Tanque Verde Cantina: Former Loony’s Beach Hut Receives Facelift and New Menu
While many enjoyed our former Loony’s Beach Hut, we are excited to offer a fun and more exciting experience with our new venue, Tanque Verde Cantina. Named after our sister property in Tucson, Arizona, the Tanque Verde Cantina offers delicious southwestern flavors including tacos, burritos, and salads.
Not only is the food and cocktail menu new, but we’ve also made some renovations in the venue itself for a more satisfying experience. Glass garage doors were added to the north and south sides. Weather is always something hard to predict and always seems to ruin plans when you are on vacation. With the ability to slide the doors up and down, guests can enjoy the views of Gull Lake rain, wind, or shine. Summer evenings by the lake tend to be cooler; the doors will make the space more functional for those wanting to dine after the sun has gone down.
We’ve also extended the bar. The rustic industrial-designed steel bar now is more spacious for our bartenders to better serve you. Serving up frozen drinks, wine, beer, margaritas and more, it is the perfect location to stay cool in the summer heat. Our signature cocktail at the cantina is the Prickly Pear Margarita. A favorite at our sister property, this margarita is made with real prickly pear syrup, Patron Silver, Triple Sec, and lime sour. Plain, salted, straight-up, on the rocks, or frozen this margarita is bound to be your newest favorite. We even brought up the ranch version of the Shirley Temple for the kids! This non-alcoholic version is appropriately called the Cactus Cooler and contains the same fresh prickly pear juice and Mist Twist soda.
A behind-the-scenes addition is the renovated kitchen. A new prep station has been added to give our chefs more room. Preparing your meals will be easier and more efficient for both chefs and staff. Before, the kitchen was too small and made it restrictive for what we could serve down at the beach. Now, the world is our oyster, or this case, burrito!
The menu will consist of mostly southwestern flavors, but some other beach fare has been added as well. Our grilled flank steak beach bowl is a feature available after 5 pm. Served with chips and salsa, this bowl has fried potatoes, drunken beans, avocado corn salsa, and warm tortillas inside. Other options include a southwest salad, green chili queso, pork, chicken or shrimp tacos and even our dry rub chicken wings for those missing the Loony’s wings.
We also have a new floating dock system. When compared to wooden, metal or cement docks, its advantages are crystal clear. The dock is bigger than before and easier on boat guests. The slip sizes are now 26 feet wide. The way the dock is positioned, 14-16 boats can securely be tied in. Before, our new floating dock could only fit about ten. The dock is lightweight, sturdy and safe with excellent dock stability. There are no metal parts, so it is easy on your boat as well.
Our new Tanque Verde Cantina is the perfect place to grab a bite, enjoy a cocktail, and take in the views of Gull Lake. The restaurant opened Memorial Weekend. It will be open daily starting June 9.
For the full menu, click here. Sunrise or sunset, the Cantina is the ideal setting for a relaxing experience while dipping your toes in the sand.
The whole menu is delicious, but you’re going to want to order a taco because our Taco Selfie Contest is back this summer! Take your taco selfie, post on Facebook and use the hashtag #TacoSelfieTVC for your chance to win a $200 gift card. Our staff will choose a winner on August 19, 2017, based on their favorite photo. Be sure to like the Tanque Verde Cantina on Facebook, click here if you haven’t already.
