Escapes WEEKENDER
flavor of San Antonio away from foundational plates like the spit-roasted sirloin at El Pastor Es Mi Señor or breakfast tacos from Original Donut Shop. I called up my most trusted source on all things tacos and Tex-Mex, José Ralat, the taco editor of Texas Monthly ’s “Taco Trail.” He guided me to many of my best bites in town and assuaged my concern that The Pearl represents anti-taco gentrification. “I don’t think it really has any impact on the immediate area,” he says. “If you cross the highway, you have more affordable places to eat right there.” He gave me a quick lesson in Tex-Mex geography: Much of it originated on the city’s West Side, where plumbing and sanitation services arrived only in the 1960s—around when the diner-like Garcia’s opened. About half the breakfast tacos there still cost $1.99. I upgraded, paying $3.89 for avocado and brisket wrapped in soft flour tortillas, and washed them down with sickly sweet, candy-apple-colored Big Red soda, a combination that embodies South Texas. “The land on the West Side was only valuable when it became a tourist destination and when politicians who had grown up there came into power,” Ralat explains, describing a long process of local leaders and residents reckoning with the city’s prejudices. “They came out the other end embracing San
Antonio as a Brown city with a very proud Mexican heritage, and I think that San Antonio is a model for the rest of Texas.” He illustrates this with something that a big-name Mexican chef whispered to him at a food festival: “I love coming to San Antonio because, here, all the customers are Brown and the servers are White.” The next day, I took the 35-minute Riverwalk “cruise” past painted concrete buildings and day-drunk tourists on patios shaded by boldly colored umbrellas. The Hard Rock Cafe, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., and Harley-Davidson store gave the mile-and-a-half Riverwalk loop Tex-Vegas vibes. I disembarked, knowing little more about the city and a lot more about the art of terrible tour guide jokes. I was, admittedly, wary of my lunch options. “I would not recommend anyone eat Tex-Mex or any Mexican food in downtown unless the restaurant is original and has been there for 50 years,” Ralat advises. I went to La Panadería for a croncha, which merges the classic sugar-topped concha bun and a croissant into a pastry that rivals its inspiration, the cronut. The Riverwalk is San Antonio’s most prominent attraction, and if there was so little Tex-Mex worth eating there, I struggled to fault The Pearl for the same. San Antonio’s best came from every direction: the vintage West Side taco shops and
A billionaire investor transformed the 22-acre Pearl Brewery complex into a busy town square full of boutiques, residential units, offices, and international eats.
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