I was almost like a kid last week as we crossed over the bridge in I-45 driving into Galveston. We were getting there before our check-in time at a VRBO down close to the Strand, and Heidi suggested we head on to Gaido’s for an early dinner. It had been almost 50 years since my last visit there, back in the late 1970s. My family often spent weekends in Galveston while living in Houston, either to go spend time on my father’s boats or to stay at my mother’s beach house out at Jamaica Beach.

I wanted to take Heidi so that we could enjoy the restaurant together. We certainly did, because it is an old-style restaurant with white table clothes, carpet, and no loud music. It had music, but throwback music to the 1940s or maybe 1950s jazz.

AS you can see, it has a wonderful set up, like something from the 1960s or before. Restaurants likes Gaido’s use  to be the norm, but so many of them have opted for the Spaghetti Warehouse model, concrete, wide-open spaces, with loud music, so that if you want to have a conversation, you have to yell to be heard.

We started our dinner with a plate of oysters. Since it was November, that is an acceptable month of oysters. You never order them in May, June, or July, only in months that have an ‘R’ in the name.

Our oysters were covered with a hollandaise sauce that has bacon bits and green onions mixed in for extra flavor. Delicious.

Heidi had one of the specials of the day, blacked snapper, which just melted in our mouths. Yes, she let me have a bite.

I opted for a combo plate with charbroiled snapper, fried shrimp, and scallops. As usual, hers was better, but mine was still excellent.

Did I mention the bread the brought with our appetizer? It too, was extremely delicious. By the time we finished, I think our waitress (yes, that is the gender proper form), knew better than to offer us dessert. We were stuffed.

Another neat aspect of Gaido’s is that they are also part museum since they have been there so long.

This is one of my favorite pictures, the construction of the sea wall from the early 1900s. The only problem with the sea wall is that it doesn’t circumnavigate the city. Otherwise, it was a great idea.

All photos are copyright © Timothy J. Hammons, 2024.