Living on the coast is an open invitation to sip, surf and savor at all times of the year. In the lively little beach city of Port Aransas, Grumbles Seafood Co. invites you to wash down the beach day with just the right concoction. A seat at its bar and a few cocktails in, you’ll feel the carefree spirit of island time in every sip.
After one year in business, the new Port A spot has boomed with happy beach-goers looking for some liquid relief from the bounty of sun. Mo Chavez, assistant general manager at Grumbles, takes her bar very seriously. “I learned a lot about Port A—it’s completely different, island time is real,” she said with a smile. “We do what we have, and we do it well. I hire really good bartenders that can make anything under the sun.”
Proudly repping Texas’s own Dripping Springs vodka, the perfect Grumbles Bloody Mary is garnished with a lime wedge, olive, Texas veggies and a juicy piece of shrimp.
“Our Bloody Mary, I think, is perfect; not only that, it’s a beautiful cocktail,” Chavez said. “I always get mine extra spicy.”
The bar offers any spice variable of your choosing and shakes the vodka with Bloody Revolution, an Austin-based mix, resulting in a true Texas Bloody Mary by the beach. What could be more perfect?
For every Bloody Mary drinker out there, there are those who like their piña coladas; in the spring break heat when the sun favors the coast, you’ll need a piña colada good enough to drink before it melts. A Grumbles Pina Colada puts Flor de Cana 4 year white rum in a lovely harmony of colada mix and pineapple juice, with a little room on top for a Black Barrel rum floater.
To make things simple after exploring different flavors of beach life, we recommend The Big Southern, a cocktail true to its name in reminding locals and tourists alike what’s loved down here: Tequila and Topo Chico. With natural flavors coming from muddled slices of grapefruit and lime, this is an ideal refresher with a healthy kick of Herradura silver tequila and a vitamin C boost to rehydrate and alleviate any sun fatigue at the end of the day.
“Overall quality and flavor is important; if you have a margarita with not-that-great tequila, it’s obvious,” said bartender Caitlyn Bauman-Campell. There are real, quality ingredients in the cocktails at Grumbles, and that’s something you’ll undoubtedly notice, and have less of a hangover as a result.
Contact:
850 Tarpon St., Port Aransas
