Escapes WEEKENDER
Cynicism and Smells in San Antonio
Can you have your concha and eat it, too?
BY NAOMI TOMKY
he smell of woodsmoke wafting around the outdoor fireplace at San Antonio’s Hotel Emma evoked the state’s famous barbecue. I was fresh off the plane and hungry for my first taste of Texas, so it charmed me, as did the vintage leather couches and warm light softening the exposed pipes in the lobby. The industrial equipment, purposefully and artfully left in situ, exuded just enough rustic allure to remind guests of the building’s century housing Texas’ only brewery to survive prohibition. Later, I learned that the enticing scent came not from the fireplace but from a custom-designed fragrance called “Recuerdos,” sprayed by the hotel’s staff. The best hotels reflect their location, and the Hotel Emma exudes its idea of San Antonio impeccably, if exaggeratedly, like an animated Disney version. As in so many Disney cartoons, the hotel’s origin lies in the main character rising to success after the tragic death of a loved one: Emma steered T
the brewery to success after its founder, her husband, was murdered by one of the two women with whom he was having an affair—both also named Emma. The fascinating story momentarily distracted me from my mission to eat through San Antonio. Here, in the capital of Tex-Mex cuisine, I was concerned about the absence of refried beans on either of the hotel restaurants’ menus. Shiny new developments rarely benefit homegrown cuisines or the people who cook them. It crushed me that relishing Hotel Emma’s immaculately designed luxuries could come at the cost of queso, carne guisada, and the cultures that created them. Hotel Emma anchors The Pearl, something between an outdoor mall and an urban village, with restaurants, shops, and offices, centered on a public plaza. The 22- acre Pearl Brewery complex, the physical embodiment of San Antonio’s glory days and headquarters of its one-time largest employer, seemed destined for dust after production ceased in 2001, until a private equity
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