Pearl: San Antonio’s Best Surprise

We’ve been to San Antonio many times, but Pearl was the best surprise recently! This trip to San Antonio was a ‘cousins trip’. Big Dog’s cousin has moved to Spring Branch just north of San Antonio and invited his brother and other cousins for a few days. We were very excited to go back to San Antonio and the hill country area! I have family there also, so it wss a cousins trip for both of us!

From where we are in East Texas, it’s about a 6 hour or so road trip. It’s always longer for us because we stop and play along the way. As usual, we stopped in Waco again to eat and explore. Check out our Waco blog post here.

In San Antonio, we ended up staying just south of Loop 1604 at Hwy 281 which was in between both sides of our family. Other than some construction and traffic, it was an easy drive to Spring Branch. I mention the construction and traffic just to give you an idea of what a booming corridor that is straight up 281. One of the fastest growing areas right now. In the immediate area around our hotel were popular restaurants, a grocery store, movie theater etc. We really didn’t have time to visit those since we were so busy elsewhere during our stay. We did like the convenience and security of the location though.

We were impressed with the Spring Branch area as it had a calm and ‘in touch with nature’ sort of feel. Then as we were driven around and shown even more of it, we were in love. Imagine beautiful rustic homes on small acreage tracts (3-5) backing up to a scenic river with wildlife, especially herds of deer, in a friendly neighborhood. That’s what we discovered here. The 1st day we all trickled in and then went to a local restaurant, Richter’s Antler cafe, for dinner. The food was wonderful, home cooking style, and the service was great. That evening we enjoyed some relaxing patio time back at the house with plenty of homemade snacks and drinks. They are amazing hosts! And it continued, Big Dog’s cousin had a fabulous fish fry the next evening and we all had the best time stuffing ourselves and catching up with each other including with some more cousins that came in from nearby Shertz.

While we were in the area, Big Dog and I decided to go visit the town of Beorne. This is a great little main street town with lots of shops and restaurants. It reminds me of a smaller Fredericksburg. There is a variety of antique stores, boutiques and gift shops. We had a wonderful experience at The Dienger Trading Co when we stopped in for lunch. You can read about our trip to Beorne here.

Another fun thing we did on this trip was check out some cool murals in San Antonio. In different parts of the city, you’ll find murals on many streets. I really want to scope out more next time. If you only have a limited block of time like we did, there’s actually an area of San Antonio with a collection of murals painted by some really talented artists. I learned about the Essex Modern City on Essex Street from some fellow bloggers. It’s basically an outdoor art exhibit, but they have live art, music, food, etc at certain times. We went when nothing was going on, and the gate was still open. That worked out well as we were able to get good pics without a bunch of people blocking the artwork. Haha I’m glad we got to fit this in to our trip, maybe you can too.

The downtown area is one of the most popular areas for visitors. And it’s a fun area too! We have stayed right on the river and walked almost everywhere before. We highly recommend this. You can take a riverboat ride and take in the area while learning some history. Speaking of history, what is a visit to SA without seeing The Alamo, so be sure to check it out. For a 360 view of the city, not to mention lots of history and info, go to the observation deck of the Tower Of The Americas. This is a 750 foot tower in Hemisfair Park in downtown that also has a restaurant and a 4D film experience. Pretty cool! While walking along the river, besides all of the tempting restaurants and enticing entertainment possibly going on at the amphitheater, you may also see a sign for La Villita, follow it! This is one of the first and oldest neighborhoods here. Now the adobe houses have been transformed into 25 or so artsy little shops.

A few blocks from the river, towards I35, is the Historic Market Square housing the largest Mexican Market in the US and a restaurant we like called Mi Tierra Cafe. This is where we met my aunt, uncle and cousins for some shopping and dinner. We don’t get to see them enough and had the best time laughing and catching up with this sweet family. The Mexican Market is an indoor outdoor space with booth after booth of festive, brightly colored treasures. Two of my youngest little cousins had not been here before and we enjoyed watching them take it all in. The Mi Tierra Cafe is really a large, fun and yummy Mexican restaurant. I hear La Margarita Mexican Restaurant & Oyster Bar, at the Market Square, is also good. We will have to confirm that for ourselves next time!

The best surprise of the trip, was discovering the Pearl district! I kept seeing this wonderful old building from HWY 281 every time we were headed towards downtown. I knew there was a big Pearl Beer can close and so I told Big Dog I wanted to go see what that building was. Oh my! We found the building and so much more. The building was the San Antonio Brewing Association home of Pearl Beer. This whole 22 acre complex, formerly Pearl Brewery, has been revitalized into restaurants, bars, shops, apartments, etc. The Culinary Institute of America SA campus, a lawn and water feature for the kids, and Hotel Emma are all a part of this master planned and thriving hot spot. The history is fascinating and I love how they incorporated in so much of the old brewery and bottling equipment. Pieces have been scattered all over the complex as planters, water collection containers and art. There are great industrial pieces installed in the Emma Hotel lobby as well. Even if you don’t stay at this hotel, go check out the lobby and notice they have a library room on one side. Can you imagine the gems in there?! I really want to stay there one day.

Since we had already eaten dinner, and thought we were just making a detour to see a lovely old building, we didn’t get a chance to experience any of the restaurants. We did go to Bakery Lorraine for some dessert though. We shared a Chocolate Mousseline Cake and it was wonderful. Can’t wait to go back here and spend a day shopping, eating and maybe even visiting a spa. Make sure you carve out some time for the Pearl district when you go to SA!

Big Dog’s Review: San Antonio is one of mine and Lulu’s Texas favorites. We both have family in the area, so we have visited many times. The old town of San Antonio has much to offer for a great family vacation destination. The San Antonio Zoo, Fiesta Texas, Sea World, The River Walk, and of course the historic Alamo. Those stops are all well worth a visit. But, on our last trip we discovered a new favorite place that we can’t wait to return to and further explore. That place is the old Pearl brewery located right off Hwy 281 north of downtown San Antonio. The Pearl District has been refurbished with shops, eateries, a Culinary Institute and the fabulous Emma Hotel, each of these encase elements of the old brewery. Old exposed machines and even a train car can be found here. The lobby of the Hotel Emma is a must see! So saddle up and head on down to the Historic and family friendly Texas town of San Antonio!

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