A photo essay
Rovan’s was one of the two places to go for a breakfast when you were on South Padre Island through the Eighties and Nineties. There were probably others, but the baked goods at Rovan’s and the sweet stacks of pancakes with plenty of butter and syrup made it pointless to look elsewhere. That was then, of course. Now the place is in pieces and going. Here’s what we saw.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Jack Veggie // Nov 23, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Wow! I am out of the loop. I didn’t know about this demolition. I knew Rovans in a way, living on the Island when it changed hands from the original guy, the Port Isabel Press had little other to write about at the time…..2000-2001.
It was a little soap opera from there. The second owner claimed the first owner defrauded him and a law suit with full jury, nixed that and cleared the first owner. A neighbor lady sued because the parking lot flooded her yard. An Israeli immigrant bunch bought it and tried to revert back to the breakfast for snowbirds business plan…maybe they still own it. Just memories from PI Press articles over the years.
I do remember that I googled the Israeli’s names to see where they might have come from and whatever, and the only hit I got was a Tel Aviv news story about a woman who was convicted of embezzlement from her employer bank, and was given extra years for her refusal to co-operate in the apprehension of the funds or the relatives who assisted her in the caper.
I thought the Israeli connection would make a good sub-plot to a novel in my mind about a futuristic South Padre Island, but those bastards at GM have almost copycatted a key plot gimmick with “On-Star”.
Then 9-11 happened.
The future comes while you ponder it, doesn’t it.
2 Stan // Nov 25, 2009 at 12:48 am
When my parents came down during the 80’s, they attached to Rovans, so we had quite a few breakfasts there. They were folks that believed in the full plate, I’ll tell you.
3 Stan // Nov 25, 2009 at 12:49 am
After the sale they went down pretty quickly, I thought. We quit attending as our restaurant dollars were precious and not all that many, either.
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