in 1968.

The original Globe Theater could fit around 3000 folks, the one in west Texas fits a tad under 400 but the layout is so close to the original that when the Globe was rebuilt in London in 1997, they came to Odessa to see how us Texans totally nailed it.  “When Shakespeare’s Globe burned down and they were rebuilding it, one of the things that the architects did was fly to Odessa, Texas and spend a week in our theater taking measurements, taking photos, looking at the blueprints, because, while it’s not to scale, is one of the most accurate replicas of the Globe that’s been constructed,” explained Randy.

There’s even a replica of Shakespeare’s wife’s home here. “So, this is the Anne Hathaway Cottage. It was built in 1988, so it was in addition. And that’s also when they added the courtyard here,” said Randy.

This whole Shakespearian complex all started with a local teacher, Marjorie Morris. Her west Texas tenacity got this crazy idea done. “Marjorie Morris was an English teacher at Odessa High School in the 1960s and basically woke up one morning, deciding that what West Texas needed, more than anything else, was a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe,” explained Randy. “And she went out and made that happen. Marjorie came to every opening night until the day that she passed away. And she sat front row center in a gold lame gown and a tiara on her head and just basked in the glow of her success,” said Randy. “She was the Renaissance woman of West Texas for sure.”

Twice a year, Odessa College puts on a production here, but the biggest bash is the Shakespeare Festival held every November.  “When you see 3000 students come through the doors of the Globe for the Shakespeare Festival, and they see professional Shakespeare performed in a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe, you see how theater and the arts can really impact a life in a positive manner,” said Randy. “For me, it’s a really good way to reintroduce Shakespeare to the masses.”

For whom would not enjoy such a display?  With such a wide wealth of range you’ll find here. Tis impossible not to enjoy it. “It’s hard to decipher iambic pentameter on the page. But if you see it in the context which it was written, which is on a stage with actors and costumes and sets and things, you would be surprised at, number one, how much of it you understand, how funny some of it is, how tragic some of it is, and how relevant it is still today,” said Randy.

While not everyone is into Shakespeare, there’s no doubt you’ve used one his phrases. Some say Shakespeare contributed more phrases to the English language than anyone else and chances are you’ve heard some of them on this show. Like, ‘a forgone conclusion,’ ‘all of a sudden,’ ‘all that glitters is not gold,’ ‘bated breath,’ ‘in a pickle,’ and ‘Et tu, Brute.’ Alright I don’t think I’ve uttered that phrase before. Either way seeing this incredible stage dedicated to one of the great storytellers of all time is well worth broadening your horizons for on The Texas Bucket List.

“Theater teaches us something about ourselves. We see something that we relate to, or we see a situation, and we see how the characters respond to different situations, and we can collectively experience something that nobody else will experience. No matter how many times you come to the Globe, each theatrical experience is unique because the audience is different, the cast is different. That group of people will never be the same again,” said Randy.

The Texas Bucket List – Davy Crockett National Forest

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Whenever you find yourself in East Texas, you never really want to peel back the preverbal pine curtain.  Instead, you want to get lost in it.

Texas is home to four National Forests and in between Crockett and Lufkin, you’ll find the Davy Crockett National Forest.  “This area serves the public I think in so many different ways,” said Jimmy Tyree.

Jimmy is the District Ranger for the Davy Crockett Davy Crockett National Forest and doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to his favorite forest in Texas. “Oh, it’s Davy Crockett. A little bit small, 160,000 acres, but does a lot of work,” said Jimmy.

At the center point of the Davy Crockett National Forest, you’ll find the Ratcliff Lake Recreation Area.  Built by the Civilian Conversation Corps in 1936, it’s a great place to set up camp. “[There] really is not a bad campsite in the whole place,” said Jimmy.

The sights, the smells, and the sounds are what set this park apart. “A lot of people enjoy the quietness and the birds,” said Jimmy.

Simply sitting back and letting the songbirds serenade you is something that’s good for the soul. “Well, nobody gets a chance to be quiet anymore. Not enough people are quiet. There’s something to be said about that,” said Jimmy.

This place is so peaceful that no matter what the season, people like to come here. “We are full almost year-round, even in the summertime when it can be brutal. People are still coming out here enjoying it and that says a lot,” said Jimmy.

Before this park of the National Park became such a safe haven for trees that can touch the top of the Texas sky, it was surprisingly home to a sawmill.  “1902 to about 1920, the Central Coal and Coke Company logged here. And then in 1930, the Texas legislature at that time identified this area as something they wanted to go ahead and put into the National Forest system. And then in 1936 is when Roosevelt actually designated the Davy Crockett National Forest,” said Jimmy.

“So, these are the ruins from the old sawmill from 1902 to 1920 and this whole area had at that time, up to 30,000 people. You wouldn’t know it now,” explained Jimmy while walking around the ruins that have forest surrounding them now. “Nowadays the population’s probably less than 500 for both areas. The amount of timber that was produced from this mill back then is just amazing. And one of the biggest, at that time, this mill was one of the biggest in the nation,” said Jimmy.

I can’t get over the fact that so much of the old factory is still there, from formed foundations to massive metal pieces sticking out of stone columns.  “Artifacts are always being discovered, different things. It isn’t a very active site as far as anytime anything happens here, anytime any work is done, we always have an archeologist on site monitoring it, because something is usually always dug up,” explained Jimmy. “A lot of folks look at the pictures from the 19 hundreds, 1920s, 1930s, and they don’t recognize that this is the same place because back then you could see miles, there were zero trees. They had cut everything down.”

It’s amazing to see what can grow in a hundred years. To this day, logging is still a vital part of the national park.  “We’re still able to provide a tremendous amount of timber. In fact, the output here in the southeast region, we’re one of the tops of the nation even though we’re down in the southeast. A lot of folks think of the big timber production being up in the northwest, Pacific Northwest, but we actually compete with them down here very strongly,” said Jimmy. “The quickness that the timber grows here is nothing like I’ve experienced in other places. This area is very unique in that respect.”

American poet Henry David Thoreau once wrote, “I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”  Well what tall Texan doesn’t want to be just a little bit taller. So, take a little time to breathe in the pine or maybe search for the hide and seek champion of the world, because I don’t have to go out on a limb to say that this is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “It’s a little jewel for this area. It absolutely is,” said Jimmy.

The Texas Bucket List – Fragola’s in Del Rio

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DEL RIO – Inside this tiny kitchen in Central Del Rio, Tirzah Starnes is creating some incredible culinary cuisine with her sister, Kendall. “All of our lives, I’ve been bossing her around,” said Tirzah with a laugh while acknowledging her sister. “She loves it,” she finished.

Don’t let Tirzah’s tomfoolery take you for a loop, because these two get along great. “Honestly, I couldn’t do this without her,” said Tirzah. “She’s my right hand girl.” Always hip to hip in the kitchen, these two sisters have to be close because they don’t have a whole lot of room to work with. Basically a small room with a kitchen, a counter, and a lone table for customers. “It’s a little space,” said Tirzah. “We use every single nook and cranny of it. So many times, you are curious what goes on behind those closed doors, and when they swing open, you want to peek in and see what’s going on back there,” said Tirzah. “But I wanted to create a space where you could see what we were doing. I thought that was fun.”

Being in such close quarters, one must always respect the cooks and give them a little bit of space. “They’ll come over behind the line and ask you something,” said Tirzah. “I’m like, ‘Can I help you with something? It’s really hot over here. Please don’t touch anything,” joked Tirzah.

Fragola’s may be a very small venue, but they crank out some incredible food creations thanks to Tirzah’s tenacity. She had a dream of opening her own restaurant and she made it happen. “I knew that I loved food,” said Tirzah. “I knew that I loved food, and I knew that I was a damn good cook. I knew that if I was going to do it, I was going to go big or not do it at all.”

In 2018, Tirzah went big with her bites, but not so much with her space. But business is still good, and just being able to do what she loves has been as divine as her dishes. “It is a blessing,” said Tirzah. “I will say that this is a fruition of what I have prayed for. This is an answered prayer, and God is just continuing to answer prayers for me.”

With a constantly changing menu, you never know what will be on the board when it comes time for lunch. “We’re trying to get people out of their box,” Tirzah said. “They live in a little box, and we’re trying to slowly take them outside of their flavor boxes. It’s working! It’s working.”

But there is one specific sandwich that can’t fly the coop, because it’s way too popular. “Jalapeño honey-drenched crispy chicken sandwich. It’s a mouthful in more ways than one,” said Tirzah. “We have to do it every other week, or we’ll have some upset customers. We came up with this jalapeño infused honey that we make fresh in-house. We put some hickory smoked bacon on it, on a piece of buttermilk fried chicken and called it a day. It is all of the delicious things that you want in a fried chicken sandwich. It’s crunchy, it’s sweet, it’s salty, it has the creaminess from the mayonnaise. It’s the perfect chicken sandwich,” said Tirzah confidently.

Tirzah starts the sandwich off by frying up some magnificently marinated chicken in her tiny air fryer. “As soon as it comes out of that hot oil, we’re going to give it a little dunk in this,” said Tirzah. “This is our jalapeño infused honey. It’s so good. It’s not too spicy. The sweet kind of balances the heat, but we make this fresh in-house. It’s awesome.”

Then the chicken is ready to get baptized in the hot, sticky sauce. While the chicken sits in the honey and jalapeño spa, a toasted brioche bun gets covered with may, a gargantuan piece of lettuce, vine ripened tomatoes, and then comes the chicken with a few extra jalapeños on there. “The first day that we did it, we literally sold out. We were looking at each other like,’oh my gosh, I think they like it,” said Tirzah.

“Substantial piece of chicken. It’s hard to get your hands around it but harder to get your mouth around it. But yeah, once you get it in, it’s awesome,” said customer Quinn Chandler.

A lot of times when you think of fried chicken sandwich, it’s kind of a heavier chicken sandwich, but this is nice and light and it’s all about that jalapeño honey dressing that just goes throughout the breading. Sweet, savory, absolutely perfect. Once again, the chicken sandwich wars did not make their way to Del Rio, because this would have reigned supreme. “I’ve had it I can’t tell you how many times since I’ve been here, since I’ve discovered this place, and every time, I love it,” said Quinn.

Well, if you happen to be down in Del Rio looking for a great place to dine, come into Fragola’s for this incredible jalapeño honey-drenched crispy chicken sandwich. It’s definitely well-worth the stop on The Texas Bucket List.

“Let my cup overflow, and because my cup overflows, let it fill up other people’s cups,” said Tirzah. “That is exactly what it has done and it continues to do.”

The Texas Bucket List – Cidercade in Dallas

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DALLAS – If you grew up in the 80’s, the arcade was always the place to be! Pumping quarters into Qbert or selecting your favorite character on Street Fighter 2 made for a glorious outing with your friends.

Today we’re all a bit older as we huddle around the NFL Blitz machine but doesn’t mean you have to grow up.  “We love tapping into the nostalgia. Nostalgia’s all the rage these days, so we definitely have all the classics that you grew up playing, but we also love to bring in new, exciting games,” said Hunter Eichberger marketing manager for Cidercade, a unique old school arcade that serves nothing but cider.

Hunter is a Texas Tech grad and a Kliff Kingsbury’s doppelganger. He’s got the tough job of trying to convince people to come to this extremely fun place by being a part of the family that started it.  “To jump in with them and be a part of the family business was just a really cool opportunity,” said Hunter.

Surprisingly enough, the Cidercade came to fruition out of fun. Part of the Bishop Cider family, the Cidercade was squeezed out into a space that the manufacturing plant didn’t need.  “There was a ton of additional space that wasn’t being used and we thought, ‘okay, what can we do to fill the space to draw people in here?’ They’re like, ‘well, we’ve always had this pipe dream of owning an arcade,” explained Hunter. The next thing you know. “It took off,” said Hunter.

The price helps. To get into this massive arcade with 140 games will cost you ten bucks. After that you can play all you want. “No coins. No bills. $10 admission. Every game is unlimited play,” said Hunter.

Since the Cidercade is situated in the same facility as Bishop Cider, I’m sure you can guess what the only available form of adult beverages that can be found here.  Folks like me are the exact people the Cidercade likes to target. Fellas who would normally order a cocktail or cold beer get a chance to get a little fruity. “A lot of people don’t drink cider all the time necessarily. And so, by keeping it only to cider at the Cidercade, it gets people out of their comfort zone, forces them to try something new. And most people, the vast majority of people, really like hard cider when they try it,” explained Hunter.

At this point I ask y’all to pardon my ignorance because I always thought that cider was something that could only be apple flavored. “For the majority of Bishop Cider’s existence, we’ve actually steered away from just your standard crisp cider because we’re trying to be different and kind of break the mold of what’s already out there,” said Hunter. “We have tart ciders, sweet ciders, dry ciders. There’s a whole range of taste that we appeal to, so there’s pretty much something for everybody.”

The first cider I had to try was the Texas Strawberry, made with strawberries from Poteet, Texas. It’s like smelling a jar of strawberry jelly. You get that overpowering sweet jelly smell and then it’s got bubbles and it’s delicious. “You have to be drinking a cider while you’re playing the game. I mean, that’s how you get the best experience for sure,” said Hunter.

Next, I tried the Crack-berry, which is one of Cidercade’s top selling ciders.  If you have the same question I had, “what is Crack-berry?” It is cranberry and blackberry coming together. “We say it’s the perfect balance of tart and sweet,” said Hunter.  Right off the top, tartness, but then doles out as you’re going down. That’s amazing!

“The parents can say, ‘all right, kiddos, go have a blast. I’m going to stay up at the bar,’ try a bunch of different cider and just relax for a minute,” said Hunter.

Finally, I tried the Pineapple Paradise. “Crack-berry, Pineapple Paradise, those are probably the two top sellers. Super juicy, super refreshing, perfect for warm weather days and a fan favorite here at Cidercade,” said Hunter.

That’s a sweet train right there. Wow! You smell that pineapple, and you taste the pineapple. Sitting by the pool kind of drink. “I think a lot of parents plan birthdays here, probably selfishly for themselves,” said Hunter.

So if you want to feel like a teenager again while keeping your kids occupied and having a few fruity drinks for adults, the Cidercade is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

The Texas Bucket List – Quenchies in Beaumont

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BEAUMONT – Southeast Texas always has a unique blend of Texas and Louisiana culture, and you can clearly see it in the food. Here I’ve had burgers with bountiful toppings, sandwiches filled with crawfish etouffee, fried up crabs, and even Cajun grilled cheese sandwiches.

With the blend of cultures on our eastern border, you’ll also find snowballs, which are like snow cones but just a little bit different. “People ask me all the time, ‘what’s the difference between a snowball and a snow cone?’ Because we have both people. Well, I said, ‘Well, New Orleans calls it snowball. Texas calls it snow cone.’ And the difference is in the ice. It’s a shaved, not the crunchy, crunchy, but a shaved smooth ice,” explains Donna Harris, the owner of Quenchies in Beaumont.

Back when she was a child, her parents had a small snowball shack and it’s where Donna became fond of frozen snacks. “My parents had one of the first machines like we use in Texas, and it was just little mom and pop place, little bitty building you might could get two people in there,” Donna said. “When I first started, I was 11. I didn’t work there by myself, but I would help my other brothers and mom there, and then as I got older, 13 and 14, I started working by myself there.

Donna has a desire to get back to providing folks with simple sweet treats that always got people to smile, so in 2017 she opened Quinches with her husband Ed. “I always dreamed of a place like this where you could come in, sit down. So, after me and my husband got married, and we had been married several years, I got a little mom and pop place like my parents had,” Donna said. “This is definitely a fun place. Everybody that comes here is happy.”

Quenchies signature is gummy bears.  On top of all the sweet snowballs you’ll find gelatinous grizzlies greeting you to this sugary, cold, and crunchy desert. “If you forget their gummy bear, it’s like, ‘where’s my gummy bear?’ I mean, the adults are like, “Where’s my gummy?” Donna said.

But there’s another snowball that doesn’t come with a gummy, oh no.  It comes with a pickle—an Eskimo pickle to be exact. “A lot of people say, ‘what is the Eskimo Pickle?’ And I tell them, I say, ‘it’s a lot of pickle,’” Donna explained. “It is a pickle snow cone with straight pickle juice, that’s the juice instead of a flavor. We do straight pickle juice over our pickle snow cones and this is an actual pickle inside the snow cone.”

Now I didn’t want to end things on a sour note, but Donna was adamant about putting me in pickle, so she put together one of her signature Eskimo Kisses. “It (The ice shaver) hums because it shaves that block as you push it through here, and that’s why your ice has to be tempered and at a good temperature because that’s what’s going to make it,” Donna explained. “[My husband] makes sure our ice is tempered the way it’s supposed to be. But snow consistency, it can’t be too wet, it can’t be too dry. If it’s too dry, you can’t form it. But if it’s too wet then its water locked.”

Then, we built the snow cone. Donna starts with filling the cup of shaved ice half way with pickle juice, then put a pickle in the middle, and topping it off with more pickle juice.

I took a bite, and my mouth was puckering. It’s weird because you get that consistency of snow cone and your mouth’s like ‘yeah, something sweet!’ Then it goes, ‘oh no it’s not.” But this interesting treat was very good and tasted like a frozen pickle.

“Eskimo Pickle’s a big thing,” Donna explained. “We sell tons of it, tons of the pickle juice. It’s hard to keep it.”

The pickle compliments it great, imagine that! “Once you take a bite of that perfect snow cone, then there’s nothing like it,” Donna said.

If you’re super into sour, the Eskimo Pickle is the perfect item for your igloo but if you prefer a sweet snowball, they’re plenty of those options as well and they’re all well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

The Texas Bucket List – Fiume on the Riverwalk in San Antonio

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San Antonio – San Antonio truly is one of the most fantastic places in the great state of Texas.  You’ve got history, the culture, and of course the Riverwalk. Then again, I might be a little bit biased towards this town because the Alamo City is where I got married.  I’ve also got massive number of memories from coming here as kid to celebrating the 200th episode of The Texas Bucket List at the Alamo back in 2021.

All those stories revolve around time spent on the Riverwalk and just a few feet from the La Vallita River Theatre, where my wife and I took our engagement pictures, you’ll find Fuime. “Great atmosphere, great view, right by the river, couldn’t get any better,” said customer Keith Clark.  “This is so awesome to be so close to the water, have people walking by,” said customer Cheri Clark.

Benjamin Callahan is the Executive Chef at Fuime and the self-proclaimed Army brat moved to San Antonio during Elementary school. In 2012 he graduated from the Culinary Institute and has been in the industry ever since.   His goal when it comes to great food. “Trying to elevate the food and the culture here,” Ben said.

He said it’s difficult having many competing restaurants down the river, but if you have something that people can relate to, something that people want, then you’re just giving comfort food something new that they haven’t seen before. It doesn’t hurt having your pizza oven and kitchen right on the Riverwalk. “That’s one thing that draws people to Fiume. I think a lot of them are from different cities, different countries even, and they come, and they see the oven and they see it on the Riverwalk and they’re like, ‘Oh, wow, this is the first place I’ve seen that’s like home,’” Ben said.

Now Fuime doesn’t just make run of mill pizza, oh no, these pies have Texas pizzaz. “Whatever we can add to it to make it more Texas-infused with local farmers,” Ben explained.

All good pizza starts with a dough, right? With the help of fellow chef Cynthia, Ben got things started on three different types of pizzas all of which consist of house made dough with Texas grains.

The first tossed-to-order pizza pie Ben put together is the Sweet Texas Heat. “We’re going to start with our white sauce, which is ricotta-based. It’s got some black garlic in there, too, which we get from Texas,” Ben said. Mozzarella cheese, bacon smoked for 48 hours and Calabrian chilis are added.

The Chorizo Quesa Flameado pizza starts with roasted poblano cream sauce, chorizo, and roasted corn.

Finally, the Funghi pizza has ricotta based white sauce, locally sourced mushrooms cooked in garlic and oil, and caramelized Texas onions.

Those three pies head into the oven. Ben heats the oven to 650, sometimes 700 degrees to speed up the baking process. He said turning up the speed at which the over rotates gives the pizzas a more even heat. “So, it’s extremely hot in the center, that’s kind of our finishing area, so we try to go on the outside and then we just kind of rotate in as it’s cooking.”

The baking process doesn’t take long. “As you can see, they start to bubble up, crisp up. So, once I see that all sides are kind of bubbling off that floor, I’ll start to move them around and hit another hotspot.”

Ben pulls out the pies and finishes them all off with olive oil and special seasoning on the crust. The Sweet Texas Heat gets then gets basil and local honey, the chorizo pizza puts on queso fresco, in house pickled onions, micro cilantro, and chipotle crema. Finally, the Funghi is finished with a little lettuce and truffle oil.

All right, so here we have three fantastic pizzas in front of me, and I can tell you the truffle oil coming off that Funghi smells fantastic, so I want to save that one for last and go straight into the Sweet Texas Heat. Well, the flavors of the Texas heat just keep going. You bite in, you get an initial bit of that sweetness, but then the heat just lingers, and it is fantastic.

“The bacon on it is delicious, the crust is perfect, and then it has that little drizzle of honey, which just gives you the sweet and savory all at the same time. It was awesome,” said customer Cheri Clark.

“It had great spice to it, that little sweet of honey. It was fantastic,” said customer Keith Clark.

 

Now that we have a little mariachi music behind me, it’s time to dip into the chorizo pizza. That’s what I love about the Riverwalk, right here.

I’ve never had corn on a pizza before, it is very interesting, all that little popping there. Not a real spicy pizza, just more of a Southwest flare to that one. That crust is fantastic. You definitely do get a little doughy, a little crispy, and then that seasoning on top just gives it another kick.

And then finally, the Funghi. I’m not going to lie; the truffle oil has got me extremely excited for this one. All those locally grown Texas mushrooms of different shapes and sizes combined with the caramelized onions, give it an incredible flavor profile.

Fiume definitely serves up some unique pizzas. “It gives you a chance to have that Texas flair to the Italian pizza, it’s a little bit of a different take,” said customer Cheri Clark.

Well, if you’re ever in San Antonio and looking for some pizza with some Texas pizzazz, come in to Fiume on the Riverwalk. It’s definitely well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “Trying to be unique and different and have a voice. I think every chef, every cook wants that, and it’s nice to do it right here, downtown on the Riverwalk and have a space to do it in,” Ben said.

The Texas Bucket List – Hummer House in Christoval

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San Angelo –When it comes to birding across the Lone Star State, the Rio Grande Valley is usually the place folks fly the coop for.  Being on the search for a certain songbird brings all sorts of seekers to south Texas all with binoculars in hand.  But if you’re looking for an easier way to see some flashy feathered creatures, a trip to The Hummer House near San Angelo should be high on your list.

Dan Brown and his wife Kathy own The Hummer House and on the day we visited it happened to be Dan’s 91st birthday! “Life is an attitude. You got a choice. Mine is mowing forward,” said Dan with a big smile.

Now mowing isn’t first most on Dan’s mind on most days because if he did that, he’d scare away the birds. The Hummer House is Dan’s happy place. This small, quiet spot in Christoval sits on the south Concho River and has been in his family for 100 years. It offers people a place to peek in on Hummingbirds, Cardinals, and the occasional, Black-crested Titmouse, all in an air-conditioned room with some huge windows for observation. “If you sit down and watch birds, you focus your mind on something that’s nature and not yourself or other people, so it’s a form of relaxation, bird watching. Call it what you want to, but it is nature and enjoying it.”

Filling feeders is still on Dan’s to do list and during the migrating season, from April to September, you’d be amazed how much they handout to the hummingbirds. “We feed about 1500 pounds of sugar every year to these little hummingbirds. One feeder at a time,” Kathy says.

But there is another big draw at the Hummer House, the painted bunting. This is a beautiful bird that nests here on the ranch.  “There’s probably more painted buntings here than any localized place in the United States,” says Charles Floyd. Charles Floyd has been friends with Dan for 20 years and the former science teacher is a federally permitted master bander.  “We have banded roughly 55,000 individual birds here at this location,” said Charles. “We have banded 162 different kinds of birds, that species of birds that are different.”

While the research is important, the most enjoyable part for anyone that happens upon the Hummer House is simply sitting and staring at the birds. This is the perfect way to de-stress and be at one with nature. If you ever find yourself in need of some birdwatching and peace, a stop at The Hummer House is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List!

The Texas Bucket List – Game Theory in Fort Worth

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Fort Worth – Over in the South Main Village side of Fort Worth, you’ll find an eclectic mix of locally owned businesses.  Among them is Game Theory, which at first might seem like a game store but there’s so much more to this place. “Really, the goal of Game Theory is to have family game night every night, and you just don’t have to cook and clean,” said general manager John Michael Johnson.

Turns out that Game Theory is a restaurant where grubbing over games for a great time is the goal. “Really, the goal of Game Theory is to have family game night every night, and you just don’t have to cook and clean,” John says. “We’re a restaurant and bar first, and we have awesome food from scratch kitchen, craft cocktails. It’s the same concept if you go and watch the Cowboys play for three hours and sit at a bar and have food and drink and wings and beer or whatever, kind of the same concept.”

Now when you first arrive at Game Theory, your first decision is what kind of fancy drink you prefer to play with. Then you get to choose what your battle with be.

You guys have games I’ve never heard of or seen before. I mean, Obscurio. That’s very obscure. “Yeah, exactly. Over here you’re going to have more intermediate strategy games. In the middle is going to be more of our featured games, and then the far-left library is going to be more party games.”

Not sure how to play a game?  Not confident in your knowledge of a game?  Don’t worry, they got you covered here. “We have what we call game gurus on staff, and their job is to teach games during their shift,” said John.

As you get your game on, you start to notice something about this place. There’s no boredom in this bistro of boardgames. This is all fun and games, until it brings out people’s competitive spirit. “It’s a great first date spot. Nothing like figuring out if someone’s compatible than playing a board game. Are they willing to let you win? Are they intelligent? It’s a good place to come and without distraction, get to know someone and spend time with them,” said John. If I would’ve brought my wife here, I don’t think I would’ve married her, because she’s way too competitive.

The thrill of victory or agony of defeat is palpable here and if you had enough, you can always get a bite to eat. When you’re ready to order, you’ll want to have a game plan and the pies here are ahead of the game. Don’t let the golden layers of buttery crust get you off your game.  The meat concoctions they make here truly are game changers. Watching the pies warm up in the oven is a waiting game but once there ready it is game on.

The smell of the buttery pastry is incredible. The pies savory and soft. Perfectly cooked. Who knew little pies like this could pack so much of a savory punch?

If you’re looking for a mini meat pie or just a place to get your game on, come into Game Theory in Fort Worth. It’s well worth a stop on the Texas Bucket List!

“Great tasting food, awesome atmosphere, and the people here are just amazing. And you got games. Yeah, and games. You get to fellowship with people in a different way with playing games,” said John.