Harlingen’s The Deep End caters to many tastes, activities

HARLINGEN — The pounding of a wrestler’s head on the floor.

The clacking of a billiard ball, the heavy thumping of music, the football game on the wide screen TV, and offerings of pizza and wild wings and chicken buffalo nachos …

It feels like a grand party at The Deep End at 3811 U.S. Business 83, or perhaps it’s a large grouping of parties that seem to shift and pulsate and spread and withdraw and come back together.

I first learned of The Deep End when I picked up a doctor acquaintance of mine and gave him a lift to a friend’s house. On the way to his destination, he sang high praises about The Deep End, speaking about the pool tables and the golfing and the food and the wide-screen TVs.

I was quite intrigued by this. I had never heard of The Deep End, nor had I heard of a place with such a diversity of attractions.

Golfing and billiards and wild wings and football games and dart boards …?

This was certainly a collage of activities which I had never experienced, and therefore knew I had to know it for myself.

I arrive at The Deep End on a Saturday night and cars have filled the large parking lot. The bold visibility of so many wide screen TVs announce this is a fun place to visit on a Saturday night. It is the kind of Saturday night I have not seen in quite some time. Those who know me know I seek the quieter places and the slower places, so this is a refreshing change of things.

I’ve taken a small round table to the side of the main attractions, and I watch the waiters moving swiftly back and forth and the line of beer taps and the people entering the establishment. Before me, six people sit at a long table. The cold pizza slice on a tray and the crumpled napkins indicate they have finished eating, but they remain in their chairs.

“He just reset the computer,” says a woman in a maroon shirt.

A couple behind me walks toward a soda fountain and the girl says, “No there’s not! Go ahead and pick one!” and then there’s the clashing of ice in a cup and the gushing of a drink and the rattling of a billiard ball into a pocket.

The crowd and the rush and the busyness of the place have not slowed the service, and my waiter has already taken my order and brought me some ice water. I suspect an order for ice water may seem peculiar in a place like this but he does not react.

I ask first for the TexaCali sandwich which is thinly sliced Boar’s Head roast beef served with mushrooms and peppers, but he informs me The Deep End no longer serves that sandwich and the menu is being updated.

I look further and see the “Wings” section. I cannot recall ever having wings. I suppose I must have but don’t remember. But the “Wings” section offers Buffalo Wings, Lemon Pepper wings, Mango Habanero wings, Parmesan Garlic wings …

Whew!

OK. Lemon Pepper sounds like a good flavor. I order the wings and some fries and continue observing the individual parties taking place around me. Two men walk out with their golf clubs, two women at the next table drink Michelob Ultra, and another taps away on her Smartphone —those ever-present ever-intrusive Smartphones.

Two boxers on a wide screen TV now dance around their arena with their fists bared, Lady Gaga’s distinctive voice makes a grand entrance, and two women at the big table in front of me dance in their chairs for a moment and mouth the words.

This is not a place where people eat and leave. They stay for the atmosphere. They draw on the continuous sounds and the smells and the tastes, they feed off the energy to keep the moods and the vibes moving through the night.

I’ve enjoyed the wings, the first wings I have had in many years, and I like the ranch dressing and even indulge one of my odd pleasures, which is dipping my French fries in all manner of sauces, mustard and even ranch dressing.

When I leave, the people at the long table are still there, as I suspect they will be for quite some time after I’m gone.