Michael Benjamin Tucker

Mike Tucker, Texas City restauranteur whose larger-than-life personality and innovative culinary flare drove thousands to his business, Gus' Restaurant, Inc., for nearly four and a half decades, died on Friday, August 23, 2024. He was 73.

His death, at a local hospital, followed years of health issues stemming from a pulmonary embolism he suffered in 2017.

Michael Benjamin Tucker was born on November 23, 1950, in Texas City, Texas to Frank Kim Tucker and Frankie Moore Tucker. Frank and Frankie, both avid golfers, raised each of their children with the love of the game, spending many hours as a family teaching the key tenets of the sport that accompanied Mike throughout his life-etiquette, mental toughness, fierce competitiveness, and attention to detail. Mike graduated from Texas City High School in 1969 where he, to no surprise, lettered in golf, winning back-to-back team MVP honors during his tenure. Mike had a lifelong nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic that rivaled few. At the age of twelve, he lugged his father's push mower door-to-door in an eager attempt to corner the neighborhood lawn business, which he successfully did, and later delivered newspapers via bicycle. From his teens and through early adulthood, Mike was continuously employed by numerous local entities when, during his lunch breaks, he became a regular at Gus' BBQ. Over the years, then-owner of Gus' BBQ, Gus Guthier, became acquainted with Mike and offered him employment several times in the early 1970s. In 1972, Mike accepted the offer and began his journey in the restaurant business, working alongside Gus until 1980, when Mike purchased the restaurant at twenty-nine years old.

On July 1, 1980, Mike rebranded Gus' BBQ to Gus' Restaurant and opened a newly renovated concept that was his own, a long-held dream first ignited when he saw the alluring scenes of the famous Rick's Café in the classic film Casa Blanca. Mike was an early trailblazer in an industry that, at the time, rarely yielded restaurants that strayed from a singular culinary theme. His first addition to the menu, a 16oz rib-eye steak, is to this day prepared with the recipe given to him by his mother. His most coveted dish, the chicken piccata, is an addictive Tucker spin on a meal that leads one to conclude "that was no chicken piccata," nearly always to his or her delight.

Mike created a menu that he himself enjoyed in an atmosphere he himself revered, knowing that customers would trust his judgment. And "trust" him his customers did-Gus' has attracted many from far and wide and become so enduringly popular that the restaurant has been described by local publications as "a Texas City landmark" and "one of Galveston County's best-kept secrets." Over the years, Mike made special bonds with many in the Texas City community that could only be made in a place of his design, where outside stresses and problems were on pause and the focus was on enjoying his unique provisions and character.

When a 2009 kitchen fire rendered the original Gus' location ruined, Mike received many offers to move the business to more populated areas of the county. In the end, he chose to reopen in Texas City, owing that decision to his love of the city and thanks to the efforts of Mayor Matthew Doyle and TCLM Chamber President Jimmy Hayley. When Mike was asked why he chose to stay in Texas City by the Galveston County Daily News, he simply said "That's where our customers are." Gus' Restaurant, now at its third location and in its 63rd year of operation, remains in Texas City today.

Despite all of Mike's professional successes, his greatest pride was that which he found in his wife of 37 years, Melissa Campbell Tucker, children, and grandchildren. At home, he laughed constantly, pushed his family to their best, and loved unconditionally. Outside of work and family, Mike was a scratch golfer, routinely teeing off throughout the years at Bayou Golf Club in the afternoon skin games or many community tournaments.

Mike's life was unquestionably driven by his love of family, the tenets taught to him by his parents, and his "people can get glad as quick as they get mad" attitude toward customer service. He was tough and possessed the type of durability and grit that is demanded by the town in which he planted his roots. But the key to his legacy, and the lesson for those he left behind, may be found in his own words from a 1996 publication in the Texas City Sun: "We take a lot of time to do things right. We don't cut any corners."

Preceding Mike in death are his father, Frank; mother, Frankie; and brother, Donald. He is survived by his wife, Melissa Tucker; daughter, Erica Tucker; daughter, Julie Parnell and husband Nathan; son, Michael Weston Tucker; grandchildren, Cason Parnell, Evan Parnell, and Jonathan Parnell; brother, Danny Tucker and wife Barbie; brother-in-law, Dickey Campbell and wife Lisa; many nieces and nephews; beloved Gus' family; and dear friends.

The family will receive guests to share in a Celebration of Life Visitation from 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., with a 2:00 p.m. Memorial Service to follow, on Friday, September 6, 2024, at First Baptist Church of Texas City, 10000 Emmett F. Lowry Expressway, Texas City, TX 77591 with Dr. Robert Miller officiating. Funeral services are under the direction of Emken-Linton Funeral Home.