NOVEMBER 2020 PortIsabelSouthPadre.com
F&B European Technique Meets Local Flavor
Wild West On The Gulf Coast
Plus
Coffee & Ice Cream At Cafe Karma
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
3
On The Cover
F&B
SPI’s world class dining destination
4
Pictured: Seared scallop on corn and Spanish chorizo succotash
CONTENTS 7
Creatures Among Us
8 War to Peace 10 Life On The Boardwalk
8 ABISPI Continuing to create amid pandemic
14
PUBLISHER AURELIO “RAY” QUIROGA SALES PATRICIA M. MCGRATH EDITORS GAIGE DAVILA & DAVID LOPEZ BOOKKEEPING SELMA BERMUDEZ GRAPHIC ARTISTS SOPHIA RODRIGUEZ
11 Planting For The Spring
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS M. KATHY RAINES ROBERT LEWIS JAVIER GONZALEZ
12 Island Native
COVER PHOTO: GAIGE DAVILA
The South Padre Parade Magazine is published by New Horizon Publishers, Inc., P.O. Box 308 (406 Garcia), Port Isabel, TX 78578. Email comments or story suggestions to the editor at editor@ portisablesouthpadre.com or call (956) 943-5545.
4
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
European technique meets local flavor at F&B Photos & Words by Gaige Davila
Counterclockwise from top: Soft-shell crab, smoked duck, red snapper crudo.
If any word should come to mind when discussing F&B, it should be “intent.” There’s intent behind every facet of F&B (for “Food and Beverage”), a joint venture between owners Walter Greenwood, executive chef, Brandi Hackett, general manager, and restaurateurs Bob and Scott Friedman. From the interior design to the plating and wine, dining at F&B is to experience hundreds, if not thousands, of calculations to make guests comfortable while pushing their culinary boundaries. Since opening in July 2018, F&B has become one of South Padre Island’s most sought after dining experiences for its consistent food quality and homage to what lives on and off its coast. Greenwood and Hackett, before moving to South Padre Island, both worked at Bartolotta, Ristorante Di Mare, in Las Vegas, Nevada, at The Wynn, a luxury resort on the Las Vegas strip. Greenwood, who lived on South Padre Island in the early 1990s, and Hackett would visit the Island regularly after Greenwood’s parents retired there. They both saw an opportunity. “We just noticed there was
a nic like t little uniqu “E ing,” but s the lo well Gr woul who’ the c and w was fare. techn Gree of cr cock Th menu from timat know butch made of th ates food “W here, red s pristi don’ black Gr is ev per c style paint oil d the r but w the s expa from This at F& brun Th wood regul 500 l little osmo stock is us creat overb the c adorn Th be no work chef resta
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
a niche on the Island for something like this.” Hackett said. “Something a little bit more elevated, and a little bit unique.” “Each trip I saw the Island growing,” Greenwood said. “Not slowly, but steadily, in my mind, and I think the locals here are very well travelled.” Greenwood believed the concept would be well received by locals who’ve experienced fine dining across the country, or those who haven’t and were ready for something that was different from the Island’s usual fare. F&B applies European cooking techniques to local flavors, in what Greenwood calls an “open platform” of creativity, whether it’s with their cocktails or food. The products that compose F&B’s menu—70 percent local, 30 percent from out of state, Greenwood estimates—feature ingredients well known to residents. Proteins are butchered inhouse and the pasta is made on-site. But F&B’s presentation of these ingredients is what differentiates them and the rest of the Island’s food scene. “We have amazing products down here, especially if we talk about the red snapper,” Greenwood said. “It’s so pristine on its own. In my mind you don’t need to mask that with a lot of blackening seasoning or fry batter.” Greenwood’s ingredient philosophy is evident in dishes like the red snapper crudo: raw red snapper, sashimi style, sitting in a citrus marinade painted with aji pepper and cilantro oil drops and pickled onions. Indeed the raw red snapper is pristinely clean, but with the surrounding ingredients, the snapper’s flavor and texture range expands beyond what is expected from the deceptively simple dish. This experience extends to every dish at F&B, whether on their dinner or brunch menus. The seafood risotto, a dish Greenwood says will likely never leave the regularly-rotating menu, starts with 500 little neck clams. Specifically, 500 little neck clams boiling in reverseosmosis purified water, creating a stock that turns sky-blue. That stock is used to cook the rice for the risotto, creating a pronounced—but not overbearing—ocean flavor throughout the crab, clam, scallop and shrimp-adorned dish. Continued on Page 6
5
Top: Middle: Bottom:
Walter Greenwood at expo Jesús Carmono and Dominique Tovar F&B’s Wood Stone grill
6
This attention to product should be no surprise from someone who worked under Paul Bartolotta, head chef and owner of the namesake restaurant where Greenwood and Hackett met. Bartolotta famously imported live langoustines to his Las Vegas restaurant from the coast of a secret island, along with (literally) a ton of live or fresh European seafood weekly. Greenwood’s attention, and appreciation, for the product is the same. F&B’s menu, which changes seasonally, is sometimes guided by ingredients the restaurant’s distributors have available. A storm in the Gulf of Mexico that disrupts waters for fisherman could mean a last-minute menu change from grouper to halibut. Events like these can become a teaching moment for F&B’s cooking staff, where Greenwood shows them how to filet a 40-50 pound non-local fish like a halibut. From there, those dishes are served to guests who may otherwise never have the chance to enjoy such a delicacy. “You shouldn’t have to fly to Dallas or to Las Vegas to be able to have a piece of fresh halibut, so I’m going to bring it to you,” Greenwood said. Of course COVID-19 impacted ingredient availability too, Hackett said. As meat, dairy and fish distributors experienced COVID-19 outbreaks at packing facilities across the country, expected shipments of products would either arrive in smaller portions or not at all. Greenwood and Hackett would rewrite the menu an hour before dinner service, using whatever was fresh
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
and available that day. F&B’s airy dining room is a nod to the Island’s coastal breeze, Hackett said, with shades of white, grays and blues that, aided by the restaurant’s skylights, make the dining room seemingly expand past its walls. The top-to-bottom renovation was completed between January and July 2018. The glassware is from Mexico, adding a color splash to the shades of white and gray throughout the dining room. To comply with COVID-19 guidelines, a few of the tables were removed, but it’s hardly noticeable: there was gratuitous space between tables before COVID-19, for a more intimate dining experience. The kitchen houses a Wood Stone livefire grill, with a separate ventilation system for its continuously rolling flame. It’s one of the few indoor, live-fire grills on the Island, so foreign to the area that Greenwood had to show the Island’s fire department photos of Wood Stone grills from other restaurants he’s worked in to get it approved. Lately, that grill is getting considerable use. Hackett says since COVID-19 made its unwelcome presence in the Laguna Madre area, F&B crafted a curbside and togo menu to meet an increasing take-away demand. “When COVID hit, we really put our heart and soul into it,” Hackett said. “We created a menu we knew was going to carry well home.” And carry well home it does, regardless if not everything on their menu can be made to-go (for example, the egg yolk
Left: F&B’s Bar in F&B’s black Right: Brandi truffle carbonara Hackett will clot if left
in a container too long). Inside F&B, business is steady, and has been since Texas Governor Greg Abbott began gradually lifting COVID-19 restrictions across the state. “We haven’t died down at all since Labor Day,” Hackett said, motioning to a nearly-full dining room on a Friday evening. For the fall season, guests can expect the Texas Ragú—a bolognese-style pasta with eight different cuts of rabbit, chicken and pork stewed for hours in a tomato reduction—and a porchetta, a roasted pork belly cut to order, embellished with Mexican spices and chiles rather than traditional Italian flavors. With dishes like these, F&B is a simultaneous rebellion and praising of local cuisine that could come only from the hands and minds of those who appreciate and challenge its existence. Regardless of F&B’s niche-filling presence on the Island, Greenwood hopes the restaurant doesn’t change what’s good about the Island’s cuisine. “I don’t think the cuisine around South Texas or South Padre is going to change because of us,” Greenwood said. “We’re lucky just to be offering something a little different.” Find F&B at 3109 Padre Blvd. on South Padre Island. For more information, call (956) 772-8114.
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
7
Laguna Fiddler Crabs Our local inland crustaceans
Photo & Words by M. KATHY RAINES Creatures Among Us
This July, I gingerly threaded my bicycle through ranks of skittering crabs—each male lugging a massive claw— on the Brownsville Historic Battlefield Trail after a soaking from Hurricane Hanna. Colonies of Laguna fiddler crabs (Uca (Laptuca) sybcylindrical), with adjacent pebbly palaces, can live miles inland, far from all but ephemeral puddles. Only this robust fiddler—one of our county’s six species— thrives in a semi-arid habitat. It digs deep into salty groundwater, its mottled gray carapace camouflaged against dirt and gravel. Fiddler crabs flourish in the highly saline Laguna Madre, ranging roughly from Galveston to Tampico. Fiddler crabs are small; their carapaces, or shells, are rarely over two inches in diameter. Only the male fiddler bears an oversized cheliped, or claw-bearing, limb, which it waves to attract mates and defend turf. Unlike most
invertebrates, fiddler crabs are territorial, brandishing their claws at would-be usurpers, but rarely fighting. Nevertheless, this claw can pierce a rival. A male may lose his claw, which soon regenerates on its opposite side. The name “fiddler crab” apparently derives from the male’s claw-waving which resembles a violinist. Many Spanish-speakers call it “Cangrejo” (crab) violinista,” but Peruvians, its movement evoking a needle worker, call it “maestro sastre” or “master tailor.” Both Brazilians and Japanese, imagining the crab’s signaling to the sea, call it, respectively, “Chama mares”—literally “call seas,” and “Siho maneki” for “beckoning for the return of the tide.” Birds and other creatures relish these delectable morsels. With its long bill, a curlew scoops the crab out of its nearly six-foot burrow. This crab dines on decayed matter—nematodes (unsegmented worms), fungi, algae
and bacteria. While the female eats with two claws, the male—his huge claw ill-adapted to this task—utilizes one. The crab delivers a tiny clump of sand to a front set of scissoring, hair-fringed blades, one of which flicks edible morsels into the mouth, while another holds onto the rest. A thriving population of fiddler crabs indicates a healthy ecosystem, as they are sensitive to pesticides and heavy metals.
8
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
War to Peace
Cafe Karma offers cultured space Photos & Words by David Lopez
Cafe Karma offers the indie coffeehouse feel one might seek in hip urban areas, where students can work on their laptops or meet up for a casual convo. Surrounding its walls, you’ll see photos from owner Will Everett’s journalist days; photos of people in Africa, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. The cafe also offers ice cream, desserts, and sandwiches, making it a “one-stop-shop” for the busybodies who need their caffeine, sweet tooth, and hunger fix. Although it opened in June 2017, the origins of Cafe Karma really began in Afghanistan in 2015, when owners Will Everett and Roin Khurami met. “I was living in Kabul as a freelance journalist for NPR, and Roin needed to interview me for a class project, so he came over to my house and eventually became an errand boy who would help make my life easier in Kabul,” Everett said. “Because I was alone, he made it easier to live in a city that was very alien to me.” As the security situation deteriorated, Everett was preparing to leave Kabul, but Khurami faced an attack from aggressors who saw him coming and going to “the American infidel’s” house, leading Khurami to get beaten and threatened. Feeling partially responsible, Everett told Khurami he would do everything in his
Will Everett & Roin Khurami power to get him asylum in the United States. Eventually, Everett acquired a tourist visa for Khurami. “I said he’s done a lot for me and I want to repay the favor. The happy end is we own this business together. He’s a homeowner, and living the dream at age 23,” Everett said. “I never thought of coming to the U.S.,” Khurami said. “I thought of working with Americans. When I was 15, I went to [an American] compound with my father and it totally changed my life. I thought, ‘These are the people I want to live with and hang out with.’ I didn’t know how, but ev-
ery day I thought about it. If I hadn’t talked to Will that day in the street, if I wasn’t brave enough, I would have missed the opportunity.”
When Khurami was unable to study at a university here because of his legal status, the two decided to open the
cafe, saying he decided to learn entrepreneurship. “I felt there was a need here on the Island; as an entrepreneur, you look at what people need,” Khurami said. Originally planned as an ice cream shop, the two traveled to Austin and San Antonio to study the demands and aesthetics of a coffee shop. “I didn’t want to open up a restaurant, I wanted to do something more simple,” Everett said. “It started with coffee, ice cream, and a few muffins. As we trained ourselves, we started adding some complexities.” Khurami recommends trying their Honeycomb Breve, a flavorful coffee that blends its richness with the honey’s sweetness while sustaining its milky, creamy properties.
Everett recommends trying their breakfast sandwiches, saying it is hard to find a coffee shop that offers a sandwich made on the spot. His favorite croissant contains eggs, tomatoes, and a touch of honey. “The most rewarding part is the feedback we get from people who come back year after year,” Everett said. “They tell us this is their go-to place because they get a good feeling; it’s a combination of staff, the art on the walls, the colors, it all just comes together really well. And it was all an accident; we didn’t know what we were doing. It just came from our hearts.” Location: 5200 Padre Blvd. Phone: 956-803-5991
10
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
Life on the Boardwalk A bit of Wild West on the Gulf Coast
Most migratory bird species have outlined migration paths within their normal range, but that does not mean those routes are set in stone. Sometimes birds must risk taking a different path for different reasons and will end up in places where their species is not normally seen. Migration varies from year to year, with lots of factors dictating where the birds are going to go. This seems to occur more so on their way south during the fall migration
than spring migration. So far this fall, birders are noticing western bird species that we do not normally JAVIER see migratGONZALEZ ing through South Padre NATURALIST Island in a SPIBN & GS regular fall season. Here along the
Texas gulf coast, most of the birds we see migrating through are coming down the eastern and central part of the country. Though we do normally see some western species from time to time, some of the species that have been seen recently are very unique in Cameron County. These abnormal observations can be attributed to environmental circumstances that could be going on along their regular migration routes. Visitors to the SPI Birding &
Nature Center recently found and photographed a Painted Redstart in the “Songbird Alley” garden. I’m disappointed to mention that I didn’t personally see the bird since it was a one-day wonder found on a Monday, which is my usual day off (you can’t have any days off during migration if you want to see everything), but the photos and descriptions confirmed the sighting with no questions asked. During the springtime, this mountainous species extends its nesting range into the US in the mountains of southern Arizona, New Mexico, and the tallest mountain peaks of the Trans-Pecos area of Texas. In the fall, their range retreats to the mountains of the Sierra Madre Oriental and Occidental in Mexico. What drove this bird to come east and land on South Padre Island instead of following its usual migratory route? Birds are extremely sensitive to their environment. Could it have been trying to escape fires and smoke happening out west, or maybe trying to find a place with a greater food availability since the west has been suffering from severe drought over the last few years? Both of those situations can have a significant effect on the bird’s chosen path. Within two days after the Redstart sighting, an immature Scott’s Oriole and a Say’s Phoebe were also documented on the Island, both of which are also species symbolic of the wild west that are quite rare in Cameron County, especially right next to the Gulf of Mexico! These sightings show that nature can present signals of environmental consequences that could be happening hundreds of miles away, and sometimes they come in the form of migratory birds. While I hope and pray that these displaced western birds fare well in this odd fall migration and that their usual haunts recover, I can’t help but flip through my field guide and wonder what other western bird is going to show up next.
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
11
GARDENING NOVEMBER: Planting for the Spring It has been a great fall devastating to unproseason so far for gartected tomato, pepper deners that enjoy plantand basil. These cold ing and growing vegefronts can blow very table and herb plants in strong for a couple what is considered the of days and then re“second season” of the turn to sunny warm year in the Rio Grande weather. Valley. Most herb plants R. LEWIS As we enter the that you will find month of November, we enter a now at the nurseries will hold up period of time where it’s much to temperatures in the low 40s more enjoyable to work outside and upper 30s, but I still think and do gardening projects as some protecting measures should opposed to the very hot sum- be provided. If not covering the mer months that can be down- plants, at least move them (if potright dangerous with the intense ted) to an area that blocks the heat. Many gardeners including force of the wind. Cilantro is a myself have tomato and pepper favorite herb plant in the RGV, plants that have been growing but many home gardeners plant since early September and have them in the early spring of the large bushes that are topping year not realizing that as the hot the tomato cages and are full of weather starts coming in late blooms and green fruit that will March and early April the cibegin ripening later this month lantro plant will “bolt” and put and into December and January. its energy into seed production Once we approach mid-Novem- instead of the flavorful foliage. ber it is time to have a plan of Plant your cilantro now and have protection in place for when the much more success in the fall and first cold blast hits the area with winter season. damaging wind chills that will be Fall gardening is the best time
of year to plant trees, shrubs and perennials. The milder temperatures are much less stressful on newly planted plants, and as the soil temperatures moderate it stimulates root growth that aids in faster establishment of newly planted plants. The more moderate soil and air temperatures make November and December the best time to transplant and move established plants. Transplants require more frequent watering, after the damage done to the severed roots when digging the plants out of the ground. Daily watering may be needed until the plants are adding new growth or not wilting on a daily basis. Please have a plan to provide water to these relocated plants or else just don’t move them until you do.
Over the last several years about this time of entering our cooler months, I started harping on ‘water wise” landscape irrigation. Most of our lawns have recovered from the drought conditions of late spring and the summer months and we need to be aware of cutting back on lawn irrigation. This time of year is the beginning of lawn diseases caused by overwatering. Personally, it drives me crazy to see lawns getting watered the morning after we’ve had a nice one or two inches of rain the night before. Please cut back on irrigation during the winter months ahead. The result will be fewer weeds, healthier lawn, money saved and less water wasted. Until next time, please be safe and have a Happy Thanksgiving.
12
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
Kerry Schwartz at Island Native Surf House
Island Native surfs through COVID wave Photos & Words by David Lopez Anyone who has seen a popular surf movie like Point Break and Blue Crush has momentarily envisioned themselves riding those blue waves, basking in the sun. So when you find yourself at the beach again, wondering if that could be you, make sure to call Kerry Schwartz. Schwartz owns and runs Island Native Surf House located on 700 Padre Boulevard. Since 2002, the shop has been offering quality products at a fair price and quality customer service. Even better, the shop provides surf lessons that have proven to be extremely popular. “We’ve been at this for so long that we have techniques that work from years of experience, and if somebody comes to
us, we’re not teaching them for entertainment; our goal is to create a surfer,” said Schwartz. Schwartz no longer provides the surf lessons himself, but it is his close friend, Bo Hollingsworth, who has worked for Schwartz for 15 years, that gives one-onone individualized attention. Beach and surf have long been part of Kerry Schwartz’s life. During the 1960s, he owned a surf shop with a childhood friend in Brownsville. Following his college career, Schwartz pursued his professional life, once working for a big corporation and hating it. He has been working for himself ever since. Schwartz was fortunate enough to semi-retire early at 55, so in 2002, he decided to begin his shop at the Island,
given his attachment to the area (he had family there) and the sport. “It’s always been my sport, and I knew eventually I’d come back into it with a lot more knowledge,” he said. Schwartz has surfed worldwide, from the east to the west coast, Hawaii, Costa Rica, and Southern Mexico. However, his favorite place for surf remains the Island. “Every trip, it’s hit or miss, he said. “I would go to California, for instance, and surf every September, and in the last four years, I got no surf. I’ve had good surf in a lot of places, but I’ve had extremely good surf here. The difference is it’s not as consistent.” According to Schwartz, the Island is a hidden gem for surfing. He said
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE September through June are the best months for surf at the Island, which almost proved an upsetting challenge when the pandemic hit in March, as the City of SPI canceled major Spring Break events. “Typically, Island businesses make their money from March to August after the school year is over. If you’re not disciplined, you won’t make it through the slower months,” Schwartz said. However, despite the pandemic’s challenges, a combination of people’s cabin fever and the authorities’ travel restrictions led tourists from across Texas to flock to the Island, leading to Schwartz’s sales increasing and turning out solid numbers. Schwartz has more than personal and professional ties to the Island at this point: he has served on several City committees and now sits on the city council. His wife is involved in animal rescue while his daughter and her group, the Skaty Cats, raised money to build a new skate park. “I’ve always enjoyed being involved in the community,” Schwartz said. “Everybody should have a commitment to their community in some way, whether it’s a religious community or city community; in some way, you should give back.” Lastly, Schwartz told of a granite piece from the jetties he had on his office desk during his 9-to-5 days. “I would tell myself, ‘One day…this is what I’m busting my ass for: a piece of home.”
13
14
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
ABI creates amid pandemic by Gaige Davila • Photos by ABISPI A global, viral pandemic did nothing to stop South Padre Island’s art scene from flourishing, almost a year after South Padre Island’s Art Business Incubator (ABISPI, pronounced “abbey”) opened its doors. The city’s Economic Development Corporation created the art gallery, studio and retail space at 6801 Padre Blvd to establish South Padre Island’s art scene, helping selected artists launch their art businesses and sustain them. To South Padre Island, establishing an art scene can attract visitors year round, in a city whose tourism slows after Labor Day. Nearly a year since their opening in November, ABISPI’s current class of resident artists are still creating, even after the COVID-19 pandemic closed the gallery’s doors between March and August. ABISPI Executive Director Alexa Ray says, even with opening just before COVID-19 reached the States, business is good, and it’s a sign that South Padre Island, its city government and residents, is embracing its artists. “With any new business it’s going to take a while for people to realize that we’re here, especially with the tourists and the visitors,” Ray said. “In the very least, the fact that we’re offering this opportunity to aspiring artists is (showing) the Island’s doing something.” ABISPI’s artists — Chelsea Fedigan, Kathy Schwarz, Sarah Truman and Andres Aceves — are continuing to create, as ABISPI’s walls and shelves continue filling with their works. On any day, you can find Aceves molding ceramics just beyond the front window, or Fedigan putting the finishing touches on her signature dog portraits. This accessibility to the artists was intentional, Ray said, for artists to develop relationships with potential clients within the same space their art is created. ABISPI, as a space, provides artists barrierless marketing, as artists can accompany potential clients from inception to
2020 SOUTH PADRE PARADE
purchase of commissioned or already-made works. But ABISPI’s accessibility doesn’t end with its artists. Visitors can create art of their own through ABISPI’s open painting table, where guests can purchase small and medium sized canvases to paint on with all supplies provided by ABISPI. Ray’s role, like many administrators in COVID-19, has shifted more to the guiding she was already doing, focusing on the artists’ having a good experience during their residency as COVID-19 disrupts life locally. The artists are encouraged to create art at every price range as another aspect of their business model, whether that’s original canvases, prints, sculptures or stickers. Artists experiment with different mediums and themes while also making art that is selling regularly, Ray said, speaking on her role as a guide for the resident artists, encouraging them to create what sells. The future is still ahead for ABISPI. For their anniversary in November, a gathering is planned, depending on COVID-19’s presence in the area and creating a logistically safe way to do so. Their new class is set to hold residency by March 2021, with some already applying for next year’s spots. ABISPI is open daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at 2500 Padre Blvd. Suite 1.
15
Previous page from left, top: Artwork by Chelsea Fedigan, Andres Aceves, Sarah Truman, & Kathy Schwarz Previous page from side: Chelsea Fedigan, Andres Aceves, & Sarah Truman Clockwise from top: Kathy Schwarz, Alexa Ray, Andres Aceves’ artwork