The Unruly Cactus opened in early August 2021. It is located at 412 E. Queen Isabella Boulevard, Suite C. Port Isabel, Texas. It is open seven days a week with varying hours. For more information, call (956) 299-4144 or email info@unrulycactus.com. (Staff photos by Alexandrea Bailey)
By ALEXANDREA BAILEY
Behind every successful business stands a great human with abundant passion (including compassion) and a creative vision of what they want to provide their customers. Since its opening, the Unruly Cactus Books & Coffee has warmly welcomed customers in Port Isabel.
It has grown in several different aspects, including monthly events fashioned from the wants and needs of the local community. It is almost impossible to walk into the bookstore and coffee shop and leave with a frown — primarily because of its owner, Gayle Curry.
Curry poured her soul into the shop since day one. She has cultivated it into a place of peace, community and the pursuit of knowledge. It has everything one would dream their quaint local bookstore would: delicious coffee, art, shelves upon shelves of books to browse through, comfy areas to wind down, and more.
I was so delighted when Curry expanded her store a few months ago. The expansion has provided a home to Beats with Books: A Poetry Open Mic [Beats with Books], a community of poets who host a monthly open mic. Beats with Books is the brainchild of Dalton Swink, former barista at Karma Coffee and Books, where this open mic was born.
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