Things to do in Southeast Texas: Tico's Cuban Cafe

A Tico's Cuban Sandwich

I was a sophomore in high school the first time I ever heard about Bridge City, Texas. I had just started writing for the school paper, the Kelly Pawprint, and we were considering how to shape our coverage of Hurricane Ike. 

Beaumont (the city I lived in) and surrounding areas had evacuated in advance of Ike's landfall. It hit Cuba as a Category 4, and Texas as a strong Category 2. Beaumont came through pretty well, but Bridge City was almost entirely flooded. One of the coaches at Kelly was a resident of Bridge City. He and his wife lost their home. He bravely agreed to talk to us about his experience with the flood and his loss. 

In case you were wondering, Ike was the first natural-disaster story I wrote. It really stayed with me. I can still picture in vivid detail this man telling us about having to cut the walls out of his house along the water lines, which reached nearly to the ceiling. Not only did he lose almost everything he didn't take with him, he wasn't carrying flood insurance. Can you imagine that kind of destruction? 

Anyway, people come in from all over to help fix the damage, to make money on tree removal and re-roofing, that sort of thing. Local legend says that the owner of Tico's was one such opportunist from Florida who noticed there were no Cuban restaurants in the area and vowed to bring Cuban food to Southeast Texas. 

Tico's was born. Good things come from bad situations, indeed. Though I can't speak to the truth of the legend, Tico's did appear after the hurricane.    

I will be INVENTING reasons to go to Bridge City for this. I had the Cuban sandwich, as you can see. It is giant and delicious, layered with brisket, pickles, cheese and ham, served on toasted bread. 

The bread is imported from Little Havana. It makes the sandwich. It is just enough — some sandwiches suffer tragically from over- or under-breading, but not this one. French fries are offered as a side. They're good, too, but unless you're a potato freak, you'll probably neglect them for your behemoth sandwich. 

All in all, it was a very satisfying experience. I left a bit too stuffed, but not sorry. Give it a try.