A vibrant celebration at South Padre Island’s Señor Donkey

The Big Donkey Wrap at Señor Donkey on South Padre Island features gulf shrimp, fajitas, rice, beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and mozzarella cheese and is served with fries, above left. Pictured at right are fried calamari. (Travis M. Whitehead | Valley Morning Star)

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND — The drive on the main drag of the city yields little to interest me.

There’s a vacancy, a loss, a dreariness in a place normally filled with vitality and action, with families laughing and Spring Breakers celebrating, and surf shops busy.

True, the taste of the salt of the air on the gulf winds is heavy, and the blue skies and the colors of South Padre Island greet my eyes, but it’s the middle of a Friday afternoon and only a few people wander along the streets.

I’m hungry. I seek restaurants I would like to try, but I pass them one after the other, and I see no cars outside and it is a rather depressing thing to see such stillness in these active places. The empty streets of South Padre and the stillness of popular restaurants makes me more eager to find a place with people.

Store after store after store and nothing, and then … Señor Donkey, with parking spaces filled and people moving, and I think this must be quite a fine place indeed if so many have gathered here while the rest of the city has stopped.

I recognize the name of the restaurant. Señor Donkey sits right on the street, and I have seen it many times. It is impossible not to see it. I recall also the stories I have written about attractions for Spring Breakers, and Señor Donkey always finds its way into those stories.

I realize now that while I have written about Señor Donkey it is still an abstraction as I have not eaten there.

I’m going to amend that now. I pull up into the parking lot and there are people talking outside the doors. I think they must be city leaders of some sort and if city leaders are gathering at Señor Donkey then this is definitely an important part of South Padre.

Inside, however, I do not see many tables filled by the crowds I expected from the cars outside. A few tables have been taken, and perhaps the emptiness of the dining room is only an illusion because it is a very large dining area with vibrant Mexican colors over the walls and on the papel picado hanging.

I especially love the way the way the waiter with a tattoo on his neck quickly addresses me and welcomes me and I move toward a booth next to a window. He places the menu before me and my eyes dance over the seafood plates and the burgers and tortas and the fajitas and the quesadillas and the …

Once again I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony. What to choose? I seek something specific to this restaurant that I cannot expect to find in any other restaurant and my eyes land on the Big Donkey Wrap.

The Big Donkey Wrap offers more than just being a specialty item only found at Señor Donkey. It’s a large flour tortilla wrapped around gulf shrimp, fajitas, rice, beans, pico de gallo, guacamole and mozzarella cheese. Mmmmm. Such a blend of flavors I find most tantalizing to the mind, and my mouth demands I order.

So the waitress takes my order and I also ask for fried calamari. She’s quite a cheery waitress with a vibrant smile and I appreciate her manner toward me. My spirits lift and with the easing of my tensions I can more fully embrace my surroundings.

There is music everywhere and it is very good music with Spanish lyrics and accordions and trumpets which seem to dash around the spacious dining area. The papel picado hangs over long wooden tables and the green and the purple and the yellow of the walls are fresh and invigorating and joyous.

Several patrons have entered the restaurant and I appreciate their company. It does not matter that we don’t speak, it does not matter that we don’t know each other. Their very presence brings more life into the restaurant, and I do not feel any longer the isolation that has lingered with me today.

There is an element of the comic in the décor of the restaurant with paintings of donkeys. I have never seen so many donkeys. There are donkeys grazing, donkeys mad and glaring, donkeys with huge nostrils and gaping sneers, silly donkeys, friendly donkeys and crazy donkeys.

With all these donkeys hanging around me I remember so many years ago when I took private piano lessons. My friend Jeff and I played a duet together called “Donkey with a Sombrero.” Funny how new places can awaken old memories. It was a different time of the 1970s and the simple pleasures and the innocent pleasures seem to have evaporated from this new and more fragmented time.

But, there is a joy here at Señor Donkey and a huge plate has arrived and on that plate is the biggest burrito I have ever seen and I know I will take home a box full of food enough for two more meals.

The “Donkey Wrap” is not just a normal burrito. It looks like a burrito but it is huge and I suppose that’s why they call it a wrap. I cannot pick it up and eat it, I have to use a knife and a fork to cut it into bite sized morsels and I savor the flavors of each bite. The fried calamari is also very good and it is a delightful time on South Padre as I enjoy this meal in this nice restaurant.

There is movement now in the streets beyond my window. I have taken my time here at Señor Donkey, long enough to see the sunlight change and the shadows ease across the street. More cars move along the main drag of the city, and the weekend visitors have begun their arrival. The clock ticking is now releasing South Padre from its emptiness and its stillness, and all things are good and beautiful and alive again.

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