Texas Bucket List

Texas Bucket List

The Texas Bucket List – Texas Fiddle Clinic in Bryan

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College Station – There’s nothing that can make a Texan’s heart flutter like hearing the Yellow Rose of Texas on a fiddle. For fiddler Bennett Brown, that song and this instrument go hand in hand. “As it pertains to Texas, the fiddle is kind of one of our national points of pride,” said Bennett.

Bennett is an accomplished fiddler who plays with Shane Smith and Saints. “I’ve been really blessed to be pretty much just playing with him,” said Bennett. “As a career path, I’ve been blessed to just have a steady place to call home.”

Being on the road, playing for sold out crowds is nothing new for Bennett but once a year, he makes his way to Bryan/College Station to take part in a class trying to carry on the tradition. “To see the room full of people today, especially the younger folks, is very exciting,” said Bennett.

The Texas Fiddle Clinic is an annual get together of fiddlers from across the state hoping to learn how to fiddle around on the instrument Texans are fond of. “I think Alabama had something to do with it too because if you’re going to play in Texas, you got to have a fiddle in the band, and once that stuck, it was like white on rice,” said Wes Barlow.

Wes is the man behind this master class of musicians that bring in the biggest talent in Texas to teach the fundamentals of the fiddle. “I mean, if there ever were to be a bucket list of fiddle players that have made it or making a career in it, then this is it,” said Wes. “I mean, we’ve got Jody Bartula from Cody Johnson, Randy Rogers fiddle player, Brady Black, Damian Green from Aaron Watson, Hadyn Vitera and Katie Shore from Asleep at the Wheel, Bennett Brown from Shane Smith and The Saints. Nick Worley played with Jason Boland and Cooder Graw. I want to try to get all of who everyone has to listen to, who they consider to be their heroes as well, to get them to come and not only meet them but also learn from them in a very one-on-one personal setting.”

Wes is an Aggie and an accomplished musician himself. He currently plays in the band Dolly Shine, but he also played in the popular Irish Rock group The Blaggards out of Houston. “My grandpa told me a long time ago, find something you love doing, get good enough at it, somebody pay you to do it, and you never work a day in your life,” said Wes.

Wes’s love for music started at an early age. “My orchestra director, Mr. Ellsworth at Katy Junior High burned me an Alison Krauss CD, Alison Krauss & Union Station, The Greatest Hits,” said Wes. “It had The Boy Who Wouldn’t Hoe Corn and the Dan Tyminski, O Brother Where Art Thou song, and that was kind of my first ear into fiddle and my first realization was like, oh, that’s this instrument. That’s fun.”

Wes continued to refine his fiddling skills through high school and when he arrived at Texas A&M he started passing along his knowledge. “I just felt a calling and I started doing some private lessons in the Brazos Valley,” said Wes. “I was the only instructor that would come to your house and teach your child, and through that I learned a lot and just kind of found a passion for education that I wasn’t expecting.”

Despite his new found fondness for passing on his passion for playing, there was one problem Wes wanted to fix. “As I got older, seeing my class of 60 orchestra students, only two of them play, and I’m the only violinist was pretty heartbreaking,” said Wes. “There’s not a lot of curriculum in more traditional orchestra programs that show you any options outside of the box that you get graded in, and I was blessed enough to be surrounded by some directors that did so. And so the whole idea with this clinic is if we can take the knowledge and skills that the students already have and show them a slightly different perspective on it and feed them a little bit of inspiration, then we can not only inspire the next generation of players, we can also increase player attention post high school.”

Bennet has been one of Wes’s biggest fans. “When he called me up for this, I knew I had to be part of it,” said Bennett. “He’s so passionate about this and it’s infectious. I mean, the rest of us, the instructors are all feeding off of his energy. The wealth of knowledge and talent between the instructors is, I’m in shock. It’s so incredible. And even myself as an instructor, I feel so excited to hang out with these people and learn from them.”

From top to bottom, everybody who’s involved with the clinic can feel how special it is to gather such a talented group of musicians. “I’ve got all of my best friends that are teachers and have great names in the music industry that have joined forces with me and help educate the next generation,” said Wes. “They’re all my heroes. I had to learn to play like so many of them for so many years as I was coming up as a violinist and learning how to play fiddle. So it’s great to, I’m blessed to not only be able to call them my friends, but also fellow instructors.”

Getting to learn from the Lone Star State’s best is striking a chord with those who attend the Texas Fiddle Clinic and hopefully changing the tide when it comes to talented musicians across Texas. “It shouldn’t be so hard to find a fiddle player in Texas,” said Wes. “We understand the vision and they’re all part of the same mission, and so it’s a really wholesome feeling to me to be surrounded by people that want to do the same thing. Just trying to do our part and inspire the next generation.”

So if you want to be a part of the group of musicians that are keeping a classic sound alive and thriving, make some time for this stop on The Texas Bucket List. “We need more fiddle players,” said Bennett. “I think being in the same room, feeling the instrument come alive because these are natural, just little wooden boxes you feel and vibrate when you’re playing and when you get a whole room playing at the same time, it’s a cool feeling and I’m just grateful to be able to share that.”

The Texas Bucket List – Katie’s Seafood House in Galveston

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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.”

The Texas Bucket List – Sugarbelle Sweets in Corpus Christi

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Corpus Christi – Most days, you’ll find Dusty Sinclair in her Corpus Christi home carefully crafting her creative baked goods. “It’s a lot of work, and everything’s made from scratch,” said Dusty.

While the flour, sugar, and eggs are the basic ingredients, she goes above and beyond when it comes making her cakes stand out from the flock. “I’m known for doing 3D hyper realistic animal and fish themed cakes, but I do wedding cakes as well,” said Dusty.

While this sweet treat looks like a duck, seems like it could walk like a duck, and you’re definitely waiting for it to quack like a duck, it really is just a cake. “Layers of cake smothered in a buttercream frosting and then the outside layer is actually a scratch-made modeling chocolate,” said Dusty. “So, it’s chocolate per se instead of fondant, which tastes so much better, and it’s really cool to work with. It’s kind of like a clay in a way, the texture of it, whenever you’re working with it, and then it dries hard.”

While she has the heart of a hunter, Dusty has always had a soft spot for making sweets for as long as she can remember. “I always knew since I was a little girl, I would say probably three, I knew I wanted to be a baker of some sort,” Dusty recalled. “I remember talking to my grandmother about it, my Grammy, I feel like she’s the one who inspired me the most whenever I was younger, to do that. So baking with her in the kitchen and stuff like that, and literally in my high school yearbook, it literally says I wanted to be an art pastry chef when I grow up or whatever, and I wouldn’t say I’m not that, but I am that in a way. To me, I am that now.”

Dusty started a cookie business in 2014, but it wasn’t till 2020 that she started experimenting with making cakes that look like wild game. “I’m actually self-taught,” said Dusty. “I’ve never had a cake class before in my life.”

From fish to fowl to deer with some fine racks, Dusty has created just about every creature on God’s green earth. “Oh, I’ve done so many,” said Dusty. “Lots of deer, axes, dorados, marlins, sailfish and bass, redfish, trout, flounder, blackbuck, hogs, javelinas, turkeys, dove, quail, rattlesnakes.” Wow. “A lot of different things.”

Making these cakes is one thing, but getting them where they need to go is a whole other ordeal. “I’ve had people from another country come in and fly in and pick up cakes,” said Dusty. “Yeah, it’s crazy. They’ll have private planes that the cakes can ride back on. I’ve had people hire drivers from different states that don’t feel like driving to pick up their cakes, so they’ll hire somebody to come do it.”

Considering the size of some of these cakes, it takes a whole lot of planning to ensure they arrive in one piece. “One time I did a six-foot blue marlin and it’s 3D, hyper realistic, so it’s upright and you see both sides of the marlin, and it was six foot,” said Dusty. “So it’s not only long and awkward to go through doors and stuff, but whenever it’s driving, it’s on a board that’s long and skinny like itself. So it’s like this the whole time, and I’m like, ‘Oh, no.’”

The cakes are popular with grooms. They do say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but apparently these cakes will get him to the altar. “’The reason why we get married is so we can have your cakes at our wedding.’ I’m like, ‘Stop being silly,’” said Dusty. “They’re like, ‘No, really? We had to reschedule our wedding just so we could have one of your cakes at our wedding.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, my goodness guys.’” 

When it comes to the wedding party, people have to be reminded to keep their hands to themselves. “People will literally have signs made that say, ‘Do not touch. This is a cake,’ because you’ll see people over there touching and everything,” said Dusty. “Like, don’t touch that. That’s the cake. That’s not a piece of taxidermy just sitting there on the table. It’s cake.”

You might think that it’d be painful to watch these works of art get sliced and served, but Dusty knows that’s the whole point of a cake. “It does not make me hurt,” said Dusty. “That’s my number one thing that customers say to me, ‘I don’t know how we’re going to cut into this cake. We can’t cut into it. It’s too beautiful.’ I’m like, ‘You paid a lot of money for that cake. You eat it. Don’t waste it.’”

Dusty applies the same sweet feelings to her talent, making sure not to waste a single drop of her unreal ability to make cakes that look like they belong in the wild. “I feel like this is what God has put me on earth to do,” said Dusty. “It really warms my heart. I’m so, so thankful and so blessed for the amount of people that let me know that I’m doing a great job. I love it.”

The Texas Bucket List – Wright On Taco in Marshall

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Marshall – In the northeast corner of our state, you’ll find the town of Marshall with its majestic old courthouse overlooking the center of Harrison County. It’s a big draw to town, but so is the food you’ll find at the Wright on Taco Shop. “East Texas has it going on,” said Julie Wright. “We can hang with the big cities.”

Julie and her husband Brian own the Wright on Taco Shop but don’t let the name fool you, this place offers much more than just tacos. They also smoke some serious meats. “Tacos and barbecue,” said Julie. “It’s the Texas way to eat.”

Now BBQ wasn’t originally on the menu when Julie kicked off this eatery adventure with a taco truck, but when the couple decided to take that next step with a brick-and-mortar building it happened to have a little bonus. “In that restaurant, it was a barbecue shop, so there was this old pit that was there, and we added that to part of the deal,” said Julie. “Keep the pit there and let’s see what we can do with it.”

They did very well. “We did not know what we were getting into with the restaurant business, and you probably hear that a lot, but we really just took it as our responsibility of, let’s bring our best so that we can serve our best,” said Julie. “Craft barbecue takes a ton of time. It takes a ton of prep time, a ton of attention, and just the actual process. And then the tacos, we don’t take that for granted, either. We make as much from scratch that we can.”

When faced with this conundrum, there’s only one thing to do; get both! Assistant pitmaster Josie Bib gave me a preview of our first treat, the Texas Twinkies. “It’s a jalapeño,” said Josie. “It’s wrapped in bacon and stuffed with cream cheese and brisket. They’re delicious. Those sell out pretty much every day”

In the kitchen, Austin Foust got to work on a special sandwich called the Porkstrami. This piece of pork is brined for 7 days before getting smoked and it smells amazing. “We are really trying to think of ways that we could use pork shoulder a little bit more, just due to the cost of things, but also how great pork shoulder is,” said Julie. “I think it’s overlooked in several barbecue applications. It’s just so good.”

Austin takes half a pound of the pork, stacks it high on a toasted potato roll and tops it off with honey mustard BBQ sauce, onions, and cilantro. “That porkstrami is that nice little pink color,” said Austin. “Now, that’s not the smoke ring. That’s the brine color.”

The tacos start off with freshly made tortillas. “We press these every morning and we go through them like a fart in a windstorm,” said Austin.

We get the thunder rolling with the Hannah, a simple taco with barbecued chicken, bacon, and queso. The Texican starts off with chopped up brisket, gets topped with coleslaw, jalapenos, and BBQ sauce. Finally, there’s the Employee of the Month. Not to worry, it’s only fried shrimp with some fried avocado, lettuce, cheese, pico, and aioli. No employees harmed in the making.

With a plate full of food in front of you it’s not easy to decide what to go for first, but that Texas Twinkie certainly isn’t a bad place to start. The smokiness of the brisket goes great with that peppered bacon, and the jalapeno and cream cheese cut through the richness of the meat perfectly.

Up next is the Hannah taco, which features nothing but meat and cheese. The chicken is tender and the bacon is crispy, and that cheese just pulls everything together. The Texican features that same awesome brisket from the Texas Twinkie, with a fresh slaw that keeps everything nice and moist. Finally, the Employee of the Month is a lighter fare that is packed with flavor.

Finally, if you have any room to spare, it’s worth using on the monstrous Porkstrami. The classic pastrami brine works wonders on a pork soldier to make a sandwich that’s worth running all the way to Marshall for a taste.

Well, whether you’re in the mood for some terrific tacos or a particular pork sandwich that’s put together perfectly, coming into the Wright On Tacos shop  is definitely well worth the stop on The Texas Bucket List. “I just say, ‘Come on, give us a chance,’” said Julie. “Try it out and we’ll show you what we got.”

 

 

The Texas Bucket List – San Antonio Zoo Train

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San Antonio – Breckenridge Park is one of San Antonio’s most sought after stops in the state.  Since 1899, this 343-acre park has been the place to get back to nature, and over the years it’s added a zoo, a Japanese tea garden, and a train that’s particularly popular with pint-size people.

Nick Lopez is the lead train mechanic for the San Antonio Zoo Train. Nick says that it takes a lot of work to keep the trains operational, and that there’s a lot of hands involved that help give the satisfaction of these rides to riders every day and all year.

Formerly known as the Brackenridge Eagle, the train has been a part of the park for a long time. It started in 1956, and there were over a million riders over the first two years of operation. Everyday, 365 days a year, even on Christmas and Easter, this train takes to the tracks around Breckenridge Park providing riders with a 20-minute escape around the 2-mile track.

During the ride you get to see the parks, the zoo, and the nature of the river. Through trees, tunnels, and past golfers who are trying to concentrate on their game, there are all sorts of sights to see while riding the rails. This simple but satisfying train ride has stood the test of time, creating memories for generations.

Making sure the train is in tip top shape takes place in a shop surrounded by trees deep in the park. Known as the San Antonio Zoo Roadhouse, this is where Nick can get away and concentrate on making sure these little locomotives are ready for a long day of chugging along the tracks. Here’s a certain kind of heartbreak you experience whenever the train isn’t up and running for little riders, so Nick and the rest of the team make sure to take care of issues as quickly as possible.

The memories of the train don’t just sit in the hearts and minds of the kids and families that ride it. They also find a place to pull into the hearts of those who work on it. From the conductors to the ticket takers and the mechanics, this train is special to them too. So for a stop that brings joy to everyone its path crosses, hop on at this stop on The Texas Bucket List.

 

 

 

The Texas Bucket List – Tyler State Park

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Tyler – Texans are used to open spaces. But as the population of the big towns in Texas continue to grow, getting away from the concrete jungles of the Space City or Big D is something the souls of the Lone Star State need once in a while. Fortunately, you can find your own Fortress of Solitude just a few hours away from town, where lanes of traffic get replaced with serene lakes that are surrounded by the sounds of native birds. “It’s very calm out here,” said Boyd Sanders. “You can hear lizards rustling in the leaves. Claws of woodpecker going up a tree. It’s very, very peaceful. It’s really nice.”

Boyd has been a Park Ranger at Tyler State Park since 2007. “My primary job is to explain why these places are so special, why we need places like state parks,” said Boyd. “And I get to show them from the littlest critters to the grandest trees out here and enhance their experience in the park.”

The son of a sailor, Boyd was born in Tyler but moved around the country with his Navy dad until one day, he got to come home. “The day after I graduated, my truck was pointed to Texas,” said Boyd. “It was time to get home.”

While getting back home to the Lone Star State was high on his list, being a park ranger wasn’t.  That is, until he got the job. “I don’t know, I never really thought about being a park ranger, but got the job here and wished, ‘man, I should have been a ranger a long time ago,’” said Boyd.

With a workplace like this, who can blame him? “I tell people I have a room with a computer, but all this out here, this is my office,” said Boyd.

Tyler State Park sits on 935 acres directly north of Tyler. “We have tremendously huge parks and we have little tiny parks,” said Boyd. “This fits right nicely in the middle.”

While most Texans know the topography of our state includes pretty much every sort of landscape, this is all foreign to foreign visitors. “We have people coming from all over the world here and don’t realize Texas has trees,” said Boyd.

What some Texans don’t realize is that these trees actually provide a plethora of seasonal colors. The elusive fall foliage that folks in our part of the world don’t get to see too often. “We all enjoy it, even the staff does, because of how pretty it is,” said Boyd. “We just drive around the park, look at trees. It’s just that expectation of what’s coming. You know it’s going to be beautiful. And then when it starts to turn, there’s a bit of an excitement for that.”

As the crisp fall air cuts through the colorful leaves, you can’t help but stare at the sensational colors and wonder if it’s the serene saturation that’s mesmerizing you, or the complete sense of peace and quiet in these parts. “We’re going to get a beautiful change that really, to me, rivals the stuff that you see up in the northeast on the Appalachian Trail and all those places,” said Boyd.

With hues of gold, red, maroon, or just a random tree changing colors in a sea of green, there’s beauty everywhere you look. “One day it seems like a tree is green. The next day it seems like it’s bright gold. And the next day the leaves are gone,” explained Boyd. “Kind of what it seems like, but it’s a slower process than that. It all kind of depends on how many hours of daylight we have and how cold the temperatures get as to how the trees react. Some of the sweetgums turn a real deep maroon. This is absolutely gorgeous, but the black tupelo trees just turned fire red, and that’s probably some of my favorites.”

Besides the beautiful landscape, the buildings also bring out sightseers. Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the early 40’s, they look nothing like you’d usually see in a state park. “It is more modern,” said Boyd. “Sort of toward the end of the Civilian Conservation Corps time or later in it, some of the young architects were kind of getting tired of the national park rustic. That’s that real pretty log cabin look or stone cabin look. Something that the buildings were made out of the natural resources around the area and looked like they grew out of the natural resources from the area. These are more inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School, so it’s a more modern style. It’s made to complement the landscape and not hide in the landscape.”

While unique and historic, it’s safe to say the natural beauty here steals the show. But you do have to be there on time to catch it. “Starts kind of the end of October,” said Boyd. “Our peak is typically right around Thanksgiving, and then it still has color usually in the first week or so of December. Once these trees are kind of done, it’s time for Christmas.”

So enjoy an early gift before the holiday season and unwrap yourself in the East Texas beauty of Tyler State Park. “To see the beautiful views and to get off the concrete and asphalt, they need to explore,” said Boyd. “They need to get out in the woods, they need to get out in the trees. We were made for this. We weren’t made for high rises and concrete. We were made for woods and being outdoors.”

The Texas Bucket List – Juan in a Million in Austin

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Austin – As Austin continues to grow, it’s getting harder and harder to find staples of the Capital City, but Juan in a Million has stood the test of time. “At the beginning, it was tough, man,” said Juan Meza. “The neighborhood was a little bit different.”

Juan has taken over the operations of Juan in a Million from his dad, Juan, who opened this one of a kind restaurant back in 1980 when things on the east side of Austin were a bit sketchy.

“It wasn’t an easy start,” said Juan. “A lot of people are like, ‘I had my door’s locked on the way over here.’ But now it’s nice. Now it’s not so bad. We knew there was change coming when we started seeing people riding their bicycles at night. And I was like, ‘That’s not normal. Are they sure this is the right neighborhood?’”

Today, Juan in a Million is so close to downtown that it’s becoming a part of it, and that’s making it easier for folks to come get a popular taco, the Don Juan. “I like my tacos hefty,” said Juan.

This huge offering has become a pilgrimage for hungry folks who may or may not be seeking a cure for the ol’ college hangover. “It started off as a college dish,” said Juan. “It was a college student that came over. They wanted something together. My dad said, ‘Let me put this together for you.’ They wanted something big. They were really hungry. And my dad was trying to make it affordable, so he put these ingredients together. And from there, man, it just took off.”

It’s hard to describe this meal that’s technically just a taco but comes with enough filling to stretch into a few. “It’s a plate of food, but it comes on a tortilla, but then it comes with two or three more tortillas to make more tacos out of it,” said customer Ines Guevara. “But yeah, it’s delicious, but it’s huge. It’s huge.”

Now, tortillas aren’t the only thing you’re going to want with your taco. Juan in a Million is also known for their salsa which might hit 6 digits on the Scoville scale. “Most people, they start off, ‘Ah, it’s too hot,’” said Juan. “And then they just can’t put it down. You can’t put it down. They’ll get that chip in their mouth, mouth’s burning, sweating profusely, and they just can’t put it down, man. Like, ‘More, give me more, give me more.’ And of course, we go through a lot of tea and a lot of water.”

Considering Juan the Don has brought in actors, politicians, and other TV show hosts, anyone would be ready to get their hands on a taco, so it’s time to seek out out the jedi master of making them, Maria. With 35 years of experience making this taco, Maria is all business when it comes to cracking the eggs. “Oh yeah, yeah. It’s her world back here,” said Juan. “We’re just living in it.”

This recipe ain’t rocket science calling for potatoes, bacon, and eggs. Throw on some cheese and that’s it. “She cooks it to perfection, puts it in the tortilla,” said Juan. “Then they put it over here on the line, then add cheese to it just to top it off.”

After being presented with a giant plate of breakfast taco fixings, the first step for any seasoned veteran at Juan in a Million is to pull out a tortilla and load it up to your heart’s content. The smell of bacon and melted cheese hits your nose like a delicious train before you get a kick of that spicy sauce, and you’re ready to go to town on this taco. “It’s daunting,” said Ines. “I think I only had a third of it, but it was really good.”

As soon as you take a bite, you get every single flavor from the potatoes and the eggs. And the salsa is extra important, especially in the taco. But man, that bacon and cheese. The bacon’s crispy, the cheese is salty. Both of them come together to make a great flavor in a taco. Well, for a Texas tradition that’s one in a million, come into Juan in a Million in Austin. It’s well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “For a pound of food, you’re paying seven bucks,” said Juan. “Yeah, you can’t get that anywhere.”

The Texas Bucket List – Liam’s Steak House & Oyster Bar on South Padre Island

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South Padre Island – On the laguna side of South Padre Island, you’ll find Liams’ Steak House and Oyster Bar. This high-end eatery on the southern end of our state has plenty of seafood as you’d expect to find on SPI as well as high end cocktails and some serious steaks. “Steak and oysters,” said Cameron Salazer. “Yeah, steak and oysters, yeah. Yeah.”

Cameron opened this restaurant in 2018 and he named it after his son. “Now every kid is named Liam, so there’s like three Liam’s in my family now,” said Cameron. “I never heard the name until then, and then all of a sudden everybody named their kid Liam.”

Family lineage is important to Cameron because his father is the Godfather of good food on the Island, a man we know very well. Dirty Al. Alfanso Salazar is the man, the myth and the legend on South Padre but to Cameron, he’s just Dad. “My dad is a great guy,” said Cameron. “He’s a little tiny Mexican and he’s got a ton of energy. He was always a hard worker, so he forced all of us to be like, ‘You got to go to work.’ So to me and him, we got together really, really good, because I had that kind of energy. I was like, ‘How deep is it there? What do you do this? How do you do…’ And he’s just, boom, boom, boom, boom, answering questions. So in my mind, he was wonderful.”

That work ethic continues with Cameron. “I’ve always been the type to outwork you,” said Cameron. “I can outwork you, but I can’t out-think you. But I’ll outwork you. I got the work part of it.”

What started as a simple taco shop for the family has turned into 11 restaurants around the Rio Grande Valley. “Most restaurants fail in the United States,” said Cameron. “And we’ve had… I don’t know if people just love us or God blesses us because my mom’s an angel, or I don’t know what it is really, but we just have been blessed.”

Liam’s is Cameron’s baby, literally and figuratively. “It’s just super simple,” said Cameron. “Everything’s cooked really good. Everything’s seasoned well. I put seasoning on everything. I hate unseasoned food. I hate when people want you to build your food. I’m going to serve you and I want you to build it. So I want you to put the salt, the pepper, the sauce. I want to give you something and when I put it in front of you, I just want you to eat it. I don’t want you to have to make it.”

This steak and seafood is only part of the attraction to this place thanks to some of the most majestic sunsets in the state of Texas. “On a sunset evening when this water’s like glass and the boats are cruising up and down right here, and the sun is setting in Laguna Vista, this has got to be the most beautiful view on the whole island,” said Cameron.

Cameron and his cook Jose Armando Sanchez got started on a 22-ounce bone in ribeye that’s been wet aged for 28 days. The steak is seasoned, topped with a red wine butter spread and cooked to a perfect medium rare, but not before Jose cooks up a little special sauce for the steak. “Ixtapa,” said Cameron. “Shrimp, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, cilantro, avocado, a little bit of cream, garlic, lemon, and some seasoning, and then we pour it on whatever you want. You put it on a flip-flop. Eat it. It is good, man. It is really good.”

Jose also puts together two oyster offerings, the first is the garlic parmesan oysters. “That’s scampi butter that we make, it’s got white wine in it, it’s got a little Parmesan cheese, it’s got the scallions, the garlic, the lemon juice,” said Jose. “And then he’s going to load those oysters up with that butter and that Parmesan.”

The second oyster is a little spicier. “I stole this oyster from a Canadian recipe, and I call it the oyster chipotle,” said Cameron. “And it’s got mushrooms, it’s got a little scallion onions, sauteed underneath the oyster, and then the oysters topped off with a chipotle sauce and this bait.”

Once the steak and oysters are all topped off it’s time to eat. “Okay, you’re not meant to eat this every day,” said Jose. “This is a special occasion food. You know?”

The dinnertime scene at Liam’s is absolutely spectacular, with beautiful plates of steak and seafood sitting on a white tablecloth with a gorgeous view of the sun going down over the water right outside. Those parmesan Gulf Coast oysters are cheesy and decadent, and the chipotle oysters are wonderfully tangy with a smooth hit of spice.

Onto the bone-in ribeye with Ixtapa sauce, this is one of the most gorgeous plates of meat in Texas, and that’s saying a lot around here. The beef is incredibly tender and the sauce is sensational with its spiciness and butteriness that take it to a whole new level. You put those two things together and you have got an incredible combination of food, friendly folks, and fine wine, making a sunset stop here at Liam’s Steak House and Oyster Bar well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List. “Come with someone you love or someone that loves you, order a bottle of wine, order some oysters, order a giant steak, and I guarantee you the night is going to end very well,” said Cameron.

The Texas Bucket List – Peter Pan Mini-Golf in Austin

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Austin – The ever-changing skyline of Austin is unrecognizable from the college town feel of the 80s.  Watching fireworks from Auditorium Shores was always a highlight of any childhood summer in the state capitol but sitting in that park, you always knew that Peter Pan Mini-Golf was nearby and well worth a visit. “We’re just simple,” said Margaret Dismukes Massas. “Old-school nostalgia is our calling card.”

Margaret grew up in this area and she has seen lots of change. “Things were a lot slower in the ’60s and ’70s, and a lot weirder,” said Margaret. “It’s hard to explain when you drive by these old… Even my old street where I grew up. And it’s like, ‘I don’t recognize this anymore.’”

But there’s been one constant in her life, the putt putt course that was started by her family. “It was started by my dad and his brothers,” said Margaret. “My dad, Glenn Dismukes, two brothers, Jack and Clifford Dismukes, opened operations here in 1948. At the time, it was called Varsity Links. Didn’t look like it does today. Didn’t have all the sculptures, but it was a simple golf course. And over the years, it evolved.”

With the city exploding around it, Peter Pan Mini-Golf gives folks the old school Austin feel. It’s quirky, weird, and a staple that doesn’t change. “There’s an emotional part of ‘This is old Austin,’” said Margaret. “This is the old Keep Austin Weird right here. And people that have been around any length of time, this is what they connect with old Austin. And they’re desperately wanting us not to become another cookie cutter city where everything gets raised and we just build condo buildings, but to keep these things that make it special. By and large, 99% of the comments are, ‘Don’t ever change. Keep it, keep it, keep it.’ So that’s our desire, to keep that for… It’s part of the culture of Austin.”

There aren’t any neon lights, loud music, or animatronic animals blocking your ball from making it in the hole. This is a simple course with a few fun figures that have stood the test of time. “We do have Peter Pan. We do have a couple of pirates,” explained Margaret. “We have Captain Hook and we have Tinkerbell, but then we have a whole bunch of other stuff that’s very eclectic and doesn’t have anything to do with Peter Pan. It was just whatever struck his fancy.”

You see, it was Margaret’s Dad, Glenn, who made all these crazy characters. Each and every one was handcrafted by Glenn over the 60’s and 70’s, and each of them found a place to perch on the hill at Peter Pan Mini-Golf. “My dad is the original artist,” said Margaret. “He did it just as a hobby. Wasn’t his primary occupation, but out in the backyard and in our garage, he was always carving and making new things. He created the Peter Pan, the T-Rex, a whole bunch of the original characters all scattered throughout the golf course, most of them just modeled after a ceramic piggy bank, or Peter Pan was modeled after the Jolly Green Giant on the green bean can. And T-Rex was just… He loved dinosaurs. He had a thing about dinosaurs, so he created the T-Rex. So it’s very eclectic, and we do have an artist now that keeps things painted and maintained.”

While the characters might have a fresh new paint job that’s a funky reimagining on the outside, the spirit of these statues hasn’t changed, and neither has their positions on the putt putt course. That’s especially important for two pieces in particular. “That is the most iconic image that you see all over,” said Margaret. “It’s been used on souvenirs in Austin-centric shops. So that is the most iconic shot, and that’s probably the most sentimental to me, is just standing below and looking up and seeing Peter Pan with the T-Rex towering over.”

With nearly 80 years of history on this hill, the fate of Peter Pan Mini-Golf is the true hazard on this golf course, considering they still have to lease out the land on which the 36 holes sit. “The gentleman that owned the land back in the ’50s, when he died, he left it,” said Margaret. “He didn’t have heirs, and he left it to be used for the benefit of the orphans of Texas. It went into a trust that went to the Texas Youth Commission that has now become the Texas Juvenile Justice Department. So all the monies raised off this property and others that are in the trust all go towards youth programs. We have every confidence that we’ll be able to work with the Juvenile Justice Department and sign another long-term lease like we have in the past.”

So, folks keep putting away and pulling for Peter Pan Mini-Golf to continue its iconic run in Austin. “Well, this is old school mini-golf,” said Margaret. “The people of Austin are really desperate to keep not just ours, but other older businesses like ours. People don’t want Austin to just look like another rubber stamp city, but these are the things that made Austin unique.”

 

 

The Texas Bucket List – Ay Dios Mio in El Paso

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El Paso – El Paso is a very unique city, encompassing and combining two cultures as a border town. In the center of El Paso you’ll find the Five Points neighborhood, and this section of the city now has a place for 5 star tacos called Ay Dios Mio.c

Jennifer Mendoza owns this hot spot in a hot part of our state, and she’s been in the restaurant business her whole life thanks to having a family full of eatery owners. Ever since she can remember her family has owned restaurants, and her first job, as well as those of all her cousins and siblings, were at restaurants owned by the family.

Of course the one thing you can count on in El Paso is Mexican food so Jennifer wanted to do something different. Even though the city has grown a lot recently, it still has a small-town mentality. Jennifer wanted to expand people’s horizons, and not just be any old Mexican restaurant. So she enlisted the help of Enrique Lozano, a James Beard Nominated Chef with experience on shows like Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay.

The duo has worked together marvelously, bonding both as business partners and as friends. Together they teamed to create a restaurant known for tacos, but these are far from your ordinary tacos. As a bar restaurant, they wanted to push the boundaries of what it means to have food at a bar.

Enrique got things started on a massive meal consisting of pretty much every taco on the menu with a side of bone marrow. First up was the marinated pork, followed by steak, bone marrow, octopus, hot dogs and tripas. Some fresh cod gets tempura fried as everything on the grill gets hit with a house-made seasoning salt consisting of 25 different spices.

The tripas get caramelized onion and cilantro. The discada, pico and cilantro. The pastor, grilled pineapple, red onion pickled with hibiscus, and cilantro. The asada, grilled cucumber, pico and garnish. A vegetarian taco gets black beans, mushrooms seasoned with chili oil, pickled red onions and sliced scallion. The fried cod gets togarashi seasoning, slaw, and spicy mayo. The octopus is sliced up with fried baby potatoes, chimichurri and micro greens. The lengua, which is cow tongue that’s braised, gets a glaze made from bone marrow, onion, garlic, all roasted down topped and with cilantro.

The bone marrow taco is so buttery, so salty, so delicious and so tender. It’s almost like taking the finest part of a Wagyu beef steak and cooking it in butter, intense and fantastic. The lengua, asada, tripas and even the vegetarian tacos were all incredible as well, each with their own unique flavor combinations. The carne asada taco is probably the most classic dish on the menu, but it still stands out just based on how well it’s done.

Well, for an incredible smorgasbord of fabulous fun tacos, coming to the Sun City and saying ay dios mio at Ay Dios Mio is definitely well worth a stop on The Texas bucket list.