Ninja Turtles and pizza — nowhere but Mikey’s in Harlingen

2 weeks ago 60

HARLINGEN — The cars in the parking lot announce the popularity of the establishment which only recently arrived in the city.

Places like Mikey’s Pizza & Shots do not usually take off so quickly. They require some time to make themselves known to the community, some time to build a reputation, some time to collect regulars.

But Mikey’s Pizza & Shots at 1907 Lubbock St. has done well for itself in the months since its grand opening in February. I find a video of the grand opening dated Feb. 8 in which an announcer states the venture began at another location in 2019.

Certainly the proprietor brought at least some of his clientele with him to the current location just off Ed Carey Drive and across from Valley Baptist Medical Center.

However, a new location is still a new location.

I enter Mikey’s, and at first, I see just a bar with pizza and it is loud and somewhat cliché — at first glance. But then I see a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle wearing a red Chicago Bulls shirt and a golden crown and then big letters and words and messages written across the walls in the bold style of pop art from an era long ago.

I see that this is an older crowd filled with a few 30- somethings and plenty of 40- and 50-somethings enjoying their revelry in a manner more familiar to me from my generation. I am a 60-something but nevertheless these are people from my generation. This is a place of personality and intrigue and remembrance and celebration.

I think I’ll stay.

But …

That Ninja Turtle is staring at me …

“Order at the bar.”

The menu online earlier in the day had intrigued me with its rather colorful and creative listings.

There is, of course, “The Mikey” with pepperoni and black olives.

Simple enough.

But then there is the “Amazing Grace” pizza with smoked gouda, arugula (a vegetable), mushrooms. fig, and posciutto (sliced ham).

Sounds delicious, but the name is something peculiar. I see “Amazing Grace” in big pop art letters across the wall and I am somewhat intrigued but I cannot bring myself to have a pizza called “Amazing Grace” because I feel like I’m in church. But I am not in church, I am at Mikey’s where people are watching football on big screen TVs and drinking Ninja Turtle drinks with whiskey and melon and pineapple. They’re enjoying Mexican Candy with jalapeno Tequila, the Gummy Bear with red berry vodka, and the Mikey Bomb with white claw mango vodka.

The Ninja Turtle drink with the whiskey and pineapple causes me an involuntary flinch and I look back and there’s that ornery Ninja Turtle sneering at me.

What is he up to …

I order the “Birds Flying High” pizza with house alfredo, mozzarella, goat cheese, arugula, chicken, pear, and spicy balsamic glaze. This is quite an intriguing configuration of flavors which I cannot recall ever before seeing. I have for most of my life enjoyed Hawaiian pizzas with pineapple, but pear? That is something new indeed. I look forward to exploring this new taste.

I take my seat on a small upholstered couch and look again at the rather mischievous Ninja Turtle with the Chicago Bulls shirt and then the bold colorful pop art letters across the floor and then there is extraordinary laughter frolicking about the bar. The laughter and the pop art and that Ninja Turtle with the Bulls shirt so playfully annoying with its shifty grimacing, and the men with their rough faces and heavy beards and the women with their bold and seasoned faces all electrify the air with the excitement of a new place. The freshness and the coldness of the air outside gives a fine premonition of the coming season.

It’s a joy so powerful and authentic that not even that Ninja Turtle lurking around the place can dampen the fun of the season.

“Whoa! Ha-ha-ha!” The patrons with the drinks in their hands and grand smiles on their faces erupt into some burst of humor in their conversation and there is joy and merrymaking in the air. The hibiscus with the kind of a red that never flinches and never wavers reflects the holiday spirit as it sits atop a wooden table.

“Yes! Yessir!” someone else shouts as a football game plays across a widescreen while snakes and horned lizards creep across another screen and still another TV runs a piece about a crash in Palmview.

Now a group of about four or five men and women in their chilly weather clothing enters the bar and there are shouts of “You were supposed to order like four or five pizzas!”

“I got one!” and it is of course all in good humor and holiday fun. The sweaters are discarded, the drinks are ordered, and that pesky little Ninja Turtle keeps glaring at me like he’s plotting something sinister, like he wants to steal my pizza when it arrives or snatch my notepad.

“I’m gonna be out in the patio,” I tell the man at the bar who took my order.

He says someone will bring my pizza to me, so I nervously make my exit out of the bar and away from that naughty Ninja Turtle and take a seat outside on the patio.

Here on the patio a little girl in a sweater covered with butterflies dashes about and her father, a very tall and commanding fellow, picks her up and takes her back to the table near the wall of wooden fencing. I realize now the patrons in the patio are much younger than those in the bar. Here there are young couples with small children.

I see now that the atmosphere here is much different than the one inside the bar and the proprietor had the good sense to create two places to cater to two very different types of clientele. One is for middle-agers to celebrate and drink and watch football games with friends and Ninja Turtles and the other for young couples with children.

My pizza arrives and it has a different look than anything I have ever seen. That difference in itself piques my imagination, and I quickly dive into a pizza with alfredo and chicken and sweet pear. It is a good pizza and I enjoy the novelty of these new flavors carefully fitted together, and in the chilliness of the fall season now upon us the hot pizza with its creative medley of flavors gives me a feeling of warmth and peace.

I work on the pizza rather vigorously but soon realize I am full after eating only half of my pizza. I fill a carry out box and enter the bar to leave and am immediately greeted with loud applause and cheering and am quite honored to find I have made such an impact on these people I have never met. I must be quite an extraordinary fellow to have captured the admiration of so many people so quickly that they would respond to my entrance in such a spectacular manner.

But … if I am so fabulous why are they not looking at me? My heart breaks as I realize they are not cheering me but are cheering the football game.

I am heartbroken now. I look around the bar now seeking any kind of friendly face. I feel lost finding none, but then my eyes land on the Ninja Turtle. The Ninja Turtle is looking at me, he’s the only one looking at me, and he has a smile on his face that is warm and friendly. This Ninja Turtle is the only one who even knows I am here and I feel validated and whole again.

I pass the smiling and friendly Ninja Turtle on my way out and he looks at me with a deep fondness. The smile on his face makes me feel whole again. I give him a nod as I step out the door.

Goodbye my friendly and loving Ninja Turtle. I look forward to seeing you again.

Mikey’s hours are 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily.

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