The Boathouse Bar & Bungalows — Restaurant in Manuel Benavides

The shockingly unprofessional owner of this bar told me not to come back after a strange woman cornered me in his bathroom and then yelled into the bar. He literally came up to me after her display and told me to leave. Confused, I asked why, and he said that the woman who had come at me, apparently a friend of his, made the false claim to him that I had "started a fight" with her. Actually, I had spent the entire evening sitting at the bar quietly reading a book. I told the owner that in fact I had not even approached the woman, and that when she had come at me in the bathroom I had remained calm and waited for her to leave me alone. But he didn't even hear what I was saying. He had a vicious expression on his face and spoke to me in an angry tone of voice. No evidence of any wrongdoing on my part whatsoever was presented, only the fabricated claims of someone who in fact did to me what she falsely reported to him.

The owner's rash and illogical response to random fabrications is the kind of thing I would expect from a middle school gang, not a "community" business where I should without question have been treated with fairness and afforded safe use of the facilities. But protection and entry was instead handed unquestioningly to the patron committing the offense she projected and creating a disturbance in the bar.

It is because of my observation of the owner's unprofessional and irrational conduct and the atmosphere he upheld of strong bias and lack of safe conditions that I strongly recommend patronizing The Starlight, High Sierra, or La Kiva rather than this guy's bar.

If its owner's outbursts at other reviewers are any indication of how this business will respond to a serious report, I can't wait to hear the nasty, entitled response to this genuine review and the utter lack of any justice afforded to me in the matter of having been accosted and defamed in what should be a safe place to read a book and enjoy a pint. Update: So indeed the owner has decided to make a false statement about me to justify his mentally ill?/egotistical decision to exclude me from his scene. In point of fact, at no time did I have any "adversarial" interaction with anyone in any way whatsoever. Those in the bar can verify this as they witnessed nothing other than the owner's friend yelling at one of them not to speak to me after I came out of the bathroom and joined a table. As I stated before, I don't know the woman who cornered, harassed, and would not allow me to enter the bathroom or leave her presence. She physically blocked me and would not stop talking at me. Responding calmly to HER adversarial behavior is what any sane person should have done, and that is precisely what I did. Projecting his friend's ill conduct onto me is indeed an example of a classic psychological technique narcissists use to justify their own mistakes and keep the focus off their own behavior. The single instance to which he referred where he seems to have taken issue with my taking a few moments to hand over my full pint when he went to collect it at closing time wasn't me "starting a fight" with him. It's almost like he hasn't worked in a bar before, as he seemed at the time primed to overreact; when I worked in a bar several years back, most patrons took a few moments to finish the last of their beverages and grumbled at me when I walked around to collect them. Lying about a person is defamation and a prosecutable crime. Fragile ego or emotional immaturity I guess, but this guy is a business owner and as such has a responsibility to stop lying about an innocent patron assaulted on his property to protect his reputation and instead address his bias and mistake...

One of the previous low reviews says, “If you’re not white, prepare to feel unwelcome.” I never resort to race being the issue but I’m now wondering if that statement is true. Unfortunately, a very weird experience. I was born and raised in this area and came down to Terlingua to photograph Dia De Muertos. I’m 30 years old and accidentally left my ID in Alpine (completely my fault) So when I tried ordering a drink at the Boathouse, I was denied. I understood even though the bartender was rude about it and had no complaints since I have worked in the service industry and I understand the rules and the strictness of TABC. My friend and I left the bar and went to the Starlight where both of us are known and were served drinks. We ended up coming back to the Boathouse to check on a friend and make sure she was safe / pickup a camera left in her car. My friend said he wanted to get shots for them. I ended up running into someone I knew, so I told them I would be outside and ready to go when they were…. Tell me why during that time, the bartenders accused my friend of trying to buy drinks for an underage girl (AKA ME WHO IS 30 and wasn’t drinking at this bar) and kicked him out, followed him to his car; and threatened to tell the “police officer” who was at the bar on him? Meanwhile, they let me (the supposedly underage girl) stay? The math ain’t mathin’, brother. Anyways, when I walked back through the bar, the “officer whom they threatened my friend would be arrested by” asked how my night was going and I said, “Great?” And he lit a cigarette and walked away into the darkness. I’m upset I was looking forward to hanging out at bar I hadn’t been to and sadly left disappointed and confused. Maybe that low review was right… sounds...

Inconsiderate and negligent owner! The owner hit a waterline while working on his property and all 4 bungalow units and the bar lost water. He did not bother to let us know in advance, or respond to our messages when we came back from an all day of hiking and were puzzled by no water in the sink, shower, or toilets. Caught him later and asked if he had seen our messages, his response was: "what message, I've gotten a few" lol. He had no plans to get water for his guests and blamed the city for not immediately coming out to fix the waterline. Only seemed to get a hint of the gravity of the situation when we mentioned not being able to flush the toilet. He showed zero concerns for his guests and invited us to his "cash bar" that opened up the day before. Later we found 2 gallons of water left at the door, which is enough for 1 flush but not 2. Then at 1 am we were woken up by a drum circle on the patio, and the owner was too busy bartending and had no idea this was even going on. Just wow. Although there was no hot water at the bungalow to begin with (it's limited at lukewarm), we were happy with the location and the simple set up until this nonsense happened. We left, but no idea if/when he managed to get water running for other guests. Bartending was his priority even though it seems unsanitary without running water. Irresponsible and uncaring host, would not...