PARITY WITH HOUSTON, DALLAS, AUSTIN
by Andrew Chalk
Over this last week I have run reviews of places visited on a recent visit to San Antonio. They are very different, but are collectively indicative of the continuing ascent of San Antonio as a culinary destination. It is now on a par with any of the “Big 3” of Texas: Houston, Dallas, and Austin.
The five restaurants I reported on this week were:
Landrace: Upscale dining from Chef Steve McHugh who put Cured on the Texas culinary map. Newly installed at the Thompson Hotel, Landrace is McHugh’s homage to smoked meat. I expect Landrace to be recognized as one of the city’s best restaurants in pretty short order.
Dough: Doug and Lori Horn’s standard-setting Neapolitan pizza restaurant in Hemisphere Park (there is another location on Blanco). It was impressive to see the attention to detail that produced their own burrata and salumi.
The Good Kind was a health food café with a verdant garden in Southtown that showed that San Antonio, despite its surging popularity as a tourist and residential destination, still provides an economic basis for entrepreneurs to start businesses.
Similar sentiments apply to Mi Roti, the Caribbean Streetfood restaurant in Pearl. And plaudits to the management at Pearl in insisting on startups like Mi Roti be part of Pearl. The result is a richer, more representative, culinary focal point than otherwise.
Finally, Boudro’s, a serious attempt to create the French bistro on the Riverwalk. It has been there over a quarter of a century. One visit shows why. They just execute superbly on dishes that are sublimely delicious.
This is just a sample. There is a lot more to visit in San Antonio, and it changes more quickly than one can keep up with. Visit now, there is a lot to miss.
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