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In
1941 Mike Gaido and his brother Fritz moved to Houston
from Galveston
and with very little money, opened their first seafood restaurant,
Gaido’s on South Main. Their father, San Jacinto Gaido was the inspiration
for the brothers’ picking the fish business, since he had operated
Gaido’s Seafood Café on Murdock’s pier from 1911, when he was 24,
until he passed away in the summer of 1939.
While there was a good customer base for a Houston
seafood restaurant, it didn’t take Mike Gaido but two years to decide
it was incongruous that an Islander was pushing fish dinners there
when he could be selling them at the gulf’s edge at home. So Mr. Mike
sold his part of the Houston
operation to Fritz, and he and his wife Kewpie came back to Galveston
to start over.
Mr. Mike leased a small building at the corner of 39th and Seawall
from John Paul and Josephine Deppen, and an adjacent lot from H.S.
Autry. The Deppens owned a hamburger and Coney island restaurant next
door to the building, and Autry owned the Southern Select Brewery,
and the Triple XXX (root beer) Corp. |
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Deppen's, the
building and location that became the first Gaido's.
Bill Cherry Photo |
Mike Gaido’s
first business venture in Galveston
was not a big and glorious seafood restaurant like it is today, but
a drive-in. From that very meager, not much money invested business,
grew the huge Gaido’s property that you see today – two restaurants,
a private club, a gift shop and a motel. And it’s a business that
has supported very well the families of three generations of Gaidos,
and it will soon move to generation four.
Mike Gaido’s sons Mickey, Wayne and John Paul (Paulie) are all fully
retired from the business. However, Wayne is prepared for and took
a real estate license exam, and Paulie continues studying theology
at the University of St. Thomas. He’s an ordained deacon of the Roman
Catholic Church. Lynette, the youngest, is a high school Chinese teacher.
One
drizzly and cold February day, one of Mr. Mike’s old friend’s son
stopped in Gaido’s for lunch. After the waiter had taken his friend’s
order, Mr. Mike said, to him, “Let’s go over to the other side of
the seawall. I want to show you something.” So they put on their overcoats,
Mr. Mike got them a couple of umbrellas, and they went across the
street and then turned around and looked at the restaurant.
Where’s this going? the fellow wondered. He was freezing and miserable.
What about my broiled flounder? he thought. It’s going to get cold.
“You see that hip roof that’s up there above and tied-in to the gable
roof?” Mr. Mike asked, pointing to a portion of the roof over the
restaurant’s entrance that had an entirely different profile from
the rest.
“Well that’s the roof of the original Gaido’s Drive In building. I
keep it there so that my friends, family and especially I can remember
where it all started and how much work and saving and nights of being
scared it took to get it to where my family’s business is today.
You know Kewpie and I and the children lived on the property above
the motel office until 1951 when we bought out first house on Crockett
near you and your family.
“Looking at that hip roof reminds me to remain humble and thankful.
Every person who is striving for success, one inch at a time like
you and I were, needs his own ‘hip roof’ to look at from time to time.
Let’s go back to the restaurant. I’ll be your broiled flounder is
ready.”
The
Gaido family is a private one. I suppose it’s genetic because as long
as I’ve know them, and that’s well over 50 years, none of them has
ever liked attention. I wanted to tell you this story about Mr. Mike
because I think it exemplifies the character and humility that he
not only had himself, but shared with his own family, his friends
and the community.
However, out of my deep respect and admiration for Mr. Mike, I knew
I could never tell write the story without the permission of his children.
So I am grateful that Mickey, Wayne, Paulie and Lynette had a family
meeting and agreed to let me tell readers of TexasEscapes.com
this wonderful story about their dad.
Like Mickey, Wayne, Paulie and Lynette and most of you, I love Gaido’s,
but quite frankly, it hasn’t been the same for any of us since the
hip roof was taken down, and Mr Mike’s wisdom can now be heard only
in our memories.
Bill Cherry's Galveston
Memories
May 1, 2010 column
Copyright William S. Cherry. All rights reserved |
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Bill
Cherry, a Dallas Realtor and free lance writer was a longtime
columnist for "The Galveston County Daily News." His book, Bill
Cherry's Galveston Memories, has sold thousands, and is still
available at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.com and other bookstores.
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