What is San Antonio like?

The riverwalk area downtown was nice, and it was cool to see the Alamo, but I just think that we missed out on whatever charms the city offers.

I have so much to add to this thread, but so little time to devote to it at present! Honeys, the rest of the city isn't creepy or unfriendly -- we can be the friendliest people in the whole of the freakin' universe! I will answer this thread properly once I get back. And yes, Tep and I are of the same mind, and Tep knows what the real, non-touristy side of San Antonio is like. I mean, gosh, Bandera Rd. is about as non-touristy as one can get.

Will respond with more later, darlings!

(I don't think of New Orleans as a particularly good city for touristing, for instance; most of the people who come seem to complain about all the things that make it not New York.)

I love living here. There are some moments where I feel envious of people who live in NYC or London or L.A., sure, mainly when I realize how many more opportunities overall they've got, but I feel so much of a pull to San Antonio that I don't know if I could give up this crazy place. I've got so many relatives here in town. I have deep personal roots to the city and I feel this need to be its personal champion, because so few people are willing to do that.

San Antonio is a rough gem waiting to be discovered. So many people quickly dismiss it based on its outward appearance, but in reality one has to scratch the surface in order to see what is truly gorgeous and "fall in love"-ish about it. San Antonio rewards multiple visits and lengthy stays, after you've gotten over the cliches and whatnot.

In order to appreciate San Antonio, you have to eat at where San Antonians eat, and most of the time it's either a Tex-Mex restaurant in the West side or a Bill Miller's anywhere in the city. We're big on buffets, and the best ones, in my part of town at least, are the Fire Mountain Buffet on Bandera Rd. (it used to be known as Ryan's) and the Taste of China Buffet on Colony Dr., close to Wurzbach and I-10. Look around. Listen to the conversations. You'll realize how diverse we are, how hard we are to pin down.

Stay in the West Side. Go to an authentic, honest-to-goodness molino or pan dulce bakery. Notice how friendly all the employees are. Smile. Eat delicious homemade tortillas or Mexican baked goodies. Realize how easy it is to get fat on this delicious stuff. Go to the East Side. Eat fantastic barbecue and see upwardly-striving African-Americans with their smiling faces, all purposeful and driven and proud. Don't go to the South Side. There's nothing there to see but uncultured and lazy people. The West Siders are thirsty for knowledge, and the East Siders are the hardest workers one will ever see, but the South Siders are fatalistic and boorish and the less time I stay there, the better. (I may say this as a biased North Sider, but my parents come from the West Side and I had HS classmates from all over the city and so I'm not coming from a truly snobbish and closed-minded viewpoint here.)

The area I live in is generally known as the Medical Center. It's currently in the middle of a major renovation that will accomodate the massive growth the area has undergone in the past ten years. It's pretty much indicative of the whole of the city. San Antonio is growing and changing at such a fast rate that even if you were to live here for just ten years, you could probably name at least five things about your neighborhood that are different from when you first moved in. Also, the demographics are changing just as dramatically, and with that the culinary selection. Back in the mid '70s, it was unheard of to find Indian or Thai restaurants anywhere near the city. Now, just 25 or so years later, Indian and Thai restaurants are popping up at an amazing frequency.

San Antonio's population also keeps growing. In the mid '80s, it was the tenth most populous city in the U.S.; now, it's the ninth and quickly overtaking number eight. The economy is also growing at a fast pace locally, which wasn't happening even twelve years ago. We're finally getting our own little economic boom. So even though the city's not really considered in the "big leagues" yet, watch and wait -- it will be soon enough.

Oh my God, I feel like I could still go on about the city. If you want to ask me more specific questions, I will go ahead and answer them. I feel like I've just given you an overview of what the city is like, with no real meat to speak of whatsoever. I mean, I haven't even brought up H-E-B or Central Market or the Santikos theaters or anything else a native San Antonian could talk about at length. My specialty is the whole of the Northwest Side, because that's my neighborhood and I've been all over that side, and I know quite a lot about the West Side because, as I stated earlier, that's where my parents come from. So please, ask away.

s/San Antonion/Moose Jaw/

We have had a few threads about SA (especially compared with other Texan cities).

(Note: That was truly meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Though I adore the city and will defend it any chance I get.)

I have a friend who used to live in San Antonio. He said he moved because it was "too fucking hot." Also, he's an architect, and the downtown redevelopment zone irked him beyond belief.

Many Coloured Halo OTM. I've lived in SA most of my life and have nothing else to add beyond what's already been said.

*almost faints*

JC, you... live... in... San... Antonio?? Or is this past tense?

*squeals in delight*

It thrills me to no end to hear of someone actually being cosmically drawn to my hometown. You don't know how much that means to me, especially since the city gets so little attention or respect as compared to other cities around the country. Thank you for being intrigued!!

1. New York 8,104,079 pop.
2. L.A. 3,845,541 pop.
3. Chicago, Ill. 2,862,244 pop.
4. Houston, Tex. 2,012,626 pop
5. Philadelphia, Pa. 1,470,151 pop.
6. Phoenix, Ariz. 1,418,041 pop.
7. San Diego, Calif. 1,263,756 pop.
8. San Antonio, Tex. 1,236,249 pop.
9. Dallas, Tex. 1,210,393 pop.
10. San Jose, Calif. 904,522 pop.

The mission tour is much more interesting for San Antonio/Texas/Mexican history.

1) 85 degrees and humid as balls
2) 60 degrees and calm
3) 30 degrees and wet

With any luck, you will not need a large overcoat of any kind.

And I hear this is supposed to be a nice place, but I haven't been to the Riverwalk in years.

http://www.lasleyendas.com/

#28's still pretty good.

You really can't compare southwest cities to eastern ones in those terms. We have more room out here. No row houses, no crowded downtowns. Just wasn't/isn't neccessary.

I've been there less than a half a dozen times but couldn't offer any advice. Everytime I've gone it was to see a specific person or place so I've done little exploring.

right, they aren't cities

Right, cause it takes a lot of sense to built cities totally ignorant of things like urban sprawl, smart growth, effective public transportation, mixed-use development, strip malls, office parks, and suburban homeowner's associations.

That sort of attitude towards city planning leaves you more often than not with developers focusing more on building out into higher income homeowner's associations and gated communities for rich white folk rather than focusing on the more centrally located mid-to-low income housing that the majority of the population needs to live in.

And you end up with all the new homes look like this:

http://a.im.craigslist.org/6r/WG/VbSTcjUFhH56VIMY92FwEqLr2CKI.jpg http://a.im.craigslist.org/j5/q4/S3u4fFTYFD070bpoAf5UvNgoyhwH.jpg http://a.im.craigslist.org/vy/B3/IpqnDmd1JgjQRQDmrOtee2lUPwws.jpg

Creepy sterile prefabricated alien colonies.

And by the way, I wasn't aware that anyone who lives in an apartment is living on top of each other, "like rats."

Those are suburban homes - of which the 'eastern seaboard' has plenty.

xxpost

Sprawl is totally an issue in the DC suburbs. It's spreading further and further out, with new suburban developments creating commuter pockets up to 2 hours outside DC.

Los Angeles is the worst city for urban sprawl, followed by Washington/Baltimore; San Francisco Bay; New York City; and Dallas-Fort Worth area to round out the top five. Elsewhere in Texas, the Houston-Galveston-Brazoria area is the 11th worst metropolitan area for sprawl.

Hmm, guess you're right. STILL SAN ANTONIO HAS LOTS OF BAD URBAN SPRAWL THAT I DON'T LIKE OK!!! That's the point I was trying to make.

You're right that there is some bad urban sprawl going on, but I don't think there is a significant amount of people doing two-hour commutes the way other sprawling cities might.

i am going next week. any new bar/restaurant tips other than gabbneb's?

Hmmm. You can't go wrong with the Vietnam Restaraunt (yup, "Vietnam Restaraunt" - pretty blunt) on Broadway. It's about a half-mile mile south of Incarnate Word, across from a Half-Price Books. Might fine food there.

Restaraunt = restaurant, obv.

http://www.azuca.net/ -- great mojitos, great guac, nice atmosphere. Salsa dancing night is supposed to be pretty good.

Rosario's downtown is pretty good. La Fonda has a big rep but I think it's fucking terrible.

All the barbecue joints are overrated imo. Same for the hamburger joints.

If you're into fine dining, Silo is probably the best restaurant in the city.

What is San Anotonio like?

Very consistent, with solid defense and an uninspiring, but a consistently productive offense. They are widely regarded as having the best management in the league and Pops has used Tim Duncan's talents like a maestro to produce several championships in the past decade. For a small media market, they deserve big ups.

Every ten feet you will encounter some kind of banner or sign saying "Go Spurs Go!" Seriously.

Sam's Burger Joint, dude. Sam's goddamn Burger Joint. And El Mercado for tacos. They're a diff universe from the hipster-friendly arcane-ingredient tacos of Austin: just straight out the border terrible-for-you melt-in-your-mouth amazingness.

o san anto i miss u

It's a bit of a tourist trap, but I really like Mi Tierra.

yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Hey, it's not our fault that our ancestors had the sense and cojones to move out to new land rather then live one on top of another like rats.

rip 2005 :(

thanks everyone! these look great.

any particular bars in the downtown or san antonio college areas?

going to eat so many tacos in this town.

any particular bars in the downtown or san antonio college areas?

― caek, Saturday, March 12, 2011 7:03 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

The Mix is a good bar if you want to get laid by a pale, tattooed young man or woman.

and who doesn't?

~bookmarks furiously~

caek I am a San Antonio native and resident and I don't know shit about bars, but go to the cove, San antonios premier restaurant/laundromat/car wash place/live music venue

just north of downtown is probably where u can get clear of touristy bullshit and suburban sprawly bullshit. Mcnay art museum is pretty.

if u r a veg, right around the corner from the cove is green, hopefully they will have their vegan flautas on special, they are amazing with strawberry pico de gallo

also what days will u be here? I am on spring break this week.

if you are going to do some riverwalk tourist stuff, I remember thinking biga on the banks was aight

also right now pray the weather stay like it is right now, sunny and a slight breeze

there's a pretty tight hot dog place that's a renovated 3bedroom house off of n st marys iirc, pretty close to trinity university. Kings court frankfurters.

Btw I am going to litter this thread for hours probably

see if u can find a tejano bar, mexicans fuckin perfected the polka if u dig that kind of shit

buy a Los spurs jersey of Manu ginobili, you'll have instant sa town cred

when I lived in SA we went to Joey's a bunch, & other bars in that neighborhood. My friends loved Chris Madrid's so I've eaten there a bunch---good burgers, good nachos; kinda fratty maybe! but I'm kinda fratty I guess. I would fucking kill for some Las Palapas super nachos right now, and the buffet at Las Palapas, holy fuck that picadillo, those quesadillas. Mi Tierra is fun. One problem is I don't remember a lot of the names of places b/c lol college, it was a while back & ~altered states~ intervened at times.

We invented breakfasts tacos, eat a mess of them while u r here

chris madrids ain't that fratty, not a big frat boy contingency here tbh

Euler where did you go to school?

tim duncan told me there is a river walk

There is, thank FDR for it every day

TU baby

also visit the non alamo missions on the southside if u r history nerd

xp my wife went there for grad school!

does austin and s.a. fight abt who invented breakfast tacos, cause i got the impression they were p devoted to the singularity of their breakfast taco culture

not much so grad school there so your wife's a teacher or accountant I guess?

carne guisada for breakfast, man I miss that

once I had a pork chop taco near the university at a swell place I can't recall the name of; it was a fucking pork chop, in a tortilla, & it was amazing.

school psychology!

xp austins a bunch of biters, sanantonio is the tru font of Tex Mex innovation

u can check wikipedia on that shit

central library looks dope, architect designed a bunch of shit in la too, nice enchilada red block in the middle of downtown, close to the church where my wifes gramps was a minister years and years ago

chris madrid's hella overrated imo. As is the riverwalk in general, although the general unremarkableness of the riverwalk is charming. It's just not really an attraction per se.

lol im imagining a german tourist addressing a local we find the general unremarkableness of your riverwalk charming

it's like "yeah it's kinda lame, whatevs let's just have some margaritas!"

the story of human existence on earth^

OH dude, for the best handmade corn tortillas, adelante in alamo heights, kinda for gabachitos cos lol old money neighborhood but damn tasty corn tortillas, u will curse god for making u eat the thin flimsy shit anywhere else, get a puffy tacos while u r at it, all fried up

caek I am a San Antonio native and resident and I don't know shit about bars, but go to the cove, San antonios premier restaurant/laundromat/car wash place/live music venue

THE COVE!

It is the oddest, most glorious thing!

Sam's Burger Joint - caught Little Brave there last week. Probably going to the Super Soul Shakedown there in a few weeks as well.

Apparently the Cove has the best gourmet burger in the city too, never got around to eating there.

~bookmarks furiously~

― caek, Saturday, March 12, 2011 7:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lolol

oh my days, thread got real.

m bison, thanks for all the tips! i was supposed to be at sxsw. flights booked and was about to pay for pass then accommodation fell through and i was like eff this. turned out it was cheaper to cool my boots in san antonio for a week than change flight booking and head straight to minneapolis, which is my next destination. so i am in town from wednesday until next monday.

i will probably go to the river walk and the alamo out of a sense of obligation. but really i want to eat and drink many and well and do a bit of work. let me know if you want to hang out.

cool! will send u deetz by

r baez am i to get the impresh that you live here? have i asked that question b4?

*by email

got it!

r baez am i to get the impresh that you live here?

Y - looks ready to drizzle.

have i asked that question b4?

N - first time on this thread.

whereabouts do you live?

i arrive in austin at midnight and don't have a room anywhere for that night. i am currently contemplating:

• spending the night at the star seeds diner in austin, then getting the greyhound to san antonio in the morning
• getting the greyhound straight to san antonio and spending the night at mi tierra's
• getting the super shuttle to san marcos where inexpensive motels with vacant rooms can be had (cf. austin), then getting the greyhound the rest of the way to san antonio.

so basically, fingers crossed i miss my (pretty tight) connection in chicago, and the airline find me a room and fly me down the next morning.

•spending the night at the star seeds diner in austin, then getting the greyhound to san antonio in the morning

I've actually done this when I was stranded in Austin - it was Mojo's, mind you, back when it was open (2004/05?), just coffeeing it up restlessly while repeatedly reading every damn issue of Outdoor magazine they had. Made friends with a schizophrenic who claimed I was a genius. So, I recommend you find a friendly schizophrenic, should you pursue this option.

oh and I emailed you, m bison.

Rec'd!

•spending the night at the star seeds diner in austin, then getting the greyhound to san antonio in the morning

have also done this, recommend a few books if you got the option

had a little time to kill the other morning, and made a map on google of some restaurants and bars around the downtown / southtown area (southtown is basically the arts district of SA). descriptions are scant cus obv yelp etc..but everything's on there for a reason.

http://bit.ly/eE0OFa

and this month is Contemporary Art Month in SA, so there will be a bunch of events and openings around downtown at hotels and galleries with free drinks and cute girls. check the calendar here

http://contemporaryartmonth.com/calendar/2011-03

also, the local weekly rag has a calendar you can check for events as well

sacurrent.com

finally, yeah, the downtown part of the riverwalk is a lame tourist trap, but the city has recently expanded it out north out to the San Antonio Museum of Art and the Pearl Brewery site (http://www.atpearl.com) as well as south to the Blue Star Arts Complex...all of which are worth checking out

if you want even deeper options in the city, holler

xp, i have this bad boy: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Battle-Cry-Freedom-Penguin-history/dp/0140125183/ :-)

grouper, wow, thanks very much! that map is priceless!

the local bus service looks pretty handy, but if i can find a bicycle, how is cycling in san antonio? are there paths? are cyclists tolerated on the road?

quite a bit of biking in the neighborhoods around downtown, just don't venture into the burbs or you'll be target practice

second what m bison said, SA is getting a lot more bike friendly than it use to be, as long as you're not going way far outside of downtown, you should be good. although you can bike the whole mission trail pretty easily which is about 13 miles or so.

also, you can rent bikes at Blue Star and Bike World at Pearl Brewery...not sure about pricing/variety of bikes though.

one more thing, if you end up drinking one night on St. Mary's strip (Limelight, the Mix, Joey's, Webhouse, Salute), make sure to try the tortas at the taco truck in front of Hardbody's (male strip club) - best torta ever when drunk, they're monstrous and delicious.

man grouper are you in sa too? All the sa town ppl coming out the woodwork all years later

indeed....raised here, been a lurker for a while. decided to finally come out of hiding because i hate when people come to SA and think it sucks, just because they don't know where to go or look.

what side of town are you on?

281 and bitters, near the airport, where u at?

Golly! 'nother one!

Hiya, grouper!

grew up king william area, now i'm over off broadway near pearl

and hey Baez, what's up!

also, can i say go Spurs in here, or would that be to stereotypical of SA

Fuck it,stereotypes is TRUE, black and silver por vida

shawty u must be loaded grown up in king willz!

Also all hoops related stannery goes in here

they reminisce over yao -- 2010/2011 regular season second half thread

you would think so...but my folks got in the ground floor of that area when the neighborhood was a shithole, back in the 70's. not to say we're not doing all right, but in no way fucking with the CEButts of the area

i'll make sure to head that way bison

Aw I was gonna hit u up for some free meals

i got you at the combination pizza hut and taco bell

all years later

― once gun-bitten, twice gun-shy (m bison), Tuesday, March 15, 2011 11:57 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

lol "all years later and shit"

<333333333 sa <333333333333

for reals

I'm in your hood quite a bit, my wifes bff lives in olmos park and I think we wanna move thereabouts someday (tho we got hell a bougie concerns about schools once we start spawning)

It's disorienting seeing all this stuff mentioned on ILX. Limelight and Olmos Park and Bitters and whatnot - ODD.

Its a nu generation, mijo

lol yall makin me miss that saytown somethin fierce

u r always welcome back u wayward son

i'll fed ex you some barbacoa and big red HOOS

ha

aw <3

dang I'm killing myself right now, all veg Indian restaurant opened up at evers/wurzbach, all homemade and plastic forks, best dosas in town

like I must be slipping right now cos normally I'd know this type of shit instant they open up but they've been around for months now!

drop us a name bison! not really up on my indian cuisine like i should be, but my friend recently turned me on to Kohinoor off starcrest....pretty damn good. any other must haves?

http://www.indiaoven.biz/

oh man big red... I miss you, SA!

pavani express, next door to the best Indian grocery in sa

xp

☑ alamo/river walk (on st patrick's day during spring break, oh man good grief)
☑ lula's cafe downtown
☑ the cove (a+ will visit again)
☑ mad hatter's coffee house
☑ sunburn

fun fact: lulu's was shaq's fav restaurant when he lived in sa.

founders sold their share of the restaurant to start green, sa's first veg restaurant

THE MORE U KNOW

what did you think of mad hatter's?

i think i was at lula's not lulu's?

but that reminds me

☑ greens (really good!)

i only had a side of fruit and ice tea at mad hatters (i came from greens, where i had two breakfasts), but it was a nice place!

going to get so fat this week.

i am being taken out in the king william district by my lovely airbnb host tonight.

☑ got confused and cycled on the left hand side of the street and got shouted/beeped at (twice)

oh, I am thinking of a different place, my bad re: lulu's v lula's

try to find Sandra cisneros' house in king William!

Also welcome to San Antonio, our #1 export is fatness holla

i lost about half a stone cycling up to monte cristo this pm in jeans and doc martens, which is coincidentally exactly the weight of tacos i have eaten.

Also welcome to San Antonio, our #1 export is fatness holla

#2-Toyota trucks.

Make of that what you will.

did that factory finally open up & get running?

i love san antonio, god's city on earth imo. lived there for 6 months in the early 90s, <3 it 4ever

update: i have eaten another half a stone of tacos

how many tacos fit in a stone

i think there are 100 tacos to an imperial stone

☑ the monterey (by far the most enjoyable plate of sprouts i have ever had in my life)
☑ the friendly spot (i liked this place)
☑ a bar called jerry's (?), which was next to the mix (was far too drunk to form an opinion at this point. forgot what my date of birth was when talking about parties)

~loving~ this town

probably you were at Joey's, if you were next to the Mix. I spent a lot of happy time at Joey's back in college (one of the only bars I had the balls to go to before I was 21, b/c at least at that time it wasn't ~that~ kind of bar).

joey's sounds right. haha, ~what~ kind of bar is it now?

haha I just meant it wasn't the kind of bar where you'd get a bunch of dopey college kids looking to get wasted; it was a pretty dadrock-y kinda place, Texas-style, rather than a meat market.

the Mix and Joey's being next door to each other is so strange.

tonight i went to a free show by lol ozomatli at the pearl. they are such a dreadful band and still i had an amazing time. i have such a crush on this town. thanks to everyone for the tips. tomorrow i leave for the great midwest.

warms my heart caek, seriously. glad you had such a good time

We just call it "the midwest"

<3 caek love that u love san anto

I am going to San Antonio tomorrow

!
porque?

conference. But I will have tomorrow night free! Coworkers and I are looking for something fun.

touristy or off the beaten path? bars?

I mean anything I suggest, take with a grain of salt since I am a shut in suburbanite at heart, but maybe I can point you in a direction

walking distance from riverwalkish area or reasonable length cab rides? I read a nytimes 36 hrs thing that mentioned several of the places on caek's list upthread. I have done no research other than that oops!

what kinda food are you looking for?
there's some decent bar action just north of downtown, maybe a 10 minut drive up around trinity university/San Antonio college corridor
of course the only one I've actually been to is a gay bar, but it was fun

san antonio is great!

i agree.
i am biased, though.

I think we are going to walk over to the riverwalk - what's best for dinner and drinks that's not crazy expensive or stuffy.

I remember acenar being p good!

nothing on the river walk is cheap cheap, but their prices are decent

m bison i am going to san antonio for a few days next week for a conference, i won't have a ton of free time but can you recommend some good (cheap?) mexican places near the riverwalk area? i'm staying at the hyatt on lasoya street

or anywhere else that is walkable and interesting to see/do?

walk to a bus station and take the greyhound to austin imo

austin is great of course but i have been there a few times already! i am curious about san antonio

walk to a bus station and take the greyhound to austin imo
― art, Friday, March 4, 2016 9:27 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

U will pay dearly for your apostasy

A lot of the stuff on the Riverwalk is tourist trappy and overpriced. Since you're downtown, I've heard good things about la Gloria, rosario's, El mirador. You might try mi tierra, it's kind of an institution (I think bill clinton, pop, and Julian Castro ate there together). I've been to acenar once and I remember liking it but it's a bit pricier.

When are you in town? I've got spring break coming up soon, hmu.

Keep in mind I am a pinche Northside suburbanite so most of my haunts are kinda spread out. Although if you're able to go to Southtown, that's a thriving arts district, check that out. Blue star arts complex. Also there's a vegan restaurant nearby called senor veggie, that's my jams.

cool thank you! the trip is very brief -- march 6-9, first & last days are big travel days b/c im coming from boston, 7-8 are mostly taken by conference but i do want to get out and about a little

man I could go for the super nachos at Las Palapas right now, the one up on blanco, or even the tuesday/wednesday night buffets, do they still do that? I ate so many picadillo tacos & the best quesadillas I ever had outside of mexico, basically fried corn pouches filled with melted cheese, on a buffet, ate so many, it's a wonder I survived

m bison do you remember pancho's buffet? that was some shitty ass mexican. but all you can eat and it was fun to pull the flags up on the tables

panchos is still a thing in dallas fyi

it is poison most foul

any places that have particularly good tamales?

though tbf to panchos i haven't been there since hs so maybe things changed but i seem to recall a series of food poisonings there over the yrs

dallas mexican, the only place I'd really like to go is el fenix, do you know it art? is it as good as they say? I have a recipe for a picadillo / potato taco that's allegedly from them, and you deep fry the motherfucker in its tortilla, and it is ace

man I could go for the super nachos at Las Palapas right now, the one up on blanco

I live right down the street from here

fuck

how can you walk?

oh wait, you live in sa, you don't have to!

Never went to pancho's but heard of it.

For tamales, I bet la michoacana meat market on n flores will have some

I mean I'm vegan so that helps.

While this thread is active, I have a S.A. question: Does that crazy record guy still have his shop in that antique mall downtown? I went once around Christmas about 7 years ago, and was kind of overwhelmed. Guy had most of the second floor, loads of everything, only about 5% of his stock was marked, he had this massive collection of toys displayed whereever there wasn't records that "weren't for sale" (and while I was there, that was what he had the most customer inquiries about). Bought a few things for $5 a disc, including a nice white label DJ copy of the second Dr. Feelgood album, which I listened to the other day and got to thinking.

I have no idea! He only record store I knew about from my youth was hogwild records. All my hxc friends were into it.

Does that crazy record guy still have his shop in that antique mall downtown?

Alamo Records! I stumbled across that place completely by accident during a cross-country road trip in 2005. I found a documentary about the place on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4shwbZ9Mx6g

Go to mi tiera, it's awesome, like going to a Mexican restaurant inside a piñata, and they have a fantastic bakery

marcos i just realized that most of the things i recommended in this thread i did so p much everytime someone was in san antonio and bumped this thread.

haha no problem there is probably a reason for that

also i didn't really read the thread until i posted so i couldve saved you some time

but anyways i am here and the weather is warm and beautiful it feels amazing

i am about to look up some of those mexican places you recommended

went to rosario's it was pretty good

Cool!

m bison this city is great

we went to mi tierra the other night, food was amazing, i had pork tamales and they were absolutely delicious

we had some bbq at a very "contemporary conformist" (if you follow carles at all lol - lots of wood paneling and zany light fixtures) place called the granery and i got the sense that it was definitely overpriced but the food was really really good, i had brisket and pulled pork and baked beans w/ potato salad and it was outstanding but our waiter was really corny

San Antonio is a very corny city and our food is amazing, it's the price u pay for gustatory excess

we also went to a great outdoor bar called the friendly spot, there were like a million beers on tap and it had a very chill backyard-like setting

go get a king kong nachos from Chachos

(this is a half order)
http://i.imgur.com/8EfgGoB.jpg

We take a group trip with friends every fall, and for complex/annoying reasons San Antonio has been broached as a possible destination. Now, first things first: I generally like Texas, and I generally like most cities, and I've never been to San Antonio. That said, we just went to Texas (Austin) last year, and I've never *wanted* to go to San Antonio, or to be more fair, there are a couple dozen cities I've either never visited or would prefer to visit again before SA. Obviously plenty of people live there and love it, but as a tourist destination with a focus on food in particular... what say you guys?

Regardless (just to vent) my friends are being pretty annoying on this front. One of them was complaining that they didn't get much Texas out of the Austin trip, but that's their own damn fault; while they were doing stupid stuff, my wife and I went out for Tex/Tex-Mex/taco trucks, BBQ and the Lyndon Johnson Museum/UT campus, which is about as Texas as it gets. Another complained about "hipsters," which I think the, well, hipper neighborhoods of SA (Southtown and the Pearl?) don't lack.

Another factor is that we would likely not have a car, which makes trips out to Hill Country tough, as was the (disappointing) case with Austin, too.

So, thoughts? And again, no (preemptive) slight on San Antonio, I'm sure it's nice, just not sure it's worth a special trip. Any more than it would be for someone in San Antonio to fly to, say, St. Louis.

i was only there for a few days in 2016 (and posted itt about it) but ime the food is incredible, great mexican & bbq, tbh i love austin but san antonio has its own vibe that is in some ways cooler

No doubt. Mexican and BBQ is great across the state. I'm just wondering if it is worth a flight and three nights at a hotel. I mean, I know people who like SA, but they either live there or had to go there. I don't know anyone who has made it *the* destination. Like, book a flight and hotel destination, just for fun.

What is San Antonio like? I anticipate it's worth about a day, even in its tricentennial year.

I don't really understand what makes Austin such a destination in that sense, but if Austin is one, San Antonio certainly is as well. Why not Houston?

I agree about Austin, to some extent, but the combination of food, music, outdoors and museums puts it on a higher destination tier (a la Nashville), imo. Anyway, our friend who picks these places does so based on a rotating scheduled farm dinner, so it's more like, ok, here are the weekends I am free, this is the place the farm dinner is at these weekends. Which this year left her with San Antonio as the only choice that worked. So Houston - or Charleston, or Memphis, or Asheville, or Portland, or Santa Fe, or Montreal, or ... - was never in the running. Not that I am a big fan of Houston, but the food scene there at least is better.

There are worse fates, but I think San Antonio is happening. As someone with a better attitude than I put it, the people you're with are more important than the place, and good friends and travel companions are invaluable. Regardless, I think my wife and I will rent a car so we can head out to the country and see the sights. That SA riverwalk seems like a tourist boondoggle.

riverwalk is pretty but it is definitely touristy

riverwalk is v cool but avoid weekends

there are some very cool markets that i found that were walking distance from the riverwalk (maybe a 10 minute walk). lots of stuff from mexico - jewelry, ceramics, textiles

el mercado is dope for sure

josh, what are the dietary preferences of your party? i am a san antonio native and resident of 32 years.

What's the best time of day or night to visit the riverwalk?

also being compared to austin like this hurts me in my big fat stupid heart, fuck austin

What's the best time of day or night to visit the riverwalk?

― Moo Vaughn, Wednesday, March 7, 2018 6:26 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

christmas

sa's hipster concentration is way lower than austin, SA hipsters are like minor league and they move to big league hipster places bc san antonio is too lame.

i dont have specific places in mind, but you need to get a bag of breakfast tacos, get big red and barbacoa, get tamales, austin literally does all of those things way worse at gentrification prices, so nah

get a fucking mangonada at a fruit cup place con chile y chamoy

if you're going to see the missions, alamo is the worst one for a variety of reasons, check out the others, i mean if you like monuments to settler colonialism https://www.nps.gov/saan/planyourvisit/hikebike.htm

m bison u recommended both mi Tierra and rosarios and they were both delicious

if you are interested in fast food joints, bill miller bbq and whataburger are local favs

namaSA

"SA riverwalk seems like a tourist boondoggle"

in the same way that "Austin" is a tourist boondoggle, in that they attract different kinds of tourists based on different aspirations: the "austin" of "food, music, outdoors and museums" is a tourist construction, just as much a "tourist boondoggle" view of Texas as the riverwalk

I'll probably never go back to Texas but if I had to, I'd choose SA over Austin any time

I meant tourist boondoggle as in it was developed to attract tourists and those are the only people that hang on the river walk. I mean, Chicago has a river walk, but I've never had a reason to go there on purpose. Regardless, it's sort of BS to call the Austin of "food, music, outdoors and museums" a construct. They have good food there the same reason SA does; it would be there tourists or not. The music scene of Austin is not some fake thing, either (though SXSW has juiced it), nor the museums or outdoors. Those things are all more or less indigenous, unlike, say, Disney World in Florida.

Anyway, even though we won't be there until October, loving the recommendations.

Everybody going will pretty much eat or drink anything. Weirdly, they don't seem super enthused about Mexican, perhaps because we have so much of it here, but also because one guy claims he's allergic to avocado. But almost anything else goes. Like I mentioned earlier, the issue I have is that we just went to Austin, and while the cities might be different, I doubt the Mexican or BBQ differs that much in quantity or quality. (And those were the two things the dummies in my group didn't seek out in Austin!). Any great group dining suggestions? There will be 8 of us.

Don't really care about the myriad monuments to colonialism, though it may be hard to avoid the Alamo (when in San Antonio...). I really would like to get out to Hill Country, which my wife and I may do when they're stuck at the silly farm dinner we're skipping. Other than that, cocktails are generally good, and they like karaoke.

The wrench in the works is one in the party owns a bunch of restaurants, so he often treats these trips to some extent like R&D, which tbh has not yet brought us to many places of note. It involves a lot of aimless flitting from place to place.

How much has SA changed in the last 10 years? Austin and Nashville, for example, have been almost night and day between last visit and my most recent. I've never been to San Antonio, but I know it's growing.

Recommendations of where to stay? They like boutique hotels with pools, my wife and I couldn't give a fuck about bespoke hotel amenities or bellhops with funny mustaches or rooms with turntables or whatever. Though I do appreciate a good hotel bar, we'd prefer not to flush our money down a ridiculous Ace Hotel vintage toilet or something equally dumb.

I love the River Walk in SA, also getting a drink at the bar in the Tower of the Americas. also, SA has better art museums than Austin, not sure why Austin gets credit there our museums are kinda weak, especially compared to, say, Houston or NYC.

sa, like all texas cities, is growing a lot, so it's definitely going out

if youre going to the hill country, check out fredericksberg, lots of german shit, theres a vineyard out there if you wanna do a texas wine tour kinda thing. enchanted rock is neat, too.

hotel emma is a boutiquey place in the pearl i think??? no idea the cost tho

(keep in mind im vegan and have been for like 100 years so a lot of my personal favorites are the handful of vegetarian/vegan places we've got, so most of what im recommending is stuff i know other ppl like)

I think they are all staying at the Emma, or that is the plan.

Vegan in Texas is an impressive achievement. I think the best BBQ is south of Austin, around Lockhart, so that is doable.

Pretty sure I went hiking at Enchanted Rock on a day trip from Austin before, and I loved it. I'd totally do that again. Would totally check out Fredericksberg as well.

Good to hear the river walk isn't all tourist stuff. I'd been warned a few times by others to avoid it, since there's very little local stuff there, mostly a lot of chains or mediocre food.

I'm totally up for art museum suggestions. In Austin I went to a few nice or favorite galleries, but my favorite museum was the LBJ Presidential Library. Looks like SA has its own huge migrating bat colony, too, right?

for museums, the witte and mcnay are worth a visit, and theyre not too far from one another. institute of texan cultures is good too, right around downtown.

honestly, being vegan here is not hard at all, i am quite plump

(NB i spend hella money on food tho)

hotel emma is a boutiquey place in the pearl i think??? no idea the cost tho

Fucking expensive! Like, $500 a night! I think I prefer Austin gentrification prices to that, ouch.

lmbo the pearl is trying so hard to be rich austin ppl, it sucks

a lot of our farflung international restaurants are in the medical center NW of downtown. got ethiopian, bunch of indian restaurants (im partial to india palace, its a punjabi-style buffet place), peruvian, moroccan, a lot i have yet to try tho

At least one person in the party tries to limit meat, generally, so she might be interested in veggie/vegan places.

k here goes:
-- new place opened up called thai vegan. its exactly as the title suggests. pretty traditional thai menu, but all the meats are soy-based (beef, chicken, fish, tofu). service isnt amazing but im a forgiving and patient person and we eat here all the time because its right around the corner from our house.

-- the OG veg restaurant is called green, and there are two locations (pearl and the northside). theyve been around the longest and have all vegan desserts.

-- the owners of green also own earth burger which is an all-vegan fast food joint. best veggie burgers and spicy chikn sandwiches. its down the road from north star mall aka the place with the giant-ass boots out front. also just started making shakes from coconut ice cream.

-- i mention it upthread, but southtown has a place called senor veggie. all vegan, a lot of texas-y food. vegan bbq sandwich is my all-time ,like a vegan bill miller (local bbq chain).

im srs about getting a mangonada tho, dont leave my city without getting one. get a tamarindo straw with it, too.

http://www.lasnievesfruitcupssa.com/

ooh, do a ghost tour, SA is hella haunted

A+, everyone will like ghost tours! Do you have to pay extra to get ghost Custer or Bowie?

the McNay is very nice

All great! This morning I was leaning toward skipping the trip but now I'm sort of looking forward to it. Even if it means renting a car and, um, leaving San Antonio. Regardless, October is a long ways away.

The McNay is best, but the SA Museum of Art (in one of the old Pearl Brewery buildings) is wonderful, and I always have a better time there than I expect. Also, I live in New Braunfels these days, just 45 min or so north of downtown/riverwalk/Alamo. We have the Snake Farm and Landa Springs. Also Canyon Lake is a nice Hill Country driving area near us.

def stop at Central Market and buy some good cheese. good gift to bring back for people too if you do that sort of thing. the coolest grocery store ive ever been in. seems like a weird thing to recommend but it's so rad.

josh, driving around san antonio is one of the most san antonio things u can do, honestly.

central market is cool, its right next to university of the incarnate word. its like whole foods but localer.

im srs about getting a mangonada tho, dont leave my city without getting one. get a tamarindo straw with it, too.

I didn't know what this is so I googled "mangonada" and the wiki noted they were popular in Chicago. And indeed, there is a shop just a mile or so from my house!

http://los-mangos.com

Who knew?

yyyyyyyyyyyeah! you can do other flavors besides mangonada (im partial to fresanada) but thats legit! i forget about chicago's big mexican-american presence sometimes

Haha, yeah, that's why, as much as I love Mexican food it's not the biggest draw of the southwest. We've got plenty of Mexican food. A lot of carnitas and goat and Mexican chefs trying to push the food a tad closer to fine dining. That said, Texas Mexican is superb and in my experience better. And while we have our own variety, there is definitely better BBQ down there. (Though we can get quality Texas BBQ, like brisket, here as well.)

I was in SA once like 12 years ago and really liked it, a lot more than I expected I would. River walk was touristy but pretty, Mi tierra was memorable, the hotel had a Texas shaped waffle maker, there was a conference party at a giant bar full of taxidermy downtown, ate some good chicken fried steak and sweet tea and BBQ and cheap Lone Stars at some locals bar full of old couples dancing to Mexican music and I went up in the tower and hit the Alamo and saw Merle Haggard at a cowboy bar along the highway outside of town. The downtown Mercado was a trip too and I still regret not buying a mirror there and figuring out how to ship it home.

We took a side trip to Austin and it was fine but felt like any other city with hipsters and college kids and bars and whatever. San Antonio felt really unique in comparison.

Sadly and surprisingly I failed in my attempt to find a “Don’t Mess With Texas” belt buckle which I assumed would have been trivially easy. I did weirdly find one years later in Florence but buying that in Italy felt wrong.

The trove of tacky Texas memorabilia is roadside, at any Buc-ee's.

I think my favorite thing about Texas is that "Don't Mess With Texas" is their anti-littering campaign!

♫ we're throwin' our trash in a litter bag ♩♫ cause messing with Texas is a big drag ♩

Just had a mangonada. Tbh, what a weird drink that I probably don't need again. But for a sweet and sour chili-dusted ice cream fruit confection with a tamarind-encrusted straw ... yeah, it was different. Like putting tabasco on a sundae or something.

i mean its more of a sorbet than a drink. once u go spicy+sweet u never go back ime

i have an giant bottle of tajin in my classroom for lunchtime flavor dusting, its the best

Yeah, it's more of a parfait spoon treat, not a drink. Been researching chamoy, which has a fascinating history.

Here's a SA question: how long a drive to get to Lockhart? When I was in Austin last year I didn't have a car so couldn't make the BBQ pilgrimage, but I'm planning for it this fall.

About an hour and a half, maybe a bit less if traffic on I-35 isn't bad

My wife and I went down to Lockhart last year, came away thinking it was overrated. One of our favorite local BBQ joints just closed down here in Austin, so maybe the stuff we like isn't as embraced by everyone else.

Did Franklin ever reopen? I thought La Barbeque in Austin was awesome, not least for letting you order a week in advance.

Does San Antonio have much in the way of BBQ?

It's not SA, but on my last trip out I had terrific BBQ at Heavy's in Hondo (about a 45min drive W of SA on US-90). https://www.yelp.com/biz/heavys-barbeque-hondo

OK, two weeks until we're in San Antonio! I'm trying to find a good restaurant for 8 people on a Saturday night. Any good suggestions? Most of the folks will be getting a (very) early dinner from the chef at the Emma hotel, but it'll end so early I'm sure they'll want to go somewhere else.

My plan so far, btw: fly into SA on a Friday, head straight get BBQ (prolly somewhere in or around Lockhart, like Black's or Smitty's), save leftover BBQ for hiking Enchanted Rock the next day (weather permitting).

what are the 8 ppl into?

I think they'll eat anything, but I think prefer finer to street food. Which isn't to say fine dining, per se, just seated in a nice space with good food. No food restrictions, other than one guy claims he's allergic to avocados and someone else likes to balance her meaty meals with veggie meals. All like to drink.

Someone in the party just made reservations at Battalion?

ah, southtown area, arts district.

We'll be there this weekend, anything special going on? Is that crazy of me to want to go to Lockhart for BBQ, or are there better options closer to the airport? I'm intrigued by Heavy's, but Hondo is almost as far as Lockhart.

it's an hour drive from downtown, i mean if youve got the time and the hankering, who am i to stand in your way

i cant think of any big things happening rn. it's been raining more than usual.

a lot of the stuff rec'd itt is pretty close to the midtown area. the pearl, the witte, mcnay, central market, san antonio museum of art. so you could hit a bunch of those in one day.

honestly tho our food...if you arent getting full to the point of exhaustion every day that you are here, you might as well stay home.

ha, well, Chicago is not exactly wanting on the food front.

i have likely been talked into coming back for a 20th anniversary celebration of my old poetry slam

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat

San AnTONio
Where I want to go, where I did grow, where I learned to know my flow and show my friends
The skills to fill the the pad with pen in hand
To share my private pain again and again for personal gain
Until I hit the end and ... silence again. But not in my brain. The words are still coming, like an avalanche I can't stop.
And all I can do is store them away for next time.
Or now.

(snaps)

Anyway, that's cool! We've been watching the amazing "America to Me" documentary and it's neat to see how important poetry slams are to so many students, as an outlet, as an important form of expression.

yeah i think i'll be back in may!!

We ditched the Italian place and are now going to the Esquire on Friday night, which is in the touristy area but still looks pretty awesome. Likely hitting Heavy's for BBQ on Saturday, then Saturday night ... I dunno, but puffy tacos are on the agenda.

San Antonio was OK! As my wife put it, you have to like any city that seems to place as much emphasis on the arts and culture as this one does. Riverwalk was silly but still nice to run along, we loved the chalk art going on and had fun watching a bike race around the Alamo. Alamo ... we spent 15 minutes walking around there. But we did take a trip to Enchanted Rock State Park, which was incredible, and we did get barbecue at 2M Smokehouse, which was good enough, and we got great Mexican at Pico de Gallo, and great food at the Esquire, and an absolutely terrible meal at Acenar. We got some great pastries at La Panaderia, great cocktails at Bar 1919, puffy tacos at Ray's, Pearl was gross at night but lovely for happy hour, we saw the country's biggest cowboy boots outside some mall, some art glass in the library. And so on. We packed a lot in, since our friends are lazy and wake up late.

Craziest might have been the 30 minutes or so we spent at the toilet seat museum. The artist, Barney, is 97. We got there right when he was closing up, and before he knew we were even there to visit had already enlisted our help as bystanders to move the big metal garage door gate shut. He apparently has sold the collection to someone in Dallas and is about to start boxing the toilet lids up, and he's old and soon to enter hospice (though he said if he makes it to 100 he is going to Dallas to celebrate) and could barley lift his arms, but he was super sharp, with a great memory and vision and hearing. He remembered my name right from the start (I can barely remember names) and basically told us where to find his favorite lids from memory. ("Do you see Dolly Parton, by the Berlin Wall? Look right, past the ..."). He had us sign the Illinois "spillover" lid (then had us fill out a reference form, replete with filing number, so that he can look it up later) and then asked me, apropos of nothing, if I was an Eagle Scout (I was!) and had me sign the Eagle Scout lid. We got eaten alive by mosquitos, despite his generous offer of spray aka "mosquito dope" to keep them at bay, but what a trip that was. He told us all about his previous lives as a preacher, a fireman, a plumber and then a toilet lid artist, he told us about his marriage to his now deceased wife (they were married 74 years!), and about his children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren (!). At the end of our visit, as he was preparing to pile some lids into very carefully numbered banana crates, he asked us to shut the metal door again, which felt a little like sealing someone inside of a crypt. Unforgettable experience.

we saw the country's biggest cowboy boots outside some mall

north star, thats like 10 minutes from my house lol

also that toilet seat museum story is all-time

Going to San Antonio for a few days in September.

Are there any good record stores there? If so, I would love to hear about them.

southtown vinyl is a newer place that ive heard is good

https://southtownvinyl.com

hogwild is the og place

https://recordstoreday.com/Store/5919

both of these are close-ish to downtown. where are you gonna be staying?

(nb i dont buy music much anymore)

Grand Hyatt Riverwalk, for a conference. Won't have wheels, I don't think, but I guess I can Uber/Lyft.

Southtown looks like it might be walkable if I get a few free hours ...

Hogwild was pretty much the only place I’d go to back in the day (1990s). I bought Swervedriver’s import-only Ejection Seat Reservation there and they made it quite the event, calling all the other staff to come meet the teenager who was buying the insanely expensive import CD.

oh yeah, you're not far from southtown at all! lots of fun stuff along s alamo st. if youe got the time and inclination, walk down alamo through the king william district, some good bars if u do that sort of thing (liberty bar, friendly spot), turn right on guenther to get to the record shop

xp

I had a blast (scrolls up) two years ago.