Editor-In-Chief
McALLEN, TX - There's something to be said for a noisy taco joint at 3:00 A.M. - like what the !8$#@! is going on here? Over by the order counter, women in expensive evening dresses line up behind chumps in dirty blue jeans and couples looking as if, well, honey, this is your night out, baby. Order whatever you want, off the main menu, sure. In the dining area, a strolling mariachi tears through a Vicente Fernandez song about jealousy, a thoroughly see-you-later tune if there ever was one. Outside, N. 10th Street has become the funnel for a hundred cars angling into the parking lot.
Welcome to the night side of Taco Palenque, a brightly-painted 24-hour Tex-Mex joint halfway between Monterrey, Mexico and Corpus Christi. After a night of partying over at Hillbilly's a few blocks to the north, it's Taco Palenque Time! Hey! Whoa! Howdy! Roll Camera One! Haste a un lado, bro! Action! Yes, dos panchos de fajita, she says, finally, and the roly-poly, little fresh-faced clerk rings it up, verbalizing the order to a guy doing the cooking over to her side. Pan the kitchen! Action! Make that face, make that face! Okay, wrap it! Good job, all.
The night is gone. It is Saturday morning, three hours before dawn, here at the epicenter of the rowdy, scarfing Taco Nation. I'm bombed but having the time of my life. Hey, where we sitting? Who knows, man, walk anywhere. The crowd is as if in a world-class mingle, lovely women playing with their shoulder straps as they settle their asses down on chairs, others working their thigh-high mini-skirts down just enough to annoy me. Hey, Jack, I'm accustomed to a smooth ride. Who said this town is dead after the bars close? Not me. I'm grabbing salsas and waiting on my two tacos. What the Hell? Can there be another taco joint in the whole Rio Grande Valley as energized, as meth-fueled as this one? Naaaaaaaaaah. We find our place on a table where another couple is sitting and I say, "Hi, how do you do?" The woman laughs and the guy in a fancy-looking felt cowboy hat looks at me as if to say, "Who the Hell says 'How do you do' in the Valley?" My friend giggles and throws an elbow at my side. I pat her on her soft, I'm-still-here leg. It's early on a nice Saturday, minutes from something even better.
If this is what cowboy bars bring, well, I'll be Mr. Friday Night at Hillbilly's from here on out. Whatever. I'll be Wes, the villain in Urban Cowboy. It's a movie and we're always up for playing someone else. Fajita tacos, the portly food-deliverer says as he sneaks up on us, moving in from the middle of a starving floating mob as if coming out of some London fog.
Fajita tacos at almost 4 Ayem? Why in the wide-wide-world sports not?
As the alcoholed crowd inside Hillbilly's would say, grammar being the last thing on anyone's mind: It don't get no better'n this, nope...
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6 comments:
wild night, patrick? be careful. the valley is full of unsophistikated people.
Anony, you forgot some of the other terms Patrick has being saying about the Valley: Mexican, beer drinkers, jelly roll women bellies,bad grammar, bad writing skills, overweight individuals, bad eating habits and on, and on, and on, I thought Don pancho, was the only one noticing.
I am sure he will have an answer, with Patrick it is a game of semantics.
He already shut Don Pancho up and called him out to take him to task on the editors observations. Look out you don't want to get him upset.
But patrick my dear, why are you going all the way to McAllen to Hillbillies, I though you were a little more sophisticated than that.
May I suggest a night in the Town of Brownsville at la movida Bar, formal attire please, there are plenty of Jelly rolled women, a night you would treasure, I'll leave the tickets at the door.
Taco fajitas, I thought you were more of a filet minion type.
Anon: I am Mexican, for Chrissakes! What's that all about? You're reading too much into this stuff. (2.) Don Pancho: When in Rome, do as the Romans do, no? I generally enjoy every little thing about the Rio Grande Valley, from the rough-and-tumble pool halls of Rio Grande City to the 1-2-3 Lounge in Brownsville. As for its people, well, surely you agree that, as with New Jersey, the ugly far outnumber the attractive... - Editor
Don Patricio, I am not angry, I am glad you forced yourself to endured the harsh, the uneducated, the poor grammar of people at the Tejano Dance club, oh, excuse me!!! Hillbilly's. From my good people of the Valley.
Just one questions, you haven't critized the felt hat thing, didn't you at one time called it, "a stab to fashion." How did you endure the cruel and unusual bad habits of the locals???????
I understand it must have been hard on you. As Juan Montoya wrote in on his blog, "an angel fell from grace."
No apologies needed, no rebuttal is necessary. Your actions speak for themselves. Amen!!!!
Hard to read meaning into that last comment. Remember: short sentences are better. Clear, crisp writing comes from clear thinking. Take it your being critical of us. We're not confessing to any sort of concern, however... - Editor
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