Changing Tides

Ronda and Wesley Dishon will once again open a restaurant on the water in Bridge City sometime this month.

"I think we'll just open kind of secretly and people can come by word of mouth," said Ronda. She doesn't want the chaos of a grand opening hard date.

The new restaurant will be named "Low Tides" as opposed to their former "High Tides" restaurant that was on the other side of the bridge. The former restaurant closed last year and was sold to Chevron Phillips.

High Tides was too big to keep properly staffed, with three kitchens, three bars and 100 employees. Also, the two levels caused some flow issues.

"It was very difficult, upstairs, downstairs, upstairs, downstairs, although some of the young girls became very muscular having to run up and down," said Wesley. "This is much simpler."

The new restaurant is on one level with huge garage doors that can be open to the outside seating when the weather is nice or closed for inclement weather. It includes a small outdoor stage area and outdoor bathrooms. It currently has five boat slips with plans to add two or three more.

"So, this is basically really scaled down compared to High Tides," said Ronda. "A very limited menu, very limited area to seat. We're going to be able to seat 150 people." That includes both indoor and outdoor seating.

They will have 18-20 full-time employees and another 10 part-time employees.

Ronda said they will only be serving burgers or chicken strips with fries and boiled seafood options, including crawfish when they are in season, along with corn and potatoes.

"It is a completely different animal," said Ronda.

Why did they decide to open another restaurant less than a year after closing one?

"Honestly, he can't sit still and he always needs a project," said Ronda, while pointing to Wesley. "We've owned this property for couple years."

They started cleaning up the property, tearing down the old, dilapidated marina and saw how beautiful the property was. The pair kicked around what to do with it. They debated on apartments or condominiums, but people kept suggesting another restaurant to them.

Ronda was against doing a restaurant again. It was Wesley's decision.

"We don't do it for the money," said Wesley. "There's not much money in this. I mean it's the lowest percent profit of any company we own by far."

He felt it would be good for Bridge City to give them a different option and to hopefully get activities restarted on the water.

"That hasn't happened yet but we're hoping with this new city manager that we can open these waterways up, start doing stuff around here."

He talked about all the water activities and other things that were available in Orange County when he was growing up.

"When I grew up you had skating rinks, you had bowling alleys, you had skate parks, you had movie theaters, you had everything and now you have zero," said Wesley. "Unless the city of Orange and the city of Bridge City get together and do something with these waterways and start spending some money, getting grant money that they can easily get with grant writers, it's just gonna sit stagnant... everything's changing you gotta keep up."

Wesley also said, "We need to lean on the state of Texas too, a little bit, to get this bridge fixed because there are plenty of boats that won't fit under that bridge." Dishon refers to the swing bridge on Cow Bayou. "The State of Texas has an obligation to the public for that bridge to be open. It's an issue it's constantly broke, that makes the waterway unusable."

He said High Tides had big boats that came from Lafayette, Lake Charles, Kemah, and Clear Lake. It was a halfway point for them to get fuel at High Tides, go to the Golden Nugget in Lake Charles, stay the night and refuel back in Bridge City on their way home.

"Well now they can't come under the bridge," said Wesley.

Low Tides will also offer fuel service.

Wesley said he also hopes to continue the boat parades and plans to hold fishing tournaments.

They also have a small area with sand outside the fence on the water side where they will have loungers and washer boards.

Low Tides will be open Thursday through Sunday. Hours Thursday and Sunday will be11 a.m. – 9 p.m., while Friday and Saturday, they will be open 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. They plan to offer live music on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons.

Keep an eye on social media to find out when they open. Low Tides is located at 3095 Texas Ave., diagonally across the bayou and bridges from where High Tides was located.