Active Boomer Adventures

New York Theater and Music Update: Spring 2013

Tom — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:05:42 +0000

Our periodic New York trips are always consumed by our key objectives of:

Catching up with theater, new restaurants, museum exhibits and art galleries
Revisiting as many of our favorite restaurants, museums and galleries as we have time for;
Getting together with friends; and
Walking as much as we can, as a means of experiencing all of the city’s wonderful neighborhoods, exploring new areas (with a goal of at least one new neighborhood per trip) and of working of at least some of the thousands of calories we consume in our never-ending quest to find the best new restaurants.

This blog focuses on our recent trip’s theater experiences. The other blogs in this series discuss our restaurant, gallery and music excursions and two of our walks.

No trip to New York City is complete for us without cramming in as much theater as we can. This trip was no exception. The Off-Broadway plays that we most wanted to see (Disgraced, 4000 Miles, Rapture, Blister and Burn, Detroit, Great God Pan, The Flick, The Whale and The Call) were not playing when we were in town so we consoled ourselves with three Broadway plays. Then, of something a bit different, we hopped up to Harlem for a Jazz show at the Apollo Theater. the following are our impressions of each.

Book of Mormon. This was one of the very few musicals that we felt compelled to see. After originally forgoing Book of Mormon in its first year on Broadway, and then being unable to get tickets for its limited San Francisco engagement, we decided to temporarily overcome our general dislike of musicals to see what all the fuss was about. Although I can probably count the number of musicals plays that we truly enjoyed on one hand, we may now have to add another finger. We, along with the entire audience, were totally engaged, from start to finish, with the improbable and irreverent story of an unlikely pair of young Mormon missionaries sent to Uganda. The music was enjoyable, the characters sympathetic and the lyrics hilarious. Hugely entertaining. Almost (but quite) enough to make us consider seeing one or two other musicals.

I’ll Eat You Last. Bette Midler as Sue Mengers, the laceratingly witty, chain smoking, perpetually stoned female Hollywood super-agent and power broker who, at least as characterized by Miss M, epitomizes what we view as the Hollywood style: aggressive, incredibly confident and always the center of attention. Bette Midler did a great job in engaging the audience. Too bad she was overlooked for a Best Actress nomination.

Vanya and Sonia, Masha and Spike. This play sounded like a good prospect for an evening out. Sigourney Weaver, David Hyde Pierce, Tony nominated for 6 Tony awards including best play. Much of the audience seemed to really enjoy the play. We did enjoy parts of the play, especially the housekeeper and the David Hyde Pierce character. Overall, however, we saw the play as a piece of light entertainment. Perhaps we would have enjoyed it more if some other actress, or even actor, played the role of Sigourney Weaver’s Masha.

The Assembled Parties. A generally pleasant play with some interesting twists and very good acting by Judith Light. Overall, however, the transition between the first and second acts was very confusing, forcing the audience to fill in a number of blanks. While I was somewhat more willing to overlook the play’s many lapses than Joyce was, neither if us were particularly impressed–other than by Ms. Light, who was at least nominated for a Tony.

Overall, the fact that Vanya and Sonya and The Assembled Parties were both nominated for Best Play highlights what a terrible year this must have been for plays on Broadway.

Great Jazz Women of the Apollo Theater. The Apollo Theater is on the list for most of our New York visits. The show that was playing during our visit was part of institution’s Jazz at the Apollo Festival, and paid homage to some of the most famous women in jazz–all of whom performed at, and some of whom got their starts a,t the Apollo. The theater, along with a band and supporting chorus, backed up some of the today’s best female jazz singers in singing renditions of some of the originals (including Aretha Franklin, Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holliday’s favorite songs. And in a few breaks from the vocals, some fun, crowd-pleasing tap dancing. Overall, a pretty good show, but not one of our Apollo favorites.

New York Museum and Art Fair Update: Spring 2013

Tom — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:04:37 +0000

It’s a lot of work trying to stay up with even the highest of highlights of the New York art scene–especially if one only gets to NYC 1-2 times a year. But someone has to do it.

On this trip, we tried to visited a number of museum and gallery exhibits as well as a big international art fair. Although we couldn’t make it to everything, we did our best as you will see.

Museums

The Frick Collection. This season’s special show of Impressionist drawing and prints from Williamstown Massachusetts’ fabulous Clark Gallery was more than enough to ensure that we included the Frick on our NYC museum agenda. The primary theme of the exhibit, which contains about 50 works from most of the Impressionist masters, is on French art’s mid-19th century shift from naturalism to formal invention. The exhibit has particularly strong representation on Degas’ incredibly craftsman-like representations of human and animal (especially equine) anatomy and motion. But as with most Impressionist exhibits, our eyes are still drawn to the colors (even if in watercolor or pastel, rather than oil) of Renoir’s representations of women’s faces and clothes.

The Brooklyn Museum. The Brooklyn Museum had two special exhibits that neatly dovetailed with that at the Frick. One examined five different categories of drawings (human body, costumes, portraits, landscapes and narratives) of American Artists, all from the museum’s own collection. While the exhibit included drawings from artists such as William Merritt Chase, Marsden Hartley, Edward Hopper and Georgia O’Keefe, it was, in our humble opinion, outclassed by the Frick exhibit and by two others at the Brooklyn.

One, by the Ghana-born El Anatsui, focuses on three types of innovative, very large-scale compositions made almost entirely of waste products. Massive wall hangings constructed from thousands of bottle caps and liquor bottle foils: floor constructions built from aluminum can tops; and floor displays made of waste paper. Very impressive, very engaging and very intimidating in terms of the amount of work that went into each piece.

The most impressive of the three special Brooklyn exhibits is a huge collection of John Singer Sargent watercolors that combined works from the museum’s own holdings and from Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts. This encyclopedic collection traced the slice of Sargent’s career during which he took a break from the huge, highly lucrative commissions he received for painting solemn, intricate, highly finished oil portraits of wealthy patrons in favor of quick, casual, impressionistic watercolor depictions of nature and people that he encountered in travels through Southern Europe, Northern Africa and the Levant. Freed of the constraints of his commissioned portraits, Sargent appeared to delight in the freedom to use a bright palette, to experiment with a loose impressionistic style and to explore the play of light on water and stone (including series of Mediterranean harbor scenes, of Venice and the quarries in which Carrera marble was being mined. A totally different feel from the oil paintings with which we are most familiar and continue to love.

New York Public Library. As if to purposely complement the Frick’s and the Brooklyn Museums impressionist and drawing exhibitions, the New York Public Library staged a simultaneous exhibit of drawings by American Impressionist, Mary Cassatt. The display examined the artist’s period of experimentation (under the guidance of French Impressionist master drawer Degas) with primarily monochrome prints, focusing on a number of series in which she produced prints depicting multiple states of the same image, each with different effects. It explained the processes she employed and even showed some of her mistakes in the form of prints from cancelled plates. The exhibit also showed some of the color prints that were almost an homage to the Japanese color woodblock prints that had created such a sensation in European art circles. An interesting exhibit, but her prints do lack the emotion and intimacy that is so apparent in her oils.

Asia Society. The museum’s “Chinese Art After the Ming Dynasty” exhibit portrays the ways in which Chinese scholars and artists turned inward and reclusive in reaction to and in protest of the terrors and intrigues that characterized the defeat if the Ming Dynasty by the Manchu who would form the Qing Dynasty. The primary emphasis of the exhibit is primarily on the tranquil nature scenes that characterize so much of 17th and 18th century Chinese art.

Art Galleries.

As always, NYC’s galleries contain a feast of interesting art. The Upper East Side Gagosian gallery had, among other exhibits, a display of Dennis Hopper photos. Meanwhile, the Venus Over Manhattan gallery an interesting display of William Copley’s mildly erotic art, including coffee tables, chairs and clothes racks out of “A Clockwork Orange’s” milk bar scene.

Meanwhile, down in the art-obsessed Chelsea neighborhood, where entire blocks are lined, wall to wall, with galleries, we hit on a number of interesting displays. Gagosian’s Chelsea gallery was devoted to Jeff Koons, and especially his most recent versions of Balloon Rabbits. Other especially interesting Chelsea exhibits included the Steven Kasher Miles Gallery’s Miles Aldrich display and Mike Weiss Gallery’s Kim Dorland show.

Enough art for one trip? Not quite. After our January 2013 visit to the huge Art Basel Miami contemporary art show, we decided to explore another huge contemporary art fair. So we capped our New York art tour off with a visit to a huge contemporary art fair that was held in the city.

Frieze New York Contemporary Art Fair

Frieze New York. This large show, held on Randall’s island in the middle of the East River, is the second year of the London show’s effort to help European dealers crack the U.S. market. After getting to the island (by either show-sponsored ferry or bus), the visitor is rewarded by a huge tent filled with dealers showing some of their most interesting contemporary art pieces and installations. While we must still admit to “not getting” most contemporary art, even we found some to be intriguing and others to be great fun. While the show does not hold a candle to Art Basel Miami, we are still glad we went. The show did, however, provide one advantage over the huge Miami show–it, as discussed in the above Restaurant section, featured Mission Chinese as one of its on-site restaurants. Hummm, a high-light of an art show is a restaurant that we wanted to get to in NYC (we have been to the one in San Francisco). What does that say about Frieze New York–or about our enjoyment of some of the work we saw. Maybe we agree with the little girl we overheard asking her Dad if something was “art”.

New York Restaurant Update: Spring 2013

Tom — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:02:43 +0000

One of the joys of visiting New York City is the food. This time was no exception. This blog focuses on our recent trip’s restaurant experiences. The other blogs in this series discuss our theater, gallery and music excursions and two of our walks.

Ask anyone who knows us, and you will hear that Tom takes joy in seeking out the hottest new (good) restaurants. Our plan was to visit Manzanilla, a recently opened Spanish Brasserie that offers a small menu of snacks, appetizers and entrees from veteran chef Dani Garcia. Due to the last arrival of our plane, traffic in getting to our hotel, and our theater reservations for our first night in NYC, we were forced to cancel our anxiously awaited reservation and find something close to the Theater District. A big disappointment, but Manzanilla will be on our next trip, for sure.

Restaurants: Dinner

Bobby Vans. After being forced to cancel Manzanilla and being turned away from our last-minute efforts to get into some of our neighborhood favorites on our first evening, we reluctantly accepted the recommendation of our concierge to try Bobby Vans, a steakhouse that we would not have normally considered. This steakhouse, which specializes in all types of meat, also offers a range of seafood for Joyce as she rarely eats meal. My huge veal chop was good, if not particularly memorable. Joyce’s soft shell crab, also huge, was overly breaded and not especially tasty. Okay in a pinch, but we won’t make a regular habit of the restaurant.

Inakaya. A fun, very good Japanese robato grill and sushi restaurant in the theater district. We both had, and thoroughly enjoyed each of the seven-courses of the restaurant’s “Kaiseki” menu. Our feast included sashimi and sushi courses, grilled fish, egg custard, tempura, red miso and culminated in green tea ice cream with a sweet fruit sauce. Of the seven multi-item courses, there were only three items (the grilled okra, tempura pepper and overly breaded shrimp) that we didn’t completely enjoy. But with enough sake, we even managed to eat these. We will be happy to return.

Nomad. This relatively casual restaurant from Daniel Humm, chef at the justly renowned Eleven Madison Park, offers a more casual, but almost equally wonderful experience at Nomad. We had only two dishes: a foie gras torchon with strawberry a pickled rhubarb with a semi-sweet riesling. We followed with poached lobster with asparagus, leeks and mushrooms in wonderful vermouth broth, paired with a Chablis. Our only regret was in not having the appetite to try additional dishes, such as the fruit de mer appetizer and the duck, both about which our next table neighbor raved.

Frankie and Johnnie’s. This was my night for steak, at a steakhouse that I had been to, and enjoyed, many, many years ago. I selected a large, juicy ribeye that was good, if somewhat overly salted. Joyce’s grilled salmon, meanwhile, was perfect. The “onion rings” on the menu, turned out to be onion strings, pretty good, except that they were all breaking with practically imperceptible onion. The service was friendly and helpful.

Carnegie Deli. Our NYC trips always end in a ritual stop to Carnegie Deli, where we pick up chopped liver sandwiches to eat on the plane and corned beef for lunch the following day (not to speak of a little extra to nibble in the cab on the way to the airport, while it is still warm). It is always consistently good. Now if we could only get TSA at the airport to understand that chopped liver is not a forbidden liquid. When put on a roll, it is OK to take it through security. But when it is in a container, it is not.

Restaurants: Lunch and Brunch

Park Avenue Spring. This restaurant changes its menu, name and decor to match the season (as does AQ, one of our favorite San Francisco restaurants). Our brief exploration of the spring menu was memorable: sugar snap pea soup with goat cheese and mint yogurt foam, grilled octopus with chorizo, potatoes and Fava bean purée and the only semi-memorable open-face lobster club with bacon, watermelon radish and Russian dressing. The very good food was matched by the excellent service and the decor.

Le Bernadin Lounge. We love the restaurant (probably our favorite seafood restaurant in the country) so we decided to try the less formal, less expensive lounge. We each choose the three course meals. Joyce began with medallions of marinated sea scallop carpaccio with sweet and sour grapes and extra virgin olive oil with Yuzu vinaigrette and I with sautéed shrimp with maiche salad and balsamic vinaigrette. We both had poached skate wing for our entree, with pickled shallots, sea beans, cucumbers and a sherry emulsion. We diverged again on desserts, with Joyce having selection of four house made ice creams (vanilla, chocolate, coffee and a very interesting black sesame) and me with a dark chocolate cremeaux with kirsch sauce and Belgian beer sorbet. The food, atmosphere and the service were all classic La Bernadin (although it probably wasn’t necessary for three people to play different roles in refilling our iced teas). And all this for only $45 per person for the food.

Mission Chinese. We were originally disappointed that we were unable to fit in a meal at the New York version of the San Francisco classic (and new winner of the James Beard Foundation Best New Chef award), Mission Chinese. Then came the pleasant surprise–Mission Chinese was at the Frieze Art Fair. We shared four three dishes: Cooling Peanut Noodles (with sweet potato noodles, peanuts, cucumber, mint and cilantro), red cabbage salad with anchovy dressing and sesame seeds and our overwhelming favorite, Spicy Kunjpao Pastrami (with peanuts, celery, peppers and rice).

Golden Unicorn. Although we regularly have dim sum in San Francisco, we have not previously had it in New York. We thought this would be a good time to explore the differences and went to one of the top rated dim sum restaurants. We found several of the same dishes we normally order in San Francisco: shrimp shumai and the very rare egg roll. But we also had two dishes that we never see in SF: fried shrimp wrapped in bacon and the absolutely wonderful shrimp dumpling (filled with mushrooms, water chestnuts and chives) in a chicken broth with chopped scallions. This dish was almost enough to prompt us to favor NYC dim sum over that from back home. For me, however, the combination of SF shrimp in vanilla sauce with candied walnuts and Peking duck that we get in San Francisco outweigh the delicious dumplings. Joyce, who doesn’t typically partake in the Peking duck, isn’t quite as certain.

New York City Walks: 2013

Tom — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:01:00 +0000

We love taking periodic New York City trips. We don’t go as often now that we live on the west coast, but we still try to get there at least once a year. When we go, our key objectives are usually:

Catching up with theater, new restaurants, museum exhibits and art galleries
Revisiting as many of our favorite restaurants, museums and galleries as we have time for;
Getting together with friends; and
Walking as much as we can, as a means of experiencing all of the city’s wonderful neighborhoods, exploring new areas (with a goal of at least one new neighborhood per trip) and of working off at least some of the thousands of calories we consume in our never-ending quest to find the best new restaurants.

This blog focuses on a few of our recent trip’s most interesting neighborhood walks. The other blogs in this series discuss our theater, restaurant, gallery and music experiences.

New York City Walks

We always rack up many walking miles in New York. Joyce tracks the miles on her pedometer, and mandates at least 10,000 steps a day (5 miles), but we often achieve 15,000 – 20,000 steps or 7-10 miles each day. Most of our walks are in the areas we know quite well: the Theater District (where we often stay and spend most evenings), in the Upper East Side and Chelsea (around the museums and galleries we visited), in Harlem (the Apollo Theater), and on the Upper West Side and Greenwich Village (visiting friends and running errands).

We also spent a little time in one area to which we have never been (Brooklyn’s Park Slope) and got to see a very different side of a couple of others areas to which we had been a few times before (the High Line and the area around City Hall).

Brooklyn’s Park Slope

We primarily went to this little neighborhood tucked in the middle of Brooklyn to visit the Brooklyn Museum–but since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to take a brief tour. We walked by the lovely Botanical Garden (which we unfortunately had time to see only the edge), down the main boulevard, past the monumental arch, along the hopping restaurant-driven commercial streets (especially 5th Avenue) and on a number of tranquil residential streets (with neighbors sitting on their stoops and working on their gardens who actually converse with each other!). After walking these streets and tasting our way through the Sunday Farmers’ Market, we had to leave to catch our plane home. We shall, however, return. And next time, we hope to sample some of the more promising looking restaurants—of which there were many.

The High Line

We’ve always enjoyed strolling along former elevated West Side Line of the New York Central Railroad spur on the lower west side of Manhattan, which has been redesigned and planted as an aerial park. This time, we had the misfortune on being there on a lovely day after a sustained period of rain. The misfortune was due to the huge number of others with the same idea. Although the nature trail was still a lovely escape from the city traffic and lights, it was certainly not an escape from the crowds. It was packed from the moment we got on at 30th St, to our exit on 18th. We found ourselves continually dodging baby strollers, trying to get around people who insist on walking three or four abreast and avoiding those who suddenly stop or weave. Pretty, yes: a tranquil respite from the city bustle, not even close.

8 Spruce Street

On our many visits to NYC, we never managed to get to the City Hall neighborhood to see Frank Geary’s most recent addition to the New York skyline—the 76-story 8 Spruce Street tower that is the tallest residential tower in the country. We wanted to see the tower not for its height, nor to understand what is claimed to be its pioneering construction techniques nor to experience its even loftier rents. We just wanted to see its undulating façade, constructed of 10,500 stainless steel panels, each of a different shape and size, that resulted in different footprints for each floor and different layouts for each of its units. This time, we made it and agree with the many architectural critics who consider it to be one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. This beauty is echoed, in a very different way, as we walked around the building and as the sun shifted in the sky. As, as beautiful as the building was, you just had to turn your head to catch a view of the Brooklyn Bridge. We only wished we could visit someone in the building to catch a glimpse view from one of the windows.

What are some of your favorite walks in New York City?

Santa Rita Hills Wines

Joyce — Tue, 14 May 2013 16:02:00 +0000

We recently had an opportunity to attend a wine tasting with the Santa Rita Hills Winegrowers Alliance, which showcased 17 wineries from the Santa Rita Hills AVA. The wineries were (in alphabetical order)

Although Santa Rita Hills is one of the smaller appellations (approximately 100 square miles) in California, it isn’t small when it comes to growing grapes. This cool climate appellation is located in the western end of the Santa Ynez Valley between Buellton and Lompoc (Santa Barbara County).

Marine winds and coastal fog keep the heat in check, making this area ideal for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. No, not the big fruit Pinot Noirs of the warmer Russian River, but more subtle balanced wines from grapes grown in sandy soils in the west and clay soils in the east which provide more black fruit character versus plum or strawberries. The chardonnays are ripe but crisp due to the cooler temperature, with a touch of mineral.

We wished that more SRH wineries had been part of the tasting which took place in San Francisco, but this was an opportunity to taste some of the wines from vineyards that don’t always make it to our list when we travel through the Santa Rita Hills area. Wine is such a personal matter that we hesitate to identify those that we liked best. But we found some interesting wines at reasonable pricing.

Exploring Stags Leap District Unknown Wineries

Tom — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 01:32:40 +0000

This last weekend, as discussed in our April 15, 2013 post, was the Stags Leap’s District annual celebration of the appellations vintners and wines. We attended one of the Vineyard to Vintner Weekend’s three events:

Saturday’s Open Houses in which 19 wineries opened their facilities and their caves for tours, meet-the-winemaker events, music and merriment. Then of course, there were tastings: new release tastings, barrel tastings, cheese pairings, olive oil and vinegar tastings and pairings with everything from steak, barbeque and pizza to in-season berries, chocolate and cupcakes. Plus we had the opportunities to visit stately hospitality houses, sit on the decks of tasting room and winemaker’s homes, and sip some of our favorite Cabs while staring out at the beautiful Napa scenery. Life was good!

Although we skipped Clos Du Val’s 8:30 AM “Breakfast of Champions” kick-off, and some of the formal pairings (such as Silverado wine and cheese pairing seminar, we managed to visit about 15 of the wineries.

We certainly visited some of our favorites—Chimney Rock, Cliff Lede, Hartwell and Pine Ridge—and some of the other larger producers that we don’t often get to, such as Silverado, Shafer and Clos Du Val. We enjoyed the opportunity to visit facilities not normally open to the public and to speak with winemakers. We particularly appreciated being able to taste a number of seldom-tasted or not normally available wines and see how they pair with different foods and cheeses. Among our most memorable of these big winery discoveries were:

Silverado’s 2009 SOLO SLD cab (especially when paired with Beecher’s Flagship Reserve cow’s milk cheese) and 2010 Limited Late Harvest, which is only made during years with appropriate Botrytis (paired with a Point Reyes Blue drizzled with honey);
Cliff Lede’s bargain Sauvignon Blanc ($23), 2009 Poetry and especially its 2010 rock block Landslide Fire cab;
Pine Ridge’s FORTIS Cab;
Shafer’s 2010 Hillside Select cab;
Chimney Rock’s 2006 Tomahawk and 2008 Alpine , as well as its always enjoyable SLD Cab and refreshing Elevage Blanc; and
Odette’s sister winery, Cade’s (both of which are members of the Plumpjack family of wines) 2009 Howell Mountain Cab (which reinforced our commitment, after the recent Howell Mountain event, to better explore this appellation.

The real treat, however, was to visit a number of tiny SLD (Stag’s Leap District) wineries that are not typically open to the public, and some of which we had never before know of: Wineries including Malk, Robinson, Taylor Family and two of our new favorites: Ilsley and Lindstrom. Among our favorites of these wines were:

Robinson Family’s 2009 RFW Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon;
Isley’s 2005 Cab; and
Lindstrom’s 2010 Cab and 2009 Nicali Blend (with 80% Cab and 20% Zin).

Overall, a fun party, a wonderful opportunity to taste new wines (especially when artfully paired with complementary foods) and especially, to discover exciting small wineries that had not previously been on our radar.

We are already looking forward to next year’s V2V weekend.

Vineyard to Vintner weekend

A Central Texas Itinerary: A Week of Wildflowers, Wine, Food, Music and History in Hill Country

Tom — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 22:04:44 +0000

It has been years since we had last been to Austin and San Antonio—too many years. And the last time we were there, we spent all our time in, and driving between, the two cities. This trip we decided to add a detour through the Hill County in addition to exploring the 2 cities.

San Antonio. Our trip began with a day and a half in San Antonio, where we delved into its history (especially through the Alamo and Mission San Jose), took to the water along the River Walk, and sampled a number of the city’s newer and more interesting restaurants, particularly in Southtown—an area that anyone interested in good food needs to visit. And while in Southtown, don’t forget the self-guided walking tour of the stately King William District. Or continuing even further south to bike the suburban section of the River Walk—especially in springtime, when the wildflowers are in bloom.

Hill Country. We then took local roads north to Johnson City (touring the LBJ State Park and Texas White House and unfortunately missing one of the few open days of the Benini Foundation Sculpture Ranch) and then west through Stonewall wine country (visiting more than a few of the wineries), through the quirky town of Luckenback and on to the pretty town of Fredericksburg, where we explored its main street shops, sampled some of the local beer at an outdoor music bar, explored the fascinating National Museum of the Pacific War and had a lovely dinner. Then, the next day, we drove north and east through wildflower country, where we drove past and walked through lovely displays of bluebonnets and many other wildflowers, tippled at yet another winery and experienced (as well as ate at) a fascinating barbeque stop.

Austin. This was the last, and anchor stop of our Hill Country trip. While we went primarily for the music and the food, we also discovered South Congress (SoCo), the section of the city that has assumed responsibility for “Keeping Austin Weird.” And if you are looking for food trucks, Austin is where you want to be. Turn a corner, and you will find one, or a whole caravan, usually with a bar and tables. Nor can you forget history and culture. The LBJ Presidential Library and Museum is educational and engaging, from the painful history of the Vietnam War, down to the animatronic figure telling classic, corny LBJ jokes. The Blanton Museum, meanwhile, is a treat, at least with current exhibit, in which art that is being lent and donated by University of Texas alumni and trained artists has taken over almost the entire museum. Our primary objective in visiting Austin, however, was for the music. The self-described Live Music Capital of the World is filled with clubs which cater to virtually every type of music—many of which we heard.

See our San Antonio, Hill Country and Austin blogs for the details on each destination.

Austin: Just How Weird is it?

Tom — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 21:43:55 +0000

We spend the last two days of our Texas trip, which we conveniently planned for the weekend, in Austin.

Although I have been in Austin a number of times, most of my time was spend in the suburbs, in meetings and when I had a little extra time in the evening, around the bars and music clubs of Congress Ave and 6^th Street. This trip provided a broader view of the city.

Our first stop, given our wildflower journey, was to see more wildflowers:

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Although we certainly saw a broad range of wildflowers, and some lovely ones at that, there weren’t anywhere near as many as we had expected. In fact, the center appears to be at least as focused on, and devotes far more space to its arboretum and its “Glory of Trees” focus, than it does to wildflowers. Nor was our quest to learn more about the flowers helped by the fact that visitor’s gallery was closed for the day.

Austin Downtown To Do

Daytime walks through the city’s Congress Ave Market and Warehouse districts bear few traces of the city’s trademark Weirdness. Some lovely buildings (especially the State Capitol, the Driskill Hotel and stately homes and offices along a couple streets just south east of the Capitol). There is, of course, also a plaque noting the location that the first Austin City Limits music-based TV series was filmed. But for the most part, Austin looks like a normal business city.

Things begin to more interesting when you see all the bars and music venues around 6^th Street (most of which are either closed or nearly empty during the day), and especially as you venture further west into the edgier Red River district, with its tattoo parlors and especially Stubb’s popular BBQ restaurant and concert venue. Although a few of these venues are active during the days on weekends, they, as discussed below, typically don’t come alive until about 9:00 PM.

Two of the most interesting daytime activities are a bit further north, on the University of Texas campus. The most interesting of these (at least when Texas is not playing football) is the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum, which is both educational and engaging.

LBJ Presidential Library and Museum begins with a timeline of LBJ’s life and progresses through written descriptions, videos and audios of many of the President’s most important initiatives, especially his efforts to reduce poverty (including the Great Society and Medicare and Medicaid programs), improve the state of blacks (as through the Voter Registration and especially Civil Rights Acts), improve education (as with Head Start and funding of Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts), and some of his—and Lady Bird’s environmental initiatives. And of course, in this age of ballooning budget deficits and stubbornly high unemployment, it spoke of his balanced budgets and 3.3 percent unemployment rates.

Although many of his foreign affairs efforts, such as those in dealing with the Cold War, Latin America and the Middle East’s Six-Day War were discussed briefly, the foreign affairs section of the exhibit, as would be expected, focused primarily on Vietnam. It doesn’t sugarcoat the controversial war, discussing the heavy toll on American lives (with 58,000 dead, 153,000 wounded and 2,500 missing) and society, and on the Vietnamese. It spoke of Johnson’s personal traumas over U.S. involvement in the war and attributed his decision to not seek reelection in 1968 largely as an effort to accelerate stalled peace talks.

The museum also provided obligatory (for Presidential museums) recreations of both the Oval Office and the First Lady’s Office and some of their mementos. And then came a touch that is very uncharacteristic of Presidential Museums—an animatronic recreation of LBJ telling some of his classic, corny jokes. Can you imagine something like that at the Nixon museum?

During our visit, the museum also had a special exhibit of some of the most interesting photojournalist photos taken of presidents over the last decade—an exhibit that certainly brought back memories.

The UT campus also houses the city’s primary art museum, the Blanton.

The Blanton is a treat, at least with current exhibit, in which art that is being lent and donated by University of Texas alumni and trained artists has taken over almost the entire museum. The show begins when you walk into the lobby, with its striking acrylic walls designed by Terresita Fernandez. The walls, which are called “Stacked Waters), layer varying shades of blue, from deep blue through aqua, to almost white, to create an illusion of water of varying depths. The temporary exhibit, meanwhile, contains hundreds of pieces that span from Renaissance to contemporary art.

South Congress Neighborhood

It is not that Austin is no longer weird. It’s just that the locus of this weirdness has moved south of downtown and the river to the hot South Congress (SoCo) neighborhood. The roughly 10-block stretch of Congress Avenue, which is crowded during the days and packed at nights, is filled with causal restaurants, music clubs (especially the Continental), food truck parks, fun shops and of course, the occasional busker.

The most fun shop of all is Lucy in Disguise with Diamonds. The 8,000 square foot store, which is filled with outrageous vintage clothes, costumes and disguises, offers everything for purchase or rental.

The Live Music Capital of the World

Although we were certainly interested in Austin’s neighborhoods, museums and shops, we were primarily interested in its music. And there is no shortage of opportunity to hear it. An evening walk along Sixth Street, South Congress and Red River Street will expose you to virtually every type of music you could hope to hear. We spend most of our time at three clubs:

Elephant Room, just north of the River, which focuses on “cool jazz”, generally draws an older audience with relatively soft music—our kind of music and crowd;
Friends, on 6^th Street, focuses primarily on rock and blues;
Threadgills, just south of the river, had an evening of Cajun music and featured a display, as well as the use of artisan Hohner diatonic button accordions;

Stubb’s and Continental Club, meanwhile, were louder and drew younger crowds with more contemporary music. Saxon Pub, which is well outside the downtown area, was playing country and western. These, however, are only a few of the city’s hundreds of music venues. Odds are, that you will be able to find at least a few that play exactly the type of music you are interested in, and cater to your type of crowd.

Austin Restaurants

Since restaurants are important components of all of our trips, we looked long and hard to find some of the most interesting. We generally succeeded. Our absolute favorite was:

Sway, a modern Thai restaurant with a fascinating menu and refined preparations. The four of us were blown away by almost every dish. And since they were all so interesting, we sampled many of them. Among our favorites were pad thai, shu mai (with crab, shrimp, cuttlefish, trout roe, white soy, cucumber vinegar) and especially son in law (crispy farm egg, braised pork shoulder, thick soy, chili vinegar). Then came the piece d’resistance, tapioca pudding with mango and a number of other very complementary Asian flavors with which we were too enthralled to remember. Given the success we had with our food, we would urge you to try anything on the menu—and to call us if you need help finishing your food.

We also generally enjoyed, three less innovative places at which we ate in the city:

Perla’s, in SoCo, specializes in fresh, simply prepared and from our experience, delicious seafood. Since we came fresh off a huge lunch at Cooper’s Old-Time Pit Bar-B-Que (in Llano Texas), we had to limit our evening food intake to an appetizer (low and behold, they had deep fried gulf oysters) and a wonderfully prepared Chilean sea bass. Although the restaurant was packed, the service was personal and unrushed and our server was instrumental in steering us to the music vlubs that were most suited to our tastes.
Lamberts, one of Austin’s classic barbeque restaurants, was our Sunday brunch stop. We began by sharing a very good, finger-licken appetizer, lightly fried wild boar ribs (with honey & sambal, blue cheese and celery & daikon slaw). The Oak Grilled Shrimp & Ham Grits (with lemon zest, chili flakes, chicory and soft boiled egg) was also very good, as was the extra crispy house smoked bacon. Although we enjoyed the achiote and lime rubbed chicken on a barbeque plate (with which we had sides of potato salad and baked beans), we were less enthalled with coriander crusted pork ribs. This, as we later discovered, probably has more do to with the traditional way Austin-style ribs are prepared than with any fault of either of the two restaurants (Perla’s and Cooper’s) in which we had them.
Go Bites Food Truck. Austin is something of a Food Truck Heaven. If you don’t find a food truck on the block you’re on, go to the next block, or turn a corner. You will surely find yourself face-to-face with an individual truck or, more likely, a food truck park next to a fixed structure with a bar and tables. So we decided that we had to try one. Our choice was Go Bites, which specializes in pita wraps. We had two different wraps. I particularly enjoyed the Flying Pig Hickory, stuffed with crispy bacon, romaine, tomato and avocado with a secret sauce. The gyros-like wrap (with ground lamb, onion, tomato and greens with Tzatziki sauce and pistachio mint pesto) was also quite good. The fixed bar in whose parking lot Go Bites and another food truck were parked, offered a large selection of local beers, both bottled and on-tap, and indoor and outdoor seating on which to savor a fun, inexpensive meal.

The Best of the Texas Hill Country—in Two Days

Tom — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 19:11:18 +0000

We have always wanted to visit the Texas Hill Country during springtime, when the wildflowers were in bloom. Despite a number of business/leisure trips to Austin (and one previous visit in San Antonio), none of the trips seemed to correspond with wildflower season. So, not only did we lose out on the flowers, but also the center of the state’s increasingly popular wine region and the home to what are reputedly, some of its prettiest towns. This year, we, along with some friends from Boston, decided to that it was time to remedy this gap in our goal of seeing all of the most noteworthy (at least to us) areas of the country.

After a day and a half in San Antonio, we packed our saddlebags and moseyed north to Johnson City, west to Fredericksburg (where we spend a night), and then north and east through some of the state’s prime wildflower country (around Llano and Burnet) before a two-day stop in Austin, the self-proclaimed “Live Music Capital of the World”.

Johnson City—Art and History

After a modest, but tempting display of flowers along Route 291 from San Antonio to Johnson City, we met with the first of the trip’s few disappointments: The Benini Studio and Sculpture Ranch, which displays primarily the artist’s own multimedia creations in the studio and about 100 sculptures from a broad range of other artists across the 140 acre ranch, was closed for the day. (It was, in fact, posted with a “For Sale” sign!) But while we were thwarted in our efforts to see the sculpture ranch, Johnson City brought one piece of “sculpture” right to us, in the form of a painted, sculpted grain elevator right on Rt 290.

We, however, rapidly recovered from that disappointment when we reached our second stop, the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historic Park. After an introductory movie and brose through the visitor center, we took a self-guided driving tour of the ranch (where Johnson was born, lived, died, and was buried), ending up at the Johnson home and Texas White House.

We saw and learned about Air Force One Half (the small commuter jet that Johnson preferred to the larger Air Force One), many of the cars he used and the closet filled with Texas and White House-themed gifts that he enjoyed giving. Then there was the ranch’s old (and new) show barns, the Secret Service House and the power station that was built to upgrade the home’s single-line, hand-crank telephone that he used through his career in the Senate, to a then state-of-the-art multi-line system (with phones in every room) on which he relied to employ his famous in-your-face brand of persuasion. Then there was the old “Cabinet Oak,” which was circled with lawn chairs in which Johnson held Cabinet meetings while he was in Texas.

Although photos were not allowed inside the home or the presidential office, both were to appear as they were when he was in office. It was repainted and retrofitted, with the furniture, fixtures and personal item (including many of the president and first-lady’s clothes) that were in the home during the couple’s White House years. Since this historic park and tour were focused primarily on Johnson’s personal life (unlike the Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, which focuses primarily on his political life), it did not get into his policies or the issues he faced in office. They did, however, present a vivid personal picture of the man (and woman) who did so much to shape the country during one of its most turbulent decades.

Stonewall Wineries

The town of Stonewall is Ground Zero of Texas Wine Country. We would be remiss of our duty if we did not sample the wares of at least a few of its producers. Although we tasted almost every varietal, few are really ready for prime time. Our stops, based on recommendations from fellow American Institute of Wine & Food members and from hosts at the wineries we visited, Pedernales, Becker, Grape Creek, Hilmy and Four Point, the latter of which represents wines from three wineries (Lost Oak, Brennan and McPherson) from three different Texas regions (Fort Worth, Comanche and Lubbock, respectively). After all our diligent fieldwork, we discovered that the most promising are wines based on Rhone and Mediterranean varietals—especially Tempranillo. Among those that were most interesting were:

Pedernales 2012 Albarino, 2011 Tempranillo Reserve, 2010 Family Reserve (a Tempranillo blend) and 2012 Muscat
Becker 2011 Reserve Vigonier, 2011 Reserve Roussanne, 2010 Reserve Cabernet (which is grown in Texas’s much higher-altitude Western high country) and 2011 Raven (a Petite Verdot and Malbec blend);
Grape Creek 2012 Cuvee Blanc (pinot gris, Viognier and Sauvignon Blanc) and two Cabernet-based wines, the 2010 Cabernet Trois and Cabernet/Syrah blend.

In the midst of all this tasting, we decided we had to eat. When we asked for recommendations, were continually told to take the 20 minute drive to Fredericksburg. But since we still had more Stonewall stops to make, we decided to ignore there warning and eat at a local café. The people were friendly and the service good.

Luckenbach General Store and Dance Hall

After completing our winetasting duties, we had one more brief stop before reaching our evening destination of Fredericksburg. Luckenbach isn’t so much a town (actually hamlet) as it is an old happening Texas ghost town. With only a handful of few residents, the town’s fun, touristy/functional General Store, with its decommissioned Post Office, crowded backroom bar, with a window opening to a serving bar open to a small concert venue. The town “restaurant” and large dance hall are next door. The town center is indeed a place to behold. It is an incredibly active (for its size) country music venue that has hosted the likes of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett. In fact, it holds a spot in the Guinness Book of World Record for the most guitar players gathered at one time to play (continuously, at least 5 minutes)—a total of 1,868! But if you think downtown Luckenback is just for tourists, tell that to the chickens who are roaming the yards and the bar.

Unfortunately, we managed to visit on one of the few days in which there was not one of the regularly scheduled Picker Circles, dances, shows and events. You can bet, however, that we will plan our next trip around Luckenbach’s and the Belini Sculpture Ranch’s schedules.

Fredericksburg as Hill Country Destination

Fredericksburg is a destination town, as evidenced by the big, someone soulless hotels, kitschy tourist shops and tour buses. But get beyond that. It’s an attractive, lively, 150+ year-old German farming town that is still known for its peaches, its lavender and, in Texas circles, its wine. It is loaded with German-style stone houses and has an attractive and lively Main Street, fun bars, good restaurants and a world-class museum. Besides, where else can you find gourmet chocolate shops that have chocolate-covered bacon, pickles and jalapeno peppers. Or, for that matter, a wide selection of (We Don’t Call 911” signs that promote the region’s long-established gun culture.

Walk both sides of the Main Street, take a rest in one of the drinking/drinking venues (country and Western, German or Contemporary), enjoy a good meal (our was at the Cabernet Grill) and then spend a three, four or more hours in the fascinating (at least for history buffs) National Museum of the Pacific War. This museum, which is based in the hotel that was owned by World War II Pacific Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, is spread across three primary buildings:

Admiral Nimitz Museum is, the ship-brow-shaped hotel that was owned by the Nimitz family and now memorializes the life and career of the man who redefined naval warfare;
George H.W. Bush Gallery tells the entire history of the Pacific war, starting with the 19^th-century “Westernization” of Japan and China, which set the context for the war, though Pearl Harbor, detailed descriptions of all the major battles, the development and roles of key technologies, and the difficult decision to drop the Atomic bomb. While the story is told primarily through written panels and pictures, there are plenty of historic videos, audio presentations, artifacts and even a multimedia reenactment of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Incredibly detailed, interesting and moving;
Pacific Combat Zone, which I did not have time to visit, provides guided tours that depict life in the war zone. It shows an airfield in which a bomber is being prepared for a mission, a PT base, and even a beachhead equipped with weapons and entrenchments. The Zone’s living history program delves into detailed accounts of U.S. and Japanese weapons and tactics and the planning processes and execution of actual invasions.

Although we had many recommendations for good Fredericksburg restaurants, we had time to try only one:

Cabernet Grill is a pretty Texas steakhouse. Two of us—the two men—partook in ritual ,with big, juicy ribeye steaks with a wasbi merlot sauce and maple chipotle sweet potato mash. The women had fish; Pan Seared Rainbow Trout stuffed with roasted tomatoes, asiago cheese, fresh herbs and applewood smoked bacon, topped with pecan brown butter sauce, and coconut crusted Shrimp with five pepper glace and pickled red onion jalapeno slaw. But since entrees (even big ones) are never sufficient when exploring a new restaurant, we had to try the house salad and Pecan Crusted Crab Cake appetizers. And since the chicken frying of all types of unanticipated dishes seems to be a Texas tradition, we simply couldn’t pass up a chance to try the Chicken Fried Pecan Pie with white chocolate ice cream. Overall, a very good, not to speak of very filling meal.

The Quest for Wildflowers

While the annual display has been substantially muted by five straight years of drought, there was still plenty to see and do. Our first stop, out of Fredericksburg, was Enchanted Rock, a 425-foot tall pink granite monolith that covers 640 acres.

Then on to lunch in Llano—, for a hugely popular and very busy Texas BBQ experience:

Cooper’s Old-Time Pit Bar-B-Que is more an experience, than it is a restaurant. After a long wait in line, you reach a line of huge ovens that are filled with all types of barbequed and smoked meats—pork ribs, beef ribs, pork chops, sausage, brisket, prime rib, chicken and more—pretty much all of which we just had to sample. You tell the tender which meat, and how much you want. He cuts it, places it on a metal tray and points you to the door. Once you enter, you pass your meat-laden tray to a person who weighs and prices each of your selection and wraps it in brown paper—which also serves as your plate. While this is being done, you walk along a counter at which you select sides (cole slaw, potato salad, baked beans), desert (especially a number of cobblers, including delicious pecan cobbler) and drinks. Then, off to the main room (not to speak of the large overflow room and outside area) to try to find space for four on one of the long picnic-style tables and benches. Although none of us were particularly impressed by the food (other than the chicken and the peach cobbler), it was a fun (not to speak of incredibly filling) experience. We would do it again.

We then took a slight detour on the way to Burnet to sample one more winery, Fall Creek Vineyards, on what used to be (before the drought) the shores of Lake Buchanan. While it is one of the largest wineries in Texas, we were not particularly impressed by any of its varietal wines. Not till the end of the tasting did we discover the real sources of the demand for its wines—the $9.99 semi-dry (about 2% residual sugar) Ed’s “Smooth Red” and “Just Right White” and the even sweeter (5-6% RS) Twin Springs Sweet Red, White and Blush wines. (They would not even hint at the grapes, much less the percentages, that went into each of these wines. Not exactly our tastes, but it certainly helps explain the source of Fall Creek’s demand.

But while we didn’t exactly fall in love with these wines, the drive did take us past some of the prettiest wildflowers of the entire trip. It was a perfect lead up to stop at Inks Lake State Park, which is, from what we heard, Wildflower Central. Although the drought took its toll here too, the drive, combined with a long walk along the park’s trails provided a day filled with, honeysuckles, firewheels, baby’s breath, daisies, broomrape and indigo—not to speak of bluebonnets (the Texas state flower)., mixed in with assorted cacti and succulents.

Overall, our trip through Texas Hill Country was two days that were very well spend. It was also a lovely way of relaxing before two long days, not to speak of very long, music-filled nights in Austin.

San Antonio–Capitalizing on its History and its Water

Tom — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 18:52:43 +0000

San Antonio is Texas’s second largest city. Considering its size, however, it is very accessible. It is also pretty and hospitable. Its tourist appeal centers largely on two of the city’s two most iconic sights:

The Alamo, which serves as a poignant symbol of the state’s commitment to freedom, perseverance and sacrifice; and
The River Walk, which turned the flood-prone river into a beautiful and highly lucrative tourist attraction.

But while it is absolutely worth visiting both of these attractions, San Antonio has much more.

The Alamo

When one thinks of San Antonio, or indeed, the history of the entire state, one thinks first of the Alamo. It is indeed an impressive sight. More impressive yet is the history of the building and its role in shaping, symbolizing and telling the story of the state’s independence and self-reliance. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas raised the money to renovate and operates the site does an incredible job in bring this story to life.

An excellent introductory narration humanized the famous defenders (especially Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett and William Travis) as well as Santa Anna, the general of the Mexican army that sought to subdue the territory’s rebellion, explaining their motivations. It highlighted the futility of the battle and the sacrifices of the 200+ volunteers who accepted certain death (not to speak of the future of their families) by defying a 5,000-person army that was ordered to take no prisoners. It also debunked many of the myths perpetuated by legend and the John Wayne movie, such as by explaining that the state of the weapons allowed each defender to get off only one or two shots before they were engulfed by the attacking army.

The following History Channel movie and detailed multi-room interpretive display provided the facts—the history of Texas settlement, the reasons that the initially satisfying relationship with Mexico soured, and the role of the Alamo battle in the broader war for Texan independence. Alamo Park also has a very pretty garden, a huge, ancient oak tree and, of course, a large gift shop.

The River Walk

San Antonio, after building locks and new channels to protect the city from another devastating flood, has taken full advantage of its river. It turned it into one of the city’s premier tourist attractions and the centerpiece of its tourist economy. It renovated and gave new lives to hundreds of historic buildings along its banks, used its waters to create lovely waterfalls and features and even integrated it directly into some buildings (such as the Hyatt Hotel) and designed a few (especially the convention center) to accentuate it’s now tranquil waters.

Sure, the River Walk has been totally commercialized and is filled with restaurants that (from what we expected and were told—although we didn’t try them ourselves) may be mediocre. It is, however, still lovely and makes for a relaxing stroll. It is even fun and interesting to take one of the River Walk boat cruises, where you learn about the history of the river and the buildings. It is especially nice in the evening, when the restaurants are filled, the bridges and water features are lit, music is playing and tourist-filled river boats are plying the waters.

And, as we discovered on a venture out of the city, River Walk extends well beyond the downtown area, where a walking/biking trail stretches miles outside the city and is dotted with parks, tables and grills, where people can eat and even cook their own meals. This area (as is the case with much of Hill Country) is especially lovely in springtime, when the wildflowers are in bloom.

Other City Neighborhoods and Attractions

While you are in the downtown area, you can also make brief stops at a few of the city’s other sites. These include:

La Villita, the original section of the city that has been converted into shops and galleries and a beautifully restored old church, with a fun artistic construction that is particularly striking at night;
The Historic and also beautifully renovated Menger Hotel, with its multi-story, stained glass-topped entry;
The Buckhorn Tavern, with its kitschy shop, bar lined with dozens of stuffed animal heads and two museums (neither of which we visited).
HemisFair Park, a 15 acre park built in the city of the 1968 World’s Fair, that is build around the 750-foot tall “Tower of the Americas”, with its “4D” theater, games and, of course, its own revolving restaurant.

For our money, however, the most interesting part of the city (other than the Alamo and the River Walk) is the Southtown area. This is the location of some of the most beautiful old homes (especially the King William Historic District), the still aspiring BlueStar Art Complex (build around the BlueStar Brewery and brewpub) and many of the city’s best and hippest restaurants.

We also ventured about five miles south of the city to visit the really historic (250 years old) Mission San Jose National Historical Park. This so-called “Queen of the Missions”, the largest Spanish Mission in the U.S., has been fully restored. Although we managed to just miss the last tour of the day, the introductory movie, the visitor center and interpretive exhibits within some of the restored buildings did provide more than enough information to help us understand how the mission was used and the lives of the missionaries and the Native American residents.

And since the driver of the cab we took from the city to the Mission told us of the River Walk Park, we even took a lovely, wildflower-filled walk back to the city, where we conveniently exited the path at the Blue Star Arts Complex. Had we realized the distance and the convenience of the city’s B-Cycle Bike Sharing program (with pick-up and drop off spots right outside the Mission and in the BlueStar complex) we would have taken bikes.

After a brief BlueStar refresher, we took a self-guided walking tour of the King William District and ate dinner in Southtown. Since the neighborhood has so many good restaurants, we couldn’t decide on just one. So we didn’t. We decided on a grazing dinner, with dishes at two of the neighborhood’s restaurants and one of its food trucks.

San Antonio Restaurants

To our culinary surprise, we found the San Antonio restaurant scene (at least in Southtown) to be more interesting than we expected. Our grazing, and second night formal restaurant stops included:

The Monterey, which was most highly recommended by our new Facebook foodie friends. Given the weather, we chose to eat on the large outside patio. Since I managed to misplace the copy of the menu on which I wrote the two specials we had for the evening, I cannot, unfortunately, fully explain the dishes. From memory, however, our three-course “appetizer course” consisted of a half dozen freshly shucked oysters, topped with a foam that complemented the oyster’s saltiness, a huge lightly fried soft-shell crab sandwich with lettuce, tomato and light aioli on a brioche bun and one on-the-menu dish, fried gulf oysters on toast with Chinese sausage jam and manchego cheese. Each of the dishes was wonderful, as was the atmosphere and the service. A must-stop San Antonio dining experience.
Feast, where we managed to confine ourselves to two decent, but only modestly satisfying dishes: grilled glazed Texas Bobwhite quail (with kale, lemon confit, cream and olive oil) and sweet corn fritters (with poppy seeds and jalapeno cream cheese);
Alamo Street Eat Bar, a bar, outside eating area, nightly music and a half-dozen food trucks. Since we just happened to be there on “Crawfish Tuesday”, we couldn’t help to get a pound of the tiny, nicely spiced crustaceans. Our only problem was finding a free table at which to sit at the popular food truck park.
Bliss, was the one San Antonio restaurant at which we ate a full dinner, which consisted of a number of appetizers. Since we are addicted, we shared another restaurant’s version of fried gulf oysters (sliders with candied bacon, buttermilk chive biscuits, spinach and brown butter hollandaise) and soft-shell crab (this time a Shiner Bock battered crab with cilantro cole slaw and jalapeno corn remoulade). We finished up with a charcuterie and cheese plate with prosciutto, coppa and an Italian cow and sheep milk cheese, as well as our two favorite, a porcini salami and a Spanish cheese that is similar to a manchego.

We did, however, eat at one downtown restaurant. Since we didn’t have time to venture down to Southtown (of course!) to visit Rosario’s, the city’s most highly recommended Mexican restaurant, we visited the second choice:

Acenar is a counterintuitively modern restaurant that has a patio on the river (although not on the River Walk). Although it was our second choice, we enjoyed the food, the service and the riverfront atmosphere. We began with a delicious guacamole with homemade tostadas chips. While Joyce ate healthily, with a Citrus Salad (spinach, orange, grapefruit, Manchego cheese, candied pecans and grilled shrimp), I enjoyed the Crab Tinga Taco with fresh gulf blue crab, tomato, onion, chipotle and avocado.

Then we also had to make a stop at at one more extraordinarily highly recommended restaurant, or rather food experience, for breakfast:

Taco Haven is, according to our Facebook sources, THE place to go for breakfast tacos (make mine a ham and cheese). The restaurant was, as we were warned it would be, packed. Service, however, was fast, efficient and helpful and the taco, very good.

Accommodations

Arbor House Suites. This complex of four restored Victorians consists of suites, each named after and decorated with prints of Alamo heroes. The Davy Crockett Suite had a pleasant, period sitting room, king-sized bedroom and bath. Although the building, suites and the yard are all lovely, our bed was a bit soft and shook when either of us moved. We were also not able to get any information from the manager, since the only time he was onsite (at least when we were there) was when we checked out. All other communications, including telling us where we could park and how to get into the locked house, were by phone.