good eating towards San Antonio
by Evil Overlord in
life
during rush hour on
August 23rd, 2005:
3 years, 3 months ago
Despite the solemn nature of this most recent trip to San Antonio from Abilene, I did have the opportunity to sample a number of good eateries both on the way and in SA. I’m not a professional food taster, just a guy who enjoys good food. These were written somewhat after the events, so forgive vagueness.
Sideoats Cafe in Mernard is a place that really shouldn’t be there. It’s a really nice delicatessen in the middle of a small town of 1600 people. Very clean with deli style offerings. I had a grilled chicken sandwich that was absolutely incredible - melted Monterey Jack with crispy lettuce. The chips were clearly homemade (at least, clear to my dad - I had no clue that you could make homemade chips). His club was good also, and he opted for a dessert pie while I stuck with Bluebell banana pudding (not quite as good as my homemade stuff, but still nice). Highly recommended for a trip through the area.
Cooper’s Pit BBQ in Mason features some good ole BBQ. This place is actually somewhat famous (read their website) and the fame is well deserved. All four of us stopped on the way home and ordered some brisket, bread, beans, and potato salad. We then meandered over to the state park to have lunch under the trees - we did have our two Dachshunds with us. While we ate somewhat hurriedly (the dogs got loose twice, once starting a race across the field), the food was quite good. The brisket did have some fat on it, and we somehow missed the famous sauce, but it was still good eating. The best part: total bill for 4 people was around $22. Yeah, that doesn’t happen too often - especially in my family.
Tom’s Ribs in San Antonio has some of the best ribs in the whole city - according to the number of Reader’s Choice plaques stuck on the front entrance. Personally, I thought it was an auspicious sign when the waitress brought us a 3 inch high stack of napkins with wet wipes piled on top - before we ordered. I had some baby back ribs with BBQ chicken (not chicken breasts like I thought - but 1/2 of a chicken BBQed!), huge baked potato and some good green beans. We all ordered something different and all liked it (my mom let me try some of the beans - highly recommended, very sweet). The portions were humongous - even I had a hard time finishing off everything. Not the best ribs I’ve ever had, but very nice. Only downside: the bill. It was as big as the portions: not for the faint of wallet. Or at least not for everyday dinner.
Smokey Bones in San Antonio is another BBQ joint (see a pattern?), but it is a small chain unlike Cooper’s or Tom’s. It’s very much a sports bar kind of atmosphere, but you don’t actually have to watch sports. Instead there is a massive array of big flat screen TVs all over the place, showing a number of different channels. Sounds chaotic? Not really - each table has its own individual loudspeaker that can be attuned to any TV in the place. I ordered the chicken and shrimp, but was disappointed to only receive 5 shrimp. 5. FIVE. They were good - grilled in BBQ sauce, but there simply wasn’t enough. I remember that my corn on the cob was a bit tough and could have been shucked a bit better, but the meal was pretty good. We all walked away feeling content, but the bill was outrageous for the portions. Way too expensive - about the same as Tom’s, but with much less food.
5 Responses to 'good eating towards San Antonio'
Probably not the place to ask, but being close to San Antonio, do you ever come across some Spurs stuff? Actually, just Brent Barry items. Favorite player, and I collect anything related to him. If you’ve got anything, drop me a line.
[Quote]I’m not actually all that close to SA - it’s about 5 hours from my hometown. I do make it there every so often since most of my dad’s side of the family lives there.
[Quote]I’m not a sports guy - I wouldn’t even have the slightest clue about Spurs or the player ya mentioned.
To be fair, Smokey Bones isn’t exactly small. It’s a Darden Restaurants concept (same people who do Olive Garden, Red Lobster, and a few others), and there are quite a few open nationwide now (including one that cropped up in Waco since you left). But, I agree, it’s a cool restaurant, and their food is decent, but a little pricey for what you get. I’ll have to try the rest of those places next time I’m through the area.
Oh, and you can definitely “home-make” potato chips. In fact, they were originally invented by a chef who had a troublesome customer he was trying to get back at. (The guy kept sending his food back insisting his potato fries were sliced too thickly, so the chef sliced them super-thin as retribution, and voila!…a trend was born). So, they can be done pretty “quick ‘n easy” without a factory process, if you know what you’re doing, I guess.
That’s my restauranteur inside info for the day.
[Quote]Of all the random posts I type, this one gets comments?
Well, I had never heard of Smokey Bones, but then again, I’m just a backwater West Texan who don’t know bones about the restraunt industry.
Looking at their map, it seems 30-40 stores, mostly east of Texas - no wonder I had never heard of them. And Waco gets one. After I leave. Doesn’t surprise me.
For what it’s worth, I’m fairly sure the others are either single stores or just located in the SA area.
My comment about home-made chips was more that I figured you had to have some huge machinery to produce them - Sideoats wasn’t that big. I do vaguely remember the story though; it just surprised me to have them at a random stop in the middle of a 1600 people size town.
Brad, you need to get yourself some sort of zoocat avatar. And a blog at zoocat.com.
[Quote]Both true. I’m not graphically inclined enough for any avataresque zoocat graphics, though, and I’m certain that any new attempt at a blog would result as my last few - failed miserably. I have a tendency to taper off on posts rather quickly.
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