Hitting the gift shop
The Fertittization of Galveston: Bubba Gump eyes the historic pleasure pier
Count this as a rumor that should surprise no one. The Galveston Daily News is reporting that Landry's might install a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. on the historic pleasure pier that the company is currently restoring (and that, until recently, was the site of the historic but crumbling Flagship Hotel).
Landry's doing Landry's things: Who would have thought? Frankly, the new-to-the-empire Bubba Gump sounds like a better fit than Landry's new gold-rush themed restaurant purchase, Claim Jumpers. Or another Rainforest Cafe.
I'll make you a deal, Tilman Fertitta: You can pick one cash-cow tourist restaurant for your new pleasure pier, but mix it in with places we aren't embarrassed for visitors to see — the planned Chart House, for example, or maybe an Oceanaire or even a Vic & Anthony's? (Don't tourists like good steaks? Surely all of them don't just want restaurants with gift shops.)
But if you build some sort of cheesy, culinary Epcot Center to go alongside the amusement park, it's war.