Brad and the Split Coconut: By SUSAN LUNDY

No wonder Split Coconut is such a popular destination, and rated by TripAdvisor as number one of 19 restaurants in Puerto Escondido. “I get the young, the old and the in between here,” says Brad, “and no matter what their nationality, they all say it tastes like home.” He adds: “I’ve never been pretentious; I just do what makes people comfortable. I give them soul food and music that they like.”

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Reviewers on TripAdvisor rave: “Brad’s cooking is some of the best food to be found in Puerto Escondido”/ “Every item on the menu was excellent [I have tried the entire menu . . . delicious]”/ “The music is great and the beachfront location is spectacular. Can’t wait to return!”
Despite all the accolades, Brad is pretty humble.
“I’m an outdoor camping cook — give me a hole in the ground and some rebar, and I can cook a four-course meal.”
Brad’s menu is simple, focussing on burgers, ribs and fish — all from his “bone suckin’ good barbecue.” He offers a rib dinner (grande or chica — both are huge), a “big ass pork chop” and a “pig plate.” And the delicious veggies on the side? Brad’s recipe is from a 1955 Betty Crocker cookbook. Prices range from $90 for a barbecue sandwich to $139 for the grande ribs.
“The portions are big,” he says. “That’s what I’d serve myself. It’s not about the dollars and cents . . . It’s about making people feel at home.”
At the end of October, Brad kicked off the season with a huge 10th anniversary party. (Even though it’s actually been 12 years, he says, “10th anniversary has a better ring to it.”) Some 200 people flocked to the party to enjoy live music and pay tribute to Brad with a bit of a “love fest,” including a Brad trivia contest.
“I was amazed,” he says. “I’ve made more friends here in 12 years than I have in my whole life. And they’re real friends.”
He adds, “You got time to have friends down here.”
Brad works the barbecue every day, starting at about 2 p.m., except Tuesdays — his day to relax, take in a movie, play some music, watch the sunset.
Although born in Mexico City (his father worked there for Coca Cola), Brad spent most of his childhood in Atlanta, playing keyboards in a popular band in the 1970s, and later working in the food sales industry.
Fifteen years ago, he was director of operations at the Steak and Shake Restaurant chain, and says, “I was miserable. I had no soul  . . . I had no joy in life.”
So he packed up, went back to Mexico City, and immediately felt as though he’d come home. It was like the 1960s again, he recalls, with people — basically strangers — inviting him into their homes, where they’d eat, talk and enjoy each other’s company.
He jokes, in his charmingly blunt manner, “I could smile at someone without getting the finger.”
He opened an instant-success restaurant called the Carolina Chicken Factory — “a great business” — which, after selling, enabled him to travel Mexico and Central America for the next three years.
Finally, 12 years ago, he and a buddy landed in Puerto Escondido to check out a surfing competition. He never left.
“I camped for four months in the Punta and bought the Split Coconut while I was still there.”
At the time, the Split Coconut was located above Playa Zicatela next to Cabo Blanco, and owned by two ex-pats. Brad’s first impression was uncertain: it looked like a biker bar. But he went in anyway and says with a laugh that within 20 minutes they were all friends.
Then came Superbowl Sunday and as one of the owners attempted to barbecue food for fans watching the game on TV, Brad jumped in to help.
“The next week I bought it. That was 12 years ago, and these have been the best 12 years of my life.”
Since buying “the Split,” he has had to move the business eight times. Prior to his latest move last year, the bar/restaurant was located at the Hotel Jardin Real in Bacocho. But now, on the beach across the road from the Hotel Santa Fe, he says he is home. The location is ideal with the beach views and the shade; and the stage — host to Puerto’s famous music festival in January and February — is built around two coconut trees.
“That’s how I knew this was the place.”
However the new locale came with a few problems.
“There was a shack here,” he says, gesturing to the bar, “where I could put my fingers right through the wall.”
He replaced everything, building a new bar, stage and washrooms.
Someday, he hopes to move the Split to his own property at La Punta, a five-minute drive from the current location, where he has a large piece of land one block away from the beach.
“It would be a hoe-down, ranch-style, outdoor barbecue, music thing.”
Music is a big part of the Split and Brad’s life. His musical knowledge is extensive and he once played keyboards in a semi-famous Atlanta band called Samurai Catfish. (The guitarist from that band, Brendan O’Brien, is now a well-known music producer and mixer, who has won two Grammy Awards.)
“I peaked in the 70s,” Brad laughs. “This is just the rest of my life.”
But he recently started playing the keyboards again and Split Coconut is one of “the” places to go for live music. In season, the bar/restaurant hosts music three times a week (“playing anything that’s good”), as well as 10 shows for Puerto Music.
“It’s a lot of fun. It’s a place where musicians feel comfortable,” he says, pointing to the stage. “It’s like playing in a Yes album cover.”
Hosting the music fest has introduced Brad to some cool people like Jackie Lomax, a British guitarist and singer/songwriter, best known for his association with George Harrison and Eric Clapton.
“Sitting and talking to him . . . he had story after story. Every song I played, he said ‘I knew that guy.’”
Puerto’s music fest has hosted some big names over the years, and in 2012, Brad is especially looking forward to the return of internationally acclaimed Canadian musician Jimmy Bowskill, who opens the festival on January 5.
Discovered by Jeff Healy at the age of 11, the now 20-year-old musician has opened for Dickey Betts, Garth Hudson, ZZ Top, Deep Purple and The Sam Roberts Band.
“He’s charting all over Europe,” Brad says. “He sounds like Paul Rogers and plays the guitar like Jimmy Page.”
Other names coming to Puerto Music 2012 include Wild T, David Rotundo, Johnny Sansone, Mike “Shrimp Daddy” Reid, Dylan Wickens and Brian Templeton.
But back at the Split Coconut on a Sunday afternoon in late October, my partner and I are just finishing up divine meals of ribs (the massive “chica” portion) and mahi-mahi, both grilled to perfection.
An assortment of Mexicans and gringos have gathered to watch Sunday football on the TV behind the bar, and Brad is busy working the barbecue pit and chatting it up with customers. He is wearing a Vancouver Canucks t-shirt, which make me particularly happy.
In addition to being a pro behind the grill and a wealth of information on music, Brad is also a sports fan, and the many Canadians and Americans who live in Puerto can usually catch the latest hockey game live — that is, unless there’s a baseball game on instead.
Brad makes no apologies if baseball usurps hockey — with Brad you get what you get, and he’s proud of it.
“I’m never going to be plastic,” he says. “I’m only gonna do what I believe in.”
And for now, that means good food, good music and good company.

 

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