Category: South Padre Parade

Beach Bar Beat feat. Will Abete, The Meatball Cafe

Photos and words by Gaige Davila The PARADE sat with Will Abete as he started his shift at The Meatball Cafe, preparing to special a piña colada using fresh squeezed pineapple juice.  Abete, 25, has worked at The Meatball Cafe for two months. Before, he bartended just across Padre Boulevard at Tequila Sunset. He’s lived …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/10/01/beach-bar-beat-feat-will-abete-the-meatball-cafe/

Across The Causeway bridges the gap between style and craft

Photos and words by Gaige Davila These days, Samantha Jo Finney is constantly baking. Baking clay, that is. Finney is the mind and hands behind Across The Causeway, a jewelry brand selling handmade, polymer clay earrings and necklaces.  Finney started Across The Causeway in 2017, initially making anklets. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/10/01/across-the-causeway-bridges-the-gap-between-style-and-craft/

That’s a Wrap: Hayden, Island Cinema End an Era

By RAY QUIROGA rayq@portisabelsouthpadre.com Courtney Hayden loves rainy days. “I sometimes bump into people at the post office (on rainy days) and apologize for doing my rain dance the night before,” she jested. While her appreciation for inclement weather may be peculiar for an area known for its sunny beaches and otherwise subtropical climate, her …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/09/09/thats-a-wrap-hayden-island-cinema-end-an-era/

Karate kids: SPI BJJ graduates two junior black belts

Photo and words by Gaige Davila  Two Laguna Madre area teens have become the lone junior karate black belts in the area, after more than six years of training. Kirin Cantu and Joaquin Rodriguez, both 8th graders at Port Isabel Junior High, were promoted to junior black belt in karate on August 18, receiving the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/09/09/karate-kids-spi-bjj-graduates-two-junior-black-belts/

In the lead: Meet ABI-SPI’s new director, Deanna Powell

Photo and words by Gaige Davila Art Business Incubator (ABI-SPI) introduces local and out-of-state artists every year to the Laguna Madre area; and this year, they’re introducing a new director. Deanna Lynn Powell, from Dallas, is now leading the SPI Economic Development Corporation-created ABI-SPI, three years after its inception in 2019.  Before Powell came to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/09/09/in-the-lead-meet-abi-spis-new-director-deanna-powell/

Creatures Among Us: The Intriguing but Maligned Bronzed Cowbird

By M. Kathy Raines Special to the PARADE A bronzed cowbird is not a bad bird for depositing her eggs in the nest of an unwitting host, whose own brood often dies. No, the cowbird, like ourselves, does what it does to survive and prosper.  An obligate brood parasite—like about 1% of bird species, including …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/08/06/creatures-among-us-the-intriguing-but-maligned-bronzed-cowbird/

Read All About It: Unruly Cactus brings books back to the bay

Photos and words by Gaige Davila  Books, at least being able to buy them, have returned to the Laguna Madre area.  Unruly Cactus, a bookstore and coffee bar, opened three weeks ago in the shadow of the Port Isabel Lighthouse, its home in the Fort Polk Commissary building, the last strip of businesses before driving …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/08/06/read-all-about-it-unruly-cactus-brings-books-back-to-the-bay/

Pirates Well Tattoo Studio: Port Isabel tattoo shop a family affair

By RAY QUIROGA South Padre Parade rayq@portisabelsouth.com “Little” George Knowles vividly recalls how, as a teen, he’d scurry over to Harpoon Barry Welch’s tattoo shop, then located on E. Maxan and Garcia in Port Isabel, and nag the tattoo artist for an opportunity to learn from an area icon. “There was no chance he was …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/08/06/pirates-well-tattoo-studio-port-isabel-tattoo-shop-a-family-affair/

South Padre Boat Rentals: Business model takes the stress out of boat ownership by way of rentals

By RAY QUIROGA South Padre Parade rayq@portisabelsouthpadre.com If you’re a current or former boat owner who describes your ownership experience as costly, time-consuming, mentally and even financially exhausting, what you’re about to read may be for you.  For the past 25 years, Gabriel Vanounou has built a reputation in the Laguna Madre area as a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/08/06/south-padre-boat-rentals-business-model-takes-the-stress-out-of-boat-ownership-by-way-of-rentals/

Laguna Madre Literature: Transcending time with “The Port of Drifting Men”

By Gaige Davila editor@portisabelsouthpadre.com The old adage of locals and returning tourists is that Port Isabel never changes. It is always the town between land and sea, where the high school sports teams are named after fish caught five miles away from the fields and courts they play on.  Maybe that’s true for the last …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.portisabelsouthpadre.com/2021/05/11/laguna-madre-literature-transcending-time-with-the-port-of-drifting-men/