By Mark Kneubuhl
Special to LIVE!
August 6, 2007

Restaurants are rated on a gourmet solar system of one through five stars. “Five” being top-notch and “one” would represent a lesser quality of food, or perhaps the amount of times you might want to eat there.

One of San Angelo’s eateries, The Wharf (2302 Loop 306, San Angelo, Texas), has yet to be rated as there are no qualifying reviewers that frequent our town, but it’s a five that is usually heard, whispered by full-bellied patrons, wishing they had just a little more room for dessert.

Walking into the reception area, there is a warmth and coziness that makes the sometimes-lengthy wait bearable. The floors are rough-planked, but well-finished wood, to go along with the comfortable seating that lines the walls

During the weekends at least, the reception area is usually occupied to capacity. “We just can’t take reservations anymore on the weekend, we don’t have enough tables,” said owner/manager/chef Terry Nolan

“We serve about a thousand dinners a week, but the lion’s share of that is on Friday and Saturday nights,” said Nolan, an Angelo State MBA graduate.

Looking at the bigger picture, the ambiance of the south side restaurant makes the food taste good even before you take your first bite: There’s an inviting lounge-bar, big but quaint, with lots of wood, a couple of Lazy Boy recliners and a couch. You can almost smell the salty breeze as you order your pomegranate martini.

“It’s a quiet bar. We get a lot of city officials and radio personalities who come here because they don’t want to be bothered,” said Nolan.

The dining area is divided by smoking preference, and walking to your table one sees many crates of wines from almost every corner of the Earth.

“I’ve got wines from all over Europe, South America, New Zealand, Australia and of course some great American wines,” said Nolan. “We’ve got about 150 labels on our wine list.”

And if you get to know Terry well enough, say wonderful things about his restaurant and wife, Janelle, and perhaps bribe him with at a twenty, he might be inclined to pull out one of his special bottles.

“I can only get a few bottles at a time of some of the ‘great’ wines. I can’t even get enough for me,” said Nolan, a wine connoisseur himself.

Yes, lots of wine… and lots of other trinkets too: The walls and rafters are neatly decorated with ship’s steering wheels, old glass albacore net buoys, paintings of shrimp boats, lighthouses and seascapes (all of the Texas coast, Terry tells me), and lots of other goodies that seemingly floated in with the tide. As almost an understatement, propped up in the middle of all this flotsam and jetsam is a sign that simply says ‘Welcome’.

In looking out the window at the Wharf, one almost expects to see frothy waves breaking in the distance.

“I’m proud of the décor… It reflects both the restaurant’s history and mine too,” Nolan told LIVE!

Two items of memorabilia stand out: One, a high-tech, ten-speed bike hanging from the ceiling, which Terry used to race, and a lone, framed photo of Father Braun, a parish priest and frequent customer who passed away a couple of years ago.

Originally, The Wharf was part of the 13-restaurant “Pelican” chain. In 1979 Nolan came here and worked for three years before going back to Austin, where he worked under a chef. But most of his culinary education came while working his way through school as a cook.

In 1987, Nolan came back to San Angelo with a partner and bought the Pelican Pier Restaurant, changed the name and rolled up his sleeves.

“It wasn’t long before my partner got burned out and kind of left me holding the bag. This business requires putting in a lot of hours. A restaurant owner can’t just kick back and think he’s going to collect the profits. Being a micro-manager works well in this arena,” said Nolan of his early days.

And micro-manage they do: Both Nolan and his wife keep their fingers in the stew (a figure of speech, of course!). They are either walking around or cooking; hand-cutting the steaks; making the pesto and kneading the bread; inspecting the deliveries; taking reservations, flushing the oysters, and even inspecting the potatoes!

“Potatoes are important. We use only Idaho spuds because they have a lower starch content and make for better eating. I do a lot of prep-work and I make all the soups myself… the New England clam chowder, cream of jalapeno, which we run out of every night,” said Nolan.

But paying attention to detail has paid off. When HEB officials -- who pride themselves on supplying quality seafood -- came to town for the Sherwood Way store opening, they went out of their way to complement Nolan on his fish.

“Ever serve any celebrities?” LIVE! had to ask.

“The Goonies’ producer was in here last week,” interrupted one of the prep-cooks.

“Who’s that,” both Terry and I asked in harmony?

Nolan (turning his attention back to the interview): “We’ve had some visiting Nobel Peace Prize recipients, and some big name coaches, all of which are passing through ASU. I sat down one evening with UT head coach Mack Brown and it just so happened that he was a big wine lover and had just visited all the wineries that I had just visited. We had a great time comparing notes while his assistants we’re all sitting around drinking their beer and never entered the conversation.”

 Although not a celebrity, so-to-speak, well-known local personality Russ Steel was a barman and waiter in the earlier days of The Wharf. Steel went on to manage Los Lonely Boys until Willie Nelson heard them and took them under his wing. We all know what happened to Los Lonely Boys. As for Russ, he moved on and started the Steel Penny Pub.

Oh yeah, what about the food? Writing about food is a little like writing about sex; written descriptions don’t do it justice. What should go without saying is that everything served at The Wharf Restaurant is fresh, hand-picked and almost doted over prior to putting it on the plate. But if their customer-base is any indication of a great product… try getting reservations!