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These evolutions dominated the San Antonio bar and beverage scene in 2021
BY RON BECHTOL
From cultivated lowbrow aesthetics to a growing cluster of adventurous drinking spots south of downtown, these trends defi ned the boozy end of San Antonio’s food scene in 2021. Pour yourself a drink and let’s run them down.
Craft Brewing
William Menger started making beer in a basement connected to what became the Menger Hotel in the early 1850s, and by the early 1900s, San Antonio boasted some of the state’s largest and most successful breweries. It’s only taken 100 years, but it appears that the Alamo City is once again poised to become a brewing powerhouse.
At least in numbers. Inside 1604 alone there at least 16 breweries of varying sizes and ambitions. And while the craft’s local pioneers were largely German immigrants, the latest crop is far more diverse. Joey Villareal kickstarted the craft movement in 1996 with the founding of Blue Star Brewing. Since then, Freetail Brewing took fl ight in 2008, and brewery-distillery Ranger Creek was established in 2010. Alamo Brewing, now in impressive digs on the near East Side, launched its label in 2014, while Dorćol Distilling and Brewing started distilling in 2013 and later added Highwheel Beer to the mix.
And these are just the bigger guys.
Small but scrappy Islla St. Brewing serves South Texas-inspired suds — including one that smells, looks and tastes uncannily like a certain red cream soda — out of a modest taproom set with picnic tables. Weathered Souls has made a national name for itself with its Black Is Beautiful initiative. Downtown’s Roadmap draws customers with a wall of taps that reads like a hit parade of local favorites: New England and Double IPAs, a dry-hopped Pilsner, Blonde Ale, Ke le Sours, Hefeweizen. Food is front and center and the city’s most impressively appointed operation, Southerleigh Fine Food and Brewery — which happens to occupy the original Pearl Brewhouse, built in 1894. We’ve come a long way, only to look back.
‘High-low’ Design
Let’s acknowledge something from the get-go. There’s “high” design, of which San Antonio has precious few examples in the hospitality realm, and there’s “low” design, of which we have a ton — both purposeful and accidental. The accidental lows are worth examining another time. To point out just one example of the purposeful low, which might best be called “high-low,” let’s look at Li le Death on North St. Mary’s Street. It’s the architectural equivalent of a ta ooed sideshow performer with no square inch left uninked — great as a one-off riff on graffi ti, but maybe not sustainable as a trend.
Moving up the aspirational scale, we come to Hot Joy, the interior equivalent of Li le Death’s exterior, with every surface — some of them inspired by tattoos — meticulously embellished with Asian themes and artifacts by designer Greg Mannino. It’s perhaps the city’s most fully realized work of interior imagination. The only competition there might well be the more recent Hugman’s Oasis on the River Walk, an ultra-atmospheric tiki den sporting tropes from skulls to South Seas shields and gro oes to palm-thatch huts. And
all of that with suitably garish mugs and drinks that fl ame, of course.
Less fl amboyant, but still a fully imagined concept, is Best Quality Daughter, a former brewery and BBQ joint at the Pearl which the interiors team at local architecture fi rm Lake | Flato turned into a whimsically wallpapered jewel box for just-precious-enough Asian food. Anyone in need of convincing that pastels can be powerful when used right need only pay a visit. In contrast, the steampunk strength of Sernewirthe at the Pearl was realized with the almost unfair advantage of existing atmospherics such as macho machinery and brew tanks — though the design team used it all to good advantage.
In a more conservative vein, it’s worth looking at a restaurant design that breaks no new ground but treats historic motifs with care and fi nesse: Brasserie Mon Chou Chou. The burnished interior pushes many brasserie bu ons — marble, brass trim, bistro chairs, mosaic fl oors — without ever coming across as a cartoon. Everything has been considered down to the plates and the aproned servers.
It is, of course, a refl ection of a Paris of the past. We’re still waiting for the perfect evocation of a San Antonio of today.
Cocktail Confl uence
San Antonio’s Southtown-King William area has emerged as largely walkable cocktail confl uence. Some of the city’s best bars — and restaurants with good bars — are situated here. However, be warned: there are more than most humans could handle in a single pub crawl.
Starting at the north end, there’s the bar at Mixtli. Set apart from the dining space, and with an entrance off South Presa Street, no reservations are required at this diminutive hideout dominated by a color-changing “cloud” symbolic of the restaurant’s ever-changing, regional modern-Mexican theme. The bar’s menu, along with its limited snacks, is nominally keyed to that of the restaurant, so it will change. Mixtli’s Oaxacan Old Fashioned, with both mezcal and tequila, is a recommended starting point. So is the cinnamon-accented Tascalate, which will introduce you to Nixta corn liqueur. It tastes and smells for all the world exactly like sweetened, fresh masa.
Nearby, Pharm Table also plays with unexpected spirits from points south at its smartly done bar-dining space. Charanda de Michoacan rum fi gures in the Caña Mexicana, along with a Oaxacan aguardiente and piloncillo, while the Equinox Sour includes Peruvian Pisco, ruby port and puckery sumac. For the designated walker, there’s also a short list of zero-proof cocktails starting with the on-tap house turmeric ginger “beer,” and including a Seedlip N/A-groni.
In contrast to Mixtli and Pharm, Amor Eterno’s interior comes across as an eclectic parlor with furnishings of an eccentric granny bent. The menu is a li le less focused, too, but the drinks are well-executed. The mojito takes a deeper twist with dark rum and turbinado sugar, the Algonquin adds pineapple to a mix of rye and dry vermouth and Where the Buff alo Roam takes a buff alo grass-infused vodka and teams it with pear, lemon grass and cider.
Slip through a parking lot and you’re at Maverick Texas Brasserie. The copper-topped bar is the fi rst thing you see in the sultry space. Maverick got creative during peak pandemic and off ered curbside and delivery kits of cocktails such as the Dead Poet with tequila, vermouth, mezcal, bénédictine, yellow chartreuse and orange bi ers. There’s an extensive wine list, too, but this is the kind of bar where the ’tenders do rise to your challenges. Ask them for the likes of an Aviation or a Hemingway daiquiri.
Francis Bogside is now just across the street. Though the food menu isn’t as ambitious as it once was, the pub grub is more than adequate, and we’re here for the booze and the generous happy hours — all day Sunday and Monday, for example. Unique drinks include the Stiff meister with bourbon, brandy, Benedictine and Islay scotch or the Suze’n Sarandon with Kinsman Rakia, gin, Suze and Squirt. We suggest fried pickles or truffl e fries no ma er what you’re drinking.
Newcomer Bar Lore a lies a li le more than a block away. To all appearances, it’s more of a restaurant than a bar, but you’ll be happy to have the kitchen if you order the city’s best tater tots with caviar as your snack. They’re $15 but worth it. Bar service is friendly and competent too. A section of cocktails plays with the theme of Buc-ee’s products such as beef jerky. But to balance that, there’s also a list of variations on a theme of the Manha an — from which the Bobby Burns with Compass Box’s Artist’s Blend is especially good.
From here, the aforementioned Hot Joy is a hop, skip and a jump. Its kitchen is hit-ormiss these days, but shrimp chips or crispy cumin pork dumplings should go with anything tiki inspired. Try the International Waters with gin, aquavit, blue Curaçao and lemon oleo-saccharum. Or perhaps the Rhubarbra Streisland with Mexican rum, mezcal, rhubarb and lime. More straightforward daiquiris and the likes of a Painkiller or an Island Mule are all good happy hour choices.
Booze basics
According to serial bar developer Jeret Peña, people have lost interest crafty cocktails. Which is why he’s banking on going back to the dad-based basics such as highballs for his latest operation, Three Star Bar on Grayson Street. It’s opposite another of his concepts, Hello Paradise. Think Cuba Libre with standard Coca-Cola or a gin and tonic with added pickle juice. Equally modest grub accompanies those lowbrow off erings: meatball sandwiches, a grilled cheese on jalapeño cheddar bread, burgers and tater tots.
A trend in the making? Could be, but if keep-your-booze-basic is becoming a mantra, we do have a suggestion: seek out bars that have well-curated drinks you can knock back — or sip, your choice — in shots. What follows is a list of those at the forefront.
Scotch: You can do no be er than Bar 1919 in Blue Star or proprietor Don Marsh’s latest enterprise, Rock and Rye, at The Rim. Online, you’ll be scrolling forever just to get through the whisk(e)ys — and that’s before you even come to the scotches. To pick a category — and you should — there are 50 or so single malt entries from coastal Islay alone. A pour in a proper Glencairn tasting glass will cost anywhere from $12 to $700. Nobody said simple was necessarily cheap.
Sake: New Japanese restaurant Shiro serves some of the city’s freshest and most artfully crafted sushi, so it should come as no surprise that its sake menu is equally thoughtful. The junmai designation simply means “pure rice,” though there are subcategories based on the degree of milling the base rice undergoes. There are cloudy sake and sparkling ones. Most will be served cold. At the bo om of the list, the Hakutsuru Li le Lilly is soft and cloudy, a beautiful contrast to the sparkling variety. Be prepared to spend from $10 to $165 for a bo le, the la er a splurge you might want to save for date night under the pink neon.
Sherry: Since it was the only bar outside of the East Coast to participate in esteemed Spanish producer Bodegas Lustau’s International Sherry week, which fell in November, Downstairs at the Esquire should be your one-stop shop for sherries of all stripes — either in cocktails or straight up. Look for the full range of styles by the glass or bo le, from crackling dry fi no and manzanilla to unctuous oloroso and Pedro Ximénez. One good choice, if available, is the minimally fi ltered Gonzalo Byass Tio Pepe Fino en Rama. It’s not your maiden aunt’s tipple.
Mezcal and Tequila: Whether of beer, wine or spirits, fl ights are fun. You can put together your own of mezcal or tequila version at Mexican restaurant Cuishe’s two locations, either in St. Paul Square or on Loop 1604. The pours come in one or two ounces from its respective Destilados de Agave lists. The spots serve 25 kinds of the most basic variety of Mezcal, espadin, while tobalá gets six and cuishe — the source of the restaurant’s name — gets six more. Mezcal-adjacent spirits such as raicilla and bacanora are also available. And tequila’s extra-añejo category alone fl aunts 10 selections. Have at it with bar snacks that include diminutive tacos de canasta or bichos — fried crickets served with guacamole. This is a trend San Antonio should surely embrace.
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Facebook / Second Pitch Beer Co. Courtesy / Donovan Thomson Courtesy / Jennifer Beckmann Instagram / Box Street Social
Lessons Learned
San Antonio food and beverage business owners share what a tough year taught them and their hopes for 2022
BY NINA RANGEL
With the close of a turbulent year, San Antonio’s food community has ridden out unprecedented ups and downs.
Beyond the challenge of safely serving diners during the COVID-19 pandemic, they grappled with supply chain issues, labor shortages and the usual curveballs of running a customer-facing business. But the Alamo City is nothing if not resilient.
We checked in with four local food and beverage business owners to ask them about the lessons they learned over 2021 — and what keeps them hopeful going into the new year.
Jim Hansen Owner, Second Pitch Beer Company
On lessons: “The biggest lesson from the year is to be as authentic as possible. People with limited time, eff ort and money will only spend those things on an authentic experience, and we strive to provide that every day and with every pint of our beer. Second is to trust and invest in our people, as they are the lifeblood of our company and a huge reason we are doing as well as we are. Finally, I think we learned how best to work with other locals and small business. We continue to use Community Cultures Yeast Labs as our yeast provider and we started se ing up several small vendor and makers markets, so people can have an opportunity to shop extremely local.”
On hopes: “I am most hopeful about a return to semi-normal with folks drinking and eating out. We are also hopeful and excited about our cans going into H-E-B. We realized earlier on we need to provide our beer in a way people are consuming it, and that means moving up our plans to go in cans by a couple of years.”
Donovan Thomson Co-Owner Big Hops New Braunfels; founder SATXRated blog
On lessons: “The most important lesson I learned was the extent to which we need to support our small businesses. I’ve always tried to do that by leveraging the following SATXRated has, but now that I’m a small business owner, I’m doing everything I can think of to further support other small, locally owned businesses in my community. So many in the San Antonio community had to close over the last year through no fault of their own, and I’ve come to realize that every guest counts. Every person who supports small business is vital to that company’s survival, and, in the long run, the way that community thrives.”
On hopes: “Of course, I hope we fi nally make it through this pandemic and that people are able to get out more, spend more time together, safely. That would prime our industry for a comeback that I think people really want to see.”
Jennifer Beckmann Certifi ed Wine Educator & Sommelier; owner, ReRooted:210
On lessons: “We’ve learned some really valuable lessons in how we operate, especially as people start to get back out again. We’re seeing people that want to get back out, businesses that want to book get-togethers, but they want to do that in a controllable and safe way. The space that we have allows us to fi ll that niche, and as long as people are in a space that’s safe, where they have a modicum of control, the more receptive they are to spending time out and about. We’ve been booking a lot of corporate events, so we’re seeing corporate-structured businesses coming back, people are networking, and we learned that we have a prime space and location to facilitate that.”
On hopes: “We’ve also seen that people are largely receptive to building spaces in their communities to be safe, and that has led to us seeing a lot of localized support. People have been more supportive of localized products and businesses than I have ever seen before. And that’s a trend I hope continues.”
Daniel Trevino Owner, Box Street All Day, Box Street Social
On hopes: “We just love seeing everyone’s smiling faces again. The connection between our guests and serving them is so gratifying to us. As we move forward, we are excited to see this normalize again: ... living every day to its fullest and enjoying everyone’s presence while we have it.”
