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Port Aransas

Paco

By Paco
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BigDHornfan
BigDHornfan

The boy had a blast on the fishing trip and we hauled about 80 lbs of Blackfin and Snapper out. About 30 lbs of tuna steaks and 15 lbs of snapper filets at the end of the day.

BigDHornfan
BigDHornfan

Whole boat limited out on snapper in 45 min this morning.

Ag with kids
Ag with kids

Ok...so you want us to get rid of people and now you're complaining about methods????

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Orange&White

Orange&White 5557

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Drove down on a whim. Going to Giggitys tonight for drinks and live music. Not sure on dinner yet. Left message for a reservation at Venetian for tomorrow night. 
 

Hopefully Irie’s for lunch tomorrow.

Gonna burn a beach fire tonight.

Anything we definitely need to do?

We haven’t been in like 18 months. Didn’t realize they did a full strip/tear down on Sandcastle. Looks like it could be ready by this time next year.
 

Overall the place (Port A in general) looks good and I feel like in 20 years it will be completely different. Not sure if I will still like it as much.

Edited by Orange&White
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justhookit

justhookit 4191

Posted
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On 1/2/2020 at 7:14 PM, Orange&White said:

Drove down on a whim. Going to Giggitys tonight for drinks and live music. Not sure on dinner yet. Left message for a reservation at Venetian for tomorrow night. 
 

Hopefully Irie’s for lunch tomorrow.

Gonna burn a beach fire tonight.

Anything we definitely need to do?

We haven’t been in like 18 months. Didn’t realize they did a full strip/tear down on Sandcastle. Looks like it could be ready by this time next year.
 

Overall the place (Port A in general) looks good and I feel like in 20 years it will be completely different. Not sure if I will still like it as much.

It’s going to be more like 5 years than 20 for a lot of the change to happen. The tear down of the shops in the strip Giggity’s is in and the Fisherman’s Wharf area is just the start as I’m sure you saw. Latest rumor is that one of the new places going in there is a fucking Margaritaville.

i was actually in Austin while you were down here otherwise could have gone and grabbed a beer.

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  • 3 months later...
justhookit

justhookit 4191

Posted
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So I’m sure I’ll post this about 19 more times in this thread over the next year and I’ll put it in the general travel thread too, but between Covid and Harvey, Port A is going to really struggle. If this runs into summer a bunch of places won’t make it. Those of you that enjoy coming here need to try to get down when things open back up. 

A few of the restaurants are still doing takeout but that won’t last much longer. Gaff is doing 2.50 24 ounce drafts to go,  not just domestic but some of their “better” beers too. I’m starting to like Nueces Brewery.

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CycleTex87

CycleTex87 2991

Posted
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6 hours ago, justhookit said:

So I’m sure I’ll post this about 19 more times in this thread over the next year and I’ll put it in the general travel thread too, but between Covid and Harvey, Port A is going to really struggle. If this runs into summer a bunch of places won’t make it. Those of you that enjoy coming here need to try to get down when things open back up. 

A few of the restaurants are still doing takeout but that won’t last much longer. Gaff is doing 2.50 24 ounce drafts to go,  not just domestic but some of their “better” beers too. I’m starting to like Nueces Brewery.

Thanks for this. We have a place at Beachhead where we’ve been going since the late 70’s. July is usually our month to come down.  Hoping the ‘rona is done by then. Right now we don’t have any firm plans.  Our place weathered the storm pretty well considering the damage to the places on either side.  We’ve seen the highs and lows of Port A for sure. 

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lonestar3

lonestar3 274

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6 hours ago, justhookit said:

So I’m sure I’ll post this about 19 more times in this thread over the next year and I’ll put it in the general travel thread too, but between Covid and Harvey, Port A is going to really struggle. If this runs into summer a bunch of places won’t make it. Those of you that enjoy coming here need to try to get down when things open back up. 

A few of the restaurants are still doing takeout but that won’t last much longer. Gaff is doing 2.50 24 ounce drafts to go,  not just domestic but some of their “better” beers too. I’m starting to like Nueces Brewery.

Off the top of your head, do you have a list of places you think will actually be on the verge? Going down there next week to service some doors and windows we sold down there and would like to support a couple.

 

If the Gaff or Kody's closes down I won't even recognize the island any longer.

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thrillhammer

thrillhammer 684

Posted
Posted
On 1/2/2020 at 7:14 PM, Orange&White said:

Drove down on a whim. Going to Giggitys tonight for drinks and live music. Not sure on dinner yet. Left message for a reservation at Venetian for tomorrow night. 
 

Hopefully Irie’s for lunch tomorrow.

Gonna burn a beach fire tonight.

Anything we definitely need to do?

We haven’t been in like 18 months. Didn’t realize they did a full strip/tear down on Sandcastle. Looks like it could be ready by this time next year.
 

Overall the place (Port A in general) looks good and I feel like in 20 years it will be completely different. Not sure if I will still like it as much.

wait, they tore down sandcastle?

 

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thrillhammer

thrillhammer 684

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Posted
19 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

I don't think it was completely torn down but it looked like it was completely stripped down to foundation and concrete infrastructure.

did not know that.  that was a great place.  stayed there a couple of times and always more reasonably priced than the others on the beach.

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

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5 hours ago, lonestar3 said:

Off the top of your head, do you have a list of places you think will actually be on the verge? Going down there next week to service some doors and windows we sold down there and would like to support a couple.

 

If the Gaff or Kody's closes down I won't even recognize the island any longer.

Not really, but if we don’t have a really good summer a lot of places will have issues, not to mention the employees that already can’t afford to live here. Gaff and Kody’s should be fine.  Places that are newer will have the hardest time. Selfishly I worry about Liberty Hall the most. Ever since Guy shut down Pelican Club he’s been looking for an excuse to close up shop and move out of Port A.

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CycleTex87

CycleTex87 2991

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Posted
5 hours ago, justhookit said:

Yeah the skeleton of the building is still there. Looks like a parking garage. I think they are saying 2 more years until it reopens.

Is the Sand Castle a condo building, with a bunch of individual owners or a hotel place?  If condos, I can’t imagine the red tape to get all the tenants on board with whatever rebuild plan they propose.  Various members of my family have led the homeowners group at different times at Beachhead, and it’s like herding cats to get a consensus on upgrade proposals and who’s paying for what. 

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

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4 hours ago, CycleTex87 said:

Is the Sand Castle a condo building, with a bunch of individual owners or a hotel place?  If condos, I can’t imagine the red tape to get all the tenants on board with whatever rebuild plan they propose.  Various members of my family have led the homeowners group at different times at Beachhead, and it’s like herding cats to get a consensus on upgrade proposals and who’s paying for what. 

It’s condos. The owners don’t really have any say in the matter. The building gets rebuilt and whatever amount insurance comes up short goes out as an assessment. Pretty much all the condo owners got fucked no matter which property they were in. Heck Cline’s Landing owners were all assessed 100,000+ I believe.

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

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Well as of Thursday we are up to 6 confirmed with 1 more suspected. Mostly if not all are travel related to Costa Rica - locals that went fishing down there and brought it back here. CR had so many people from China, Europe, and New York down there in early March. Still can’t believe we haven’t seen any spring break related cases here in Port A.

Not going to get much news here over a weekend but I’ve heard rumors of a few more cases. I’m guessing they are mostly island rumors of the type like “hey, I saw so and so coughing at IGA”.

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dmtx

dmtx 159

Posted
Posted
On 4/8/2020 at 1:52 PM, justhookit said:

Not really, but if we don’t have a really good summer a lot of places will have issues, not to mention the employees that already can’t afford to live here. Gaff and Kody’s should be fine.  Places that are newer will have the hardest time. Selfishly I worry about Liberty Hall the most. Ever since Guy shut down Pelican Club he’s been looking for an excuse to close up shop and move out of Port A.

Well damn. Pelican Club/Liberty Hall were always in my rotation. I still miss the french silk pie from the pelican club days. Every visit, before I even ordered I would always ask if they had plenty.

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mapplewhite132

mapplewhite132 309

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I went this weekend and stayed at a family friend's condo. I feel so bad for Port A...grew up in Corpus and have been going there since I was a baby. 

We did curbside from La Playa and Venetian Hot Plate...both were really good and I could tell the restaurants really appreciated the business. I don't know how these places are going to survive though. 

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

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La Playa has been killing it with takeout and has looked like the busiest restaurant here. Venetian has only been open a week and I have no idea how they are doing. 

It’s all going to come down to this summer. Restaurants here are basically break even for 9 months of the year and make all of their profit during the summer. If they can’t get open to 100% capacity by mid to late June a bunch of places are fucked.

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Armybrat

Armybrat 41022

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What is the status of the Sandcastle condos? They have been closed since the hurricane a couple of years ago.

It was our go-to place in Port A for years. Wife really wants some beachfront time without having to drive all the way down to SPI.

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

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4 hours ago, Armybrat said:

What is the status of the Sandcastle condos? They have been closed since the hurricane a couple of years ago.

It was our go-to place in Port A for years. Wife really wants some beachfront time without having to drive all the way down to SPI.

They will probably be the last place to open. They just finished the tear out process. Place looks like a parking garage. I think I remember hearing it’s going to be summer of 2022 before they are done.

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mchookem

mchookem 16566

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we went ahead and booked for mid-May for about a week. husband can work from there as easily as home. figure we'll cook for ourselves and get as much takeout to help locally as we can. 

saw pics from this weekend that looked crazy crowded, but i'm hoping that's just this first 'open' weekend, plus we'll be there sunday-friday so hopefully not as bad during the week. 

they have really been thru so much down there ❤

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

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@Paco Far as I know Dunes is still closed. I don’t really know anyone that lives there or stays there so I honestly just don’t hear anything. Great location though.

 

@mchookem it is really, really crowded here now. I’m with you I hope they go away after the weekend. We will see. If this continues I would cook at home if for no other reason than to avoid the wait. Restaurants like Virginia’s and Cajun had upwards of 50 people waiting in the parking lot at 6. I didnt pay much attention to the higher end places. Beach was double parked most of the day. First 2 pictures are this evening after a bunch of people had already left the beach, last pic is around 3 weeks ago for comparison.

E356-DFC9-20-F5-4089-9-FEB-73131987-C83-
E1-B90973-3661-445-B-B664-9-B0-C709-D0-C
BDBCD0-A2-40-CF-4-F5-A-B385-468867-C1-FC

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

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Port A dodged a bullet with the bad weather last night and today keeping the crowd down. Still, some friends ordered Whataburger online last night and wait time was over an hour. I suspect tomorrow will be pretty busy and then next weekend will be a shitshow again. Trying to find out but the rumor is that a couple of the nicer restaurants that opened for dine in last week are back to takeout only. Also hearing Stingrays isn’t sure about reopening because they can’t find anyone to work since pretty much all of their employees found other jobs. Won’t miss their food, but will miss all the tv’s, and I really like one of the owners so I hope it works out.

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justhookit

justhookit 4191

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6 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Man.  We have to make a go/no go decision in two weeks on Port A.  I hope shit doesn't blow up. 

If it does blow up here it will be everywhere in Texas. Since it did not blow up over spring break I’m thinking and hoping that the weather and open air here is helping a bunch.

 

6 hours ago, Hate said:

Go. Just make sure you take everything you need so you don’t have to eat out.

This. And don’t plan on going to a convenience store or IGA unless you are ok with them being packed with almost no one wearing a mask. I’ve got pictures from tonight from a few restaurant/bars that I’m not going to post for reasons. If you’re familiar with what Port A looks like on a busy summer day it’s exactly like that only with a lesser grade of tourist. I’ll leave it at that. The families here are somewhat doing their part. There are a bunch of 20’s and early 30’s here that are not.

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kevwun

kevwun 15945

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Yeah, I think you can go and be fine if you take everything you need to hangout at the place you are staying and maybe the beach if you can find a spot that isn't crowded.  I would definitely avoid gas stations on the island because they are always packed to the gills.

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  • 2 weeks later...
zman13

zman13 180

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Was in North Padre from Wed to Sunday. 

The beach on Wednesday was surprisingly crowded. Thursday and Friday at the beach was more spaced out. Saturday was jam packed - some areas were two or three cars deep. Sunday was quiet in the morning and busy in the afternoon.  The weekend felt like a busy summer weekend.

If you are trying to stay away from people on the beach, my advice is go in the morning and be prepared to leave around noon. Lots of people walk close by you, don't distance, etc.

Didn't go to any restaurants/bars/stores. A co-worker went recently and said they were crowded and few people were wearing masks.

Important info - Stripes is advertising curbside pickup

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mchookem

mchookem 16566

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here now... sunday evening and today were glorious.

beach was very busy today, lots of traffic, but somehow not overly crowded, spent 5 hours at marker 20 and nobody got within 30 feet until very late in the day.

last night we went out late, did a fire/cookout on the beach and closest neighbor was 50 feet.

brought almost everything and stopped at Corpus HEB for final items.

this was a good idea 🙂

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