San
Antonio
June 8-10, 2001
In Reply To: Gonna be in San
Antonio in May...
Posted by George Lynch on March 21,
2001 at 13:32:08
… we split after 2 days so we could enjoy Austin
which is only a few hours drive from SA. It's well worth the drive.... Go North
young man! Go North!
--- found on the Texas message
board at www.chowhound.com
After successful outings in three previous years we could not make a Taste
Of weekend happen in 2000. 2001 might have produced the same result were it not
for a lucky coincidence. Martha planned to attend the Special Libraries
Association conference in San Antonio,
accompanied by her spouse Matt. The Russinoffs intended to celebrate their
anniversary the same weekend with a traditional night's stay at La Mansión. Seeing no other
alternative, the Beviers agreed that San Antonio
would be a dandy place to meet in 2001.
The Wildings' travel plans included an initial stop in Austin
to celebrate Martha's father's birthday, and to drop the kids off for the week.
This enabled Matt to attend what used to be a regular drunken Thursday night
meeting of the Thunks Executive Committee, but what is now just a regular
drunken Thursday night meeting. We convened at the Showdown, Bevier, Buchowski,
Russinoff and Wilding in attendance. Perhaps at some future date someone will
see fit to record the history of these sessions. Currently it exists mainly in
oral tradition, although a set of minutes of early meetings is reputed to
exist.
Friday
A typical Taste Of weekend calls for a Friday and Saturday night stay in the
destination city. Although our destination was San Antonio,
it proved convenient to spend Friday night in Austin.
This allowed us to meet friends for dinner and to avoid an unpleasant,
expensive hotel bill. We ate at the Clay Pit, one of Austin's
better Indian restaurants. The Russinoffs could not be present but we were able
to entice Ken Murray, Laurie Sines, and Teri and Tim Buchowski to join us.
The Clay Pit. We shared a round of appetizers. The curried mussels, the
crab cake and the lightly battered and fried calamari stood out. We ordered
seven different entrées, doubling up on the signature chicken dish
Khuroos-E-Tursh, which deserves its featured status. The Peshwari Naan (stuffed
with nut, raisin, and cherry) was slightly sweet and went well with the
chicken. Ken voted the Paneer Tikka Masala his favorite dish.
After dinner we rousted the Russinoffs at home and made Dave pour us drinks,
which he did graciously.
Saturday
The Beviers, Russinoffs and Wildings drove to San
Antonio in the morning. The Russinoffs checked into La
Mansión, the rest stayed at the Marriott Riverwalk. We met Saturday afternoon
at the Marriott to head out for our first San Antonio
meal. This quest was hampered by our having little first hand knowledge of San
Antonio restaurants. We followed up on the single
piece of intelligence that David had acquired (at www.chowhound.com): "very
serious" chowhounds should try Taqueria Mexico.
Four of us dared. Susan and Lin decided they were not up for another car trip.
We drove to the southwest side of town, on Somerset
near Military Drive.
Taqueria Mexico. A busy, friendly place.
It had about 20 linoleum tables. Martha ordered the picadillo plate. David had
the barbacoa torta. Matt and I each ordered an Al Pastor torta. We shared a
platter of puffy tacos filled with picadillo. The tortas were very good. I
particularly liked the bread. At the next table a local patron ate a steak
covered in verde sauce. This location of Taqueria Mexico
is about to close. It will re-open a couple of blocks down the street in a much
larger building. Beer will be available.
The Beviers joined the Wildings in their room at 7 pm to enjoy beverages and hors d'oeuvres, and to watch
the sun set. The Russinoffs showed up shortly. Thus began the search for
dinner. Biga on the Banks had been
a candidate, but we wanted something not so much like this: house smoked salmon
nachos, chipotle creamed goat cheese, escabeche vegetables, cream fraîche. I
had made a backup reservation at the Little
Rhein steak house, but we couldn't reach a consensus on this. We walked a
couple of blocks to the Little Rhein in order to read the menu and make a final
decision. The 8 dollar asparagus dish seemed to tip the scales against this
choice, despite my advice that we simply not order the asparagus. But nobody
really wanted a steak.
Guadalajara Grill. We paused a couple
of doors away in front of the Guadalajara Grill to decide in which direction to
strike. An alert waiter ran out to sweep us to a table. We agreed to sit down,
and requested margaritas and a couple of undistinguished appetizers. The waiter
was visibly disappointed with our small order.
Matt suggested that we head for the Riverwalk to find fresh oysters. We
walked its busy section from La Villita to La Mansión, finding no oysters along
the way. We ended the evening in the Russinoffs' hotel room drinking wine and
martinis. For the first time on any of our outings we dispensed with a Saturday
night dinner, but the anticipation of brunch at La Mansión the next morning
left us complacent.
Sunday
Brunch at La Mansión. Long story short:
Hotel fire.
Brunch at La Mansión. Long story: Dave had
gotten up early to work out and put an edge on his appetite. We met at 10:30 in front of the dining room. The room
has several levels that descend to doors that open on the Riverwalk. A waiter
led us to a large table with open views in all directions. Fresh orange juice,
coffee and champagne were served. We paused a moment to enjoy being there. The
waiter invited us to have at the buffet. We all took time to assess the vast
spread of food. You have to have a game plan to eat at a place like this. There
was platter after platter of fruit, breads, breakfast pastries, savory and
sweet tarts. Some vessels contained hot breakfast items: bacon, sausage,
waffles, crčpes, eggs benedict. Of course, an omelet
will be made to order. If you don't want breakfast there's dinner: several
salads, roast beef, pork tenderloin, salmon. I didn't
get a chance to look at the desserts other than to note their large number.
Perhaps I've gone a little overboard in this description. Perhaps that's
because we hardly touched the food. With still empty plates in hand we were
ordered to leave the restaurant. A fire alarm had gone off. Lin had the
presence of mind to grab a few shrimp. Matt munched a small tart on the way
out. Several thought to bring their champagne. We convened on the Riverwalk.
The waiter announced the restaurant's closing some ten minutes later. He
suggested we try the buffet at the St. Anthony
Hotel a couple of blocks away. We made our way
there past the fire trucks, police cars and crowds that were parked in front of
La Mansión.
Brunch at the St. Anthony. A spread similar in spirit to that at La Mansión. The room,
however, is much less pleasant. It has an old-fashioned appearance that is not
simultaneously charming, at least as a place to eat. It perhaps was once used
as a ballroom. The food was not as attractively displayed. We didn't get much
chance to look it over because we were refused a table. Dave pronounced the St.
Anthony brunch not good enough for us at about this time.
Brunch at the Hyatt. We headed back to the
Riverwalk, stopping at the Hyatt. Dave talked to a concierge and got a lead on
a breakfast buffet at Biga. But time had become a factor. Martha had to get to
the conference. The Hyatt had a breakfast buffet with which we made do. For 20
bucks a person we had a breakfast that was a notch above Denny's.
We said our good byes outside the Hyatt. The Russinoffs faced the prospect
of dealing with the fire: their luggage was still in the hotel and their car
was in the garage across the street. They were able to get the car out after a
short wait. The luggage showed up in Austin
several days later. The Beviers left town with no hindrance. The Wildings
stayed for three more days of carousing with librarians. Martha's contribution
was to rent a party van to take a contingent of some seventeen librarians to La
Fogata for dinner on Sunday night. Martha was accompanied by her spouse Matt.
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