The James Beard Foundation Just Named This Galveston Seafood Joint an American Classic
The prestigious culinary arts organization deems Gaido’s, the 114-year-old seafood spot, a Texas icon
The James Beard Foundation named Gaido’s in Galveston, Texas as one of its America’s Classics winners today, along with a handful of restaurants from across the country. The America’s Classics Award goes to locally-owned restaurants that have “timeless appeal that serve quality food and are beloved by their communities,” according to a press release from the organization.
The 114-year-old seafood spot, which is operated by fourth-generation Italian American Nick Gaido and his wife, Kateryna, is considered a landmark on Galveston’s Seawall. Originally opened in 1911, Gaido’s offers a constantly changing menu with its best catches of the day, which include various preparations of catfish, snapper, and redfish; crabs and scallops when in season; and Gulf shrimp served in myriad ways. The restaurant notes that it still peels, shucks, and fillets all its seafood by hand, precisely the way it did when it opened more than a century ago. The food merges Southern, Creole, and Southwest cooking techniques and flavor profiles, all in a dining room filled white tablecloth-covered tables.
Moments from the restaurant’s storied past can be found on Gaido’s walls, which are decorated with its old menus, artifacts, and photos. Notable guests include the director Alfred Hitchcock, an array of state and national politicians too vast to keep track of, and more — this is the kind of place that doesn’t feed and tell. Although the people watching here is always top-notch, the expansive views of the Gulf of Mexico are just as captivating.
The family have maintained a menu of classic seafood dishes over the century plus that Gaido’s has been open, including shrimp cocktail (at $14, it’s a steal — almost $20 less than the going rate in bigger coastal cities), an impressive seafood tower, its “famous” fried seafood platter, and a signature oyster menu that focuses on Gulf-harvested oysters. The menu goes so far as to assure diners that the Gaido family has known most of the oystermen working in the Gulf for the past century, and that they go out of their way to pay top-dollar for the best oysters — which can be ordered on the halfshell, fried, baked, chargrilled, and more. Right next to that, appropriately, is a very long list of martinis.
Gaido’s is also the story of an immigrant family. The Gaidos came to the U.S. from Cercenasco, in Italy, in the 19th century, the Galveston News reported in a 2013 profile. The family was poverty-stricken after immigrating and stayed in Galveston because it was less challenging than moving somewhere else. Restaurants on the Galveston Seawall have to be resilient to stay in business, facing hurricanes (much of the island is still bouncing back from the devastation following Hurricane Ike in 2008), the influx of summer travelers to the Gulf, and the dead time in winter — plus the current challenges following changes in the industry spurred by COVID, the rising cost of food, and a tight labor market. Gaido’s carries on, in the face of it all.
Gaido’s is this year’s only Texas restaurant to be named a James Beard Foundation America’s Classic.
Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Awards. Eater is partnering with the James Beard Foundation to livestream the awards in 2025. All editorial content is produced independently of the James Beard Foundation.
