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ROBSTOWN - A landmark restaurant in Robstown caught fire late Wednesday night. Joe Cotton's along Highway 77 was fully engulfed in flames. No word yet on any injuries.

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Sad, Sad day. I ate there twice a weeks, for 7 years growing up before I moved, and went back from time to time. Luckly they have already said they WILL rebuild.

my granddad helped Mr. Cotten open the original one when it was in a building in a room behind a bar. Then he convinced Mr. Cotten to move it out to the road and away from behind the bar. Mr. Cotten never thought he would make it out there on that road but he did it because "Ol' Lefty wanted to bring the wife out sometime"...

When Mr. Cotten let his boys take it over he still hung around as much as he could.

I nearly grew-up out at that place.

Every year in high school when we played Robstown or Calallen in any sport, that's where we stopped to eat...

I was absolutely shocked to get the text tonight that it was destroyed in a fire. I am glad no one was hurt, and I am very glad that they will rebuild. So many memories are lost in that building

maybe i'm picky when it comes to bbq, but i've never been impressed with their food. the tourists and blue hairs seem to like it though.

http://www.caller.com/news/2011/mar/02/joe-cottens-bbq/

Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cole,

My uncle was a Robstown businessman. I too felt like I grew up at Cotten's with Joe, and later Cecil and Kenneth.

When I was a kid my uncle would hop in his Bonanza, fly down and land on a local grass strip and pick up my Dad and I. We'd fly back to Nueces Co. airstrip and have lunch there; we could be back in the field in no time.

Lots of memories there. Even for those who didn't particularly like the food - it was hard to argue with the service or the legacy it left for Robstown.

Fires inside buildings.

I will miss Cotton's for the cheese spread if nothing else. Maybe they will rebuild...

NO!!!!

I KNEW i should have stopped there last weekend. Wow that sucks. Big time.

Sorry to hear this. I too was a big fan of the old one downtown, I thought when they moved to the hiway the quality went down.
That said it was a pretty good place to eat and the service was excellent!!
Hope they rebuild!!

That sucks. My parents grew up in Bishop so it was always a landmark when we'd pass by to visit my grandparents. We stopped in occasionally and I could always tell it was a treat for my Dad.

I'm way too young to remember or know but my Dad said my Grandad used to drink at the original location and had a chance to invest when he made the move from Downtown but didn't. No idea if it's true but I always thought it would be cool to be tied to the place.

Very sad day. I drove by that place just this past weekend coming back from a hunting trip to the Valley. I always comment to myself, man one of these days I'm gonna need to make time to stop and have some Cotten's on the way back up. So strange that it's not there anymore...

One day we were driving through and they were closed, but a pretty nasty storm had whipped through and all but tore the American flag off their pole. We pulled in, lowered, folded it, and placed it on the rocking chair for them with a note to let them know why it wasn't flying. One of the old timers (don't think it was Joe, but a relative for sure) popped his head out and said he sure appreciated it and that the next meal we had time for was on the house. Great people.

Sad to say, the last time I ate there was in high school coming back from Area tryouts my senior year (band). T&P for everyone directly affected, and I sure hope they rebuild.

[This message has been edited by WorkBoots09 (edited 3/3/2011 4:44p).]

This thread just reminded me, I was in high school and we went to Corpus in late 60s. I met a girl from Robstown who said her dad owned the bbq. We wrote for a while and some of her letters or notes were on waitresses order taking books, said she was writing from work. Who knows she was probably pulling my leg.

Chewy I'm from Bishop, grew up there. Small world!

Larry.....her name is Jannese. Graduated from high school in '71. Went to Tech.

My mom graduated high school in Robstown, in like 63 I guess...my grand father ran the cotton gin and owned the store at the y in Petronila and then after selling the store and the gin closing, ran the gin in Robstown.

so many memories down there....

Thanks backstrapper. That is what I recall. We had a fun day at the beach and exchanged a letter or two is all I can remember. Long time ago.