Escapes WEEKENDER
manufactured luxury of The Pearl, but also the flow from one to the other, much like the river that connects them or the multilingual fluency of so many residents. On a recent visit to The Pearl, Ralat says he watched high school mariachi bands
ABOVE Many of the gifts and homewares at The Pearl’s Feliz Modern Pop draw upon classic Tex-Mex and Mexican aesthetics. RIGHT Is the smell of Alebrije’s conchas the true fragrance of San Antonio? Jury’s out—but the fluffy pan dulce is certainly worth inhaling.
play through malfunctioning microphones in the plaza and got the coffee with horchata in it that he loves. “I couldn’t think of a more San Antonio thing,” he reflects. I stopped into Feliz Modern Pop, one of the shops on the plaza, and admired the colorful Tex-Mex tchotchkes, like taco- themed cat toys, before settling on a concha-shaped phone grip. Back at the hotel, I sat in the leather chairs by the fireplace and took a few deep sniffs of “Recuerdos.” Hotel Emma describes the scent as “rich, smoky, and evocative of sun-warmed South Texas stone and wood,” selling bottles of it for $55. In the morning, I walked a mile east across sun-soaked South Texas pavement to get a real—and really good—concha from Alebrije Bakery. It smelled like butter, sugar, and San Antonio.
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