San Antonio’s Pearl district puts feasting on the menu

It’s been almost 20 years since I graduated from Trinity University, and I was headed back to San Antonio for a reunion.

Not my class reunion; I was returning to see a cheeseburger.

I couldn’t wait to catch up with the Cheddar Cheezy, whose beefy handsomeness I first saw from afar my freshman year at the burger joint Chris Madrids. He was macho and oozed cheesiness, and I didn’t mind one bit. I picked him up … OK, maybe this metaphor can only go so far.

Perhaps there are crazier reasons to visit places of one’s relative youth. But my son, a 9-year-old font of cheeseburger appreciation, had yet to meet my old steady.

Chris Madrids was the first stop on a recent three-day visit to see old friends in the Alamo City — and to check in on the city’s food scene. Boy, was I surprised how the culinary landscape has changed around my alma mater since my college cheeseburger love affair.

My friend Heather, a Fort Worth native who is now a professor of education at Trinity, is always on the lookout for hot San Antonio restaurants, and she proved the ultimate tour guide for our short trip. Most of our feasting centered around The Pearl.

We perched one night at La Gloria, a bustling and bright sanctuary that houses chef Johnny Hernandez’ ode to Mexican street fare on the banks of the San Antonio River, above a newly expanded swath of path and passing boats. Over mango and cantaloupe margaritas called mangonadas, I took in the atmosphere, trees festively lit post-Christmas, feeling miles away from anything I recognized 20 years ago.

The restaurant is in San Antonio’s redeveloped mixed-use Pearl development just north of downtown, less than 2 miles from Trinity’s campus. The area used to be a gritty neighborhood full of abandoned warehouses, historic bars and restaurants (Oh, but that burger at the Josephine Street Cafe!).

Now, it is home to a West Elm, twice-weekly farmers markets, and even a vegetarian kosher restaurant called Green. There is also is a Culinary Institute of America campus (one of only three in the country), 15 or so chef-driven restaurants, and locally owned retailers like The Twig Book Shop and guayabera-maker Dos Carolinas.

Hernandez, a San Antonio native, got his culinary training at the CIA in New York and then worked in Las Vegas and California before settling back home and opening La Gloria in 2010.

Hernandez aims to make interior Mexican food accessible. This is not Tex-Mex. Think pulpo tostada, or marinated octopus with a pico garnish on a crispy chip. Or chorizo con rajas queso fundido, a skillet of melted cheese, chorizo and roasted poblano peppers.

As we drove around San Antonio, everywhere I looked I saw the Murchison Tower, the 166-foot-tall red-bricked Trinity landmark, looming in the distance. From a high perch at the San Antonio Botanical Garden, there it was. Across the way from Interstate 10, zooming away from the upscale Shops at La Cantera, there it was. It could even be seen from our window at the Hotel Emma, which framed the tower so perfectly I thought an old professor was punking me.

But no academics were present in the room, just a whole lot of class. From the Frette bedsheets to the Malin+Goetz toiletries, the Dos Carolinas seersucker robes and the macarons from Bakery Lorraine left on our pillows each night, the year-old Hotel Emma pampers its guests in a building formerly known as the Pearl Brewery.

Nearly every time we passed through the lobby, guests and sightseers alike gaped at the large machinery leftover from the Pearl’s brewing days.

Upon arrival, all guests get a complimentary La Babia margarita in the adjacent Library — a beverage so good it’s nearly worth the price of one night’s room and board. The concoction of freshly squeezed lime juice, Cointreau and premium tequila, is ladled, on the rocks, into a hand-etched azure glass.

It’s also in the Library where early risers can enjoy a complimentary cup of strong coffee, brewed from local Merit Roasting Co. beans, and nosh on small cakes and sticky buns, tasteful in portion if not calories.

In the hotel’s graceful restaurant, Supper, breakfast was a main attraction. Yes, there are other meals served here. But try telling that to my son, who grabbed slices of bacon so voraciously, I dare say he might have gained a pound or two at the table. There are two types, smoked and spicy-candied Millionaire’s Bacon. On consecutive mornings, I could not get enough of the poached egg with avocado and smoked salmon served on ciabatta bread. The restaurant’s fiery housemade salsa was, perhaps, the best I’ve ever had.

Had Moshe’s Golden Falafel existed when I was a Trinity student, I don’t think I would have graduated because I would have spent all of my time there.

A side-project for regionally renowned chef Andrew Weissman (Osteria Il Sogno, Sandbar and the now-shuttered Le Reve), the small counter-service spot is a stone’s throw from campus on McCullough Avenue and serves spicy (or regular, but why would you get that?) falafel in housemade pita or as a plate. Only open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. each day, the restaurant is no-frills in decor with simple green and yellow stools and communal tables, as if to say Weissman is paying more attention to the edible details.

Heather is a regular, so she offered tips on how to order. Ingredients vary from day to day, but when in doubt, get everything. On my overloaded pita, I asked for roasted cauliflower, hard-boiled egg slices, grated carrot, pickled beets, cucumber salad and baba ghanoush.

An order of thick-cut, ridiculously crispy fries only added to the sheer pleasure of lunch.

On our last day in S.A., after an afternoon at the DoSeum kids’ interactive museum, we found ourselves at the kid-friendly Shuck Shack around the corner from the Pearl. It fit the bill for the kids with its mini-playground. And the adults went gaga for the happy hour beers and oysters.

Chef Jason Dady pioneered one of the city’s first tasting menus at his now-closed the Lodge Restaurant of Castle Hills and went on to open other notable spots — BIN 555 Restaurant & Wine Bar, Tre Trattoria, Tre Enoteca and Two Bros. BBQ Market. His Shuck Shack has been open since summer 2015, and is modeled after New England-style seafood joints.

The $22 half lobster roll on a buttered, toasted hoagie overflowed with heady meat bathed in mayo and dusted with paprika. But before even that, we must have had at least a dozen oysters. (Some Dos Equis on draft was involved here.) The Wild Queen’s Choice, from Maryland waters, featured plump and firm meat, while the Irish Point from Prince Edward Island had a brinier flavor.

Saltines, horseradish, Tabasco, kids playing nicely on the slide, perfection.

This story was originally published March 7, 2017 at 5:29 PM with the headline "San Antonio’s Pearl district puts feasting on the menu."