One of the pitfalls of no longer drinking alcohol is knowing that raw oysters on the halfshell is a dish best served with cold beer. Regardless, give me some crackers, horse radish and red sauce, and I will make it work. 

I’ve had oysters on my mind since I hit Houston last month. For days, I have been seeing this funny little seafood joint … you can’t miss it over on FM 1960.  The building is custom designed to resemble a landlocked shrimp trawler. How clever and nostalgic.  Don’t make ’em like that anymore … not in my part of Texas anyway.

So, I had to check it out, and I had to know if there was Wi-Fi at Captain Tom’s Seafood & Oyster Bar.

A little bit of me was expecting to see Captain Dan and Forest behind the bar … but I secretly hummed “ground control to ‘Captain Tom'” as I entered … I digress …

What a cool place.  I went aboard, opened the door and liked it immediately.  It’s a showpiece of woodwork — a welcoming, full, oval bar running the length of the restaurant, with a bartender shucker inside the the circle.  Everyone was laughing and having fun, slamming down oysters on a workday and rubbing elbows — kind of all hands on deck.  Very intimate.

Alas, the main bar was full, so I pulled up a barstool along the wall.  Still very cool — window seats just about 360 degrees around the place — although the outer ring of seating was a bit less social.  It was obvious there were a lot of regulars at the main bar.  No one batted an eye when the bar tender passed to me my food over their heads. I am guessing the place must be a bit of an institution, although it doesn’t look that old.

Yum.  I had a really hot cup of of gumbo, a handful of boiled shrimp and seven oysters for the price of six.  Good looking out, my bruther from another shucker. 

But along with absolutely no pretension, I also detected no Wi-Fi … What?  No Wi-Fi?  Oh well … not much room in close quarters for a laptop anyway … The tabletop was amply supplied with a much needed stack of napkins piled up to my chin and my own personal little vat of fresh horse radish …. and a bottomless basket of saltines.  Nice.

Funny … the same day, I checked out a favorite from my last visit to Houston … Menchies, yogart.  Hmmm … if I were remiss and didn’t say anything about this yogurt shop, would that be un-Menchiable? I digress … Great yogurt … I went with the dulce de leche.  How rich!  But again, no Wi-Fi.  So to those who ask me why the blog reports on places with Wi-Fi — “Wi-Fi is everywhere” … I ran across two great examples of places that are less Wi-Fi inclined.  So … the hunt for wireless treasures continues.

Know what I sayin?