texas Archives - Sanders Meanders

The San Antonio Food and Sign Festival, Day 3: Austin Bound

Here’s what’s great about my sister-in-law Hannah: on the day that we had planned to make the drive up to Austin, she couldn’t sleep. So, instead of doing as the rest of us would do and lay around in bed waiting for something drowsy to happen, she got up and started surfing around the internet for places to eat in Austin. What she discovered was La Condesa, a Modern Mexican place nominated by the James Beard Foundation for Best New Restaurant. As we struggle down to breakfast she tells us this, describes the menu, and suddenly I’m counting the hours until lunch.

But first, Austin itself.

Let me say this: I don’t like the heat. I grew up in a city that gets 80-plus inches of snow a year. I lived in Chattanooga and that was too hot for me. We met several people in Chattanooga who moved from Texas to escape the heat. I HATE heat. So bear this in mind when I say this: Austin is totally worth the heat.

Obligatory Looking-Up-at-the-Top-of-the-Dome Shot

Now, of course, Austin has so many signs worth photographing that I couldn’t count them all. In fact, I had to give some a pass just because there just wasn’t time. The other unfortunate thing about this particular trip was the fact that it was pretty overcast much of the day. We walked the streets and I wandered off to gather all the best signs in.

Two jewelers sit across from each other on Congress Avenue, Kruger’s (above) and Joe Koen & Son (below) and both have been around forever, Kruger’s since 1906 and Koen, as you can see, since 1884. Kruger’s has obviously kept their signs up better, but they’re both marvelous in their own right. And I love a sign that has a working clock in it. Now that I look at it, it took me about 15 minutes to walk from one to the other. (We stopped at the Starbuck’s)

State Theater, Austin, TX

The Proverbial Taco Truck that I Didn’t Fall Off of (Moving Car Shot)

And, of course, the infamous Austin Motel shot. I think they have a good sense of humor about the shape of their sign. I would think you would have to.

Far Out.

Finally the hour came to be at La Condesa, and it did not disappoint in the least. In fact, it exceeded my expectations. I had the Cubanita, which looks promising, but let me tell you, it tastes even better than it looks.

We felt the need for dessert afterward, and that was a good decision. This is the Boca Negra, a flourless chocolate cake with ancho, chile de arbol and carmelized bananas. I am becoming a fan of chocolate and chili together:

One of my goals in coming to Austin was to go to Roadhouse Relics, and unfortunately there were two things wrong. First, the proprietor, Todd Sanders (no relation) was in New York that weekend. Second, there was a wedding about to shoot pictures in their back yard. It was time to get creative. I stuck my K-5 in Live View, held it up as high as I could get it, and took a few shots over the fence.

How many cool things do you count?

While I was at it, I went across the street, where a few more neon signs hung out. This Googie bit of fun for Freddie’s Place is still active:

Whereas Jovita’s, right next door, was out of commission. I recently found out that in 2012 the owner and several people were arrested for heroin trafficking among other charges. The location remains unoccupied.

This, however, remains open, and is the center of all things I love.

We headed back to San Antonio. The sign portion of the Food and Sign Festival effectively ended due to poor weather the next few days, but the food continued to be good and plentiful. We don’t know if we’ll manage to get back before Dan is stationed somewhere else, but we were so thankful for the experience. Travel is so good for the soul in so many ways, and helps us appreciate not only the places we visit, but the places where we live.

The San Antonio Food and Sign Festival, Day 2

We woke up on our second day in San Antonio to homemade granola and Cafe de Olla. This was going to be a day of homemade food, and when you consider our hostess’ prowess in the kitchen, restaurants could stand to take a break for a day. Hannah works at Central Market in San Antonio, so we’d be going there for some lunch and to gather in the ingredients needed for dinner. Along the way, to placate my sign addiction, we’d hit a few high spots.

Before that, though, Hannah took us over to Randolph, where Dan is technically stationed while he is doing his residency. On the way over, I spotted something poking out of the buildings across the street from the base, and after we had taken a drive through the facility, I saw that I had not misjudged what I had seen at a distance. It was the sign for Randolph Laundry & Cleaners, a neon sign on top of the building.

Happy circumstance: no one had any idea it was there. If you’ll notice, I got photobombed by a bird up at the top near the “R”. It was an angry bird.

Very angry bird…

So rather than face the wrath of this bird, we decided to go toward Central Market. Along the way, though, Hannah had a sign location in mind for me:

Bun-N-Barrel has been around since 1950, and it’s definitely a testament to the kind of roadside architecture we’ve come to know and love from that era. I indulge myself for a few minutes, even sneaking out to the median of Austin Highway to get the following shot:

And then, the Coca-Cola sign along the side. I really didn’t expect to see palm trees in San Antonio, but they really add to this shot:

We pressed on and stopped at Central Market for supplies. For those of you Yankees like me who have never been to a Central Market, it’s as if Trader Joe’s and Wegmans had a baby. Chances are, if it’s not there, you probably didn’t need it. I munched on a wild mushroom and goat cheese quesadilla for lunch as we went through aisle after aisle of marvelous food that we consider stuffing into our carry-ons. We settle on the Juan Diaz Cafe de Olla we had at breakfast. No regrets. I may order some online.

Across the street is the remains of the Broadway Theater. The Broadway opened in 1939 and was converted into a bank, then into apartments. Happily, the vertical sign has remained in terrific shape:

In the meantime, my research had led me to the Ranch Motel, which was further up Broadway. Fortunately, Hannah wanted to go by the Half Price Books that is just up the street, so it looked like a perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone:

Killer arrow!

And then on to the food portion of the program. Hannah decided on a Spanish theme for the evening, so she made a Spanish tortilla and a concoction with garbanzos and chorizo, two of my favorite ingredients:

You know it’s getting serious when the blow torch comes out… Chef Hannah prepares fideua.

And for dessert: fig and goat cheese ice cream. Yes, you heard right. I could eat a gallon of this right now.

Hannah’s friend Emily came over for the feast. She’s from Chattanooga and we lived in Chattanooga for ten years so we had a great talk over great food.

The San Antonio Food and Sign Festival, Day One

For a number of years, Laura’s sister, the esteemed Chef Hannah, has been living in San Antonio with her husband, the esteemed Dr. Dan. We’ve been meaning to go down there to see them since they married and moved there in 2010, but doing so would have meant a couple of things: a) that we would have to get on a plane, and b) that we would have to arrive at such a time when the weather was not 145 degrees. Not that either of us has a fear of flying, but that at least one of us has a dislike of airports. And the heat is something neither of us enjoy. Fortunately, San Antonio is not yet brutal in March, and having endured this past winter in the Northeast, even if it was 145 degrees in San Antonio, it would have been welcome. So off on a plane we went.

Three weeks earlier, this phone conversation took place between the four of us on speaker phone:

Laura: We’re so looking forward to coming!
Hannah: Great! And I don’t want to say that everything we’re going to do revolves around food…
Dan: …but it does.

And so, to vindicate herself and to do the admittedly “touristy” thing, our first day we went down to the Alamo. Now, if you’re like me, and have spent your days relatively Alamo-free, and you come in contact with another person who is experienced in the care and feeding of Alamoes, they will no doubt tell you that it is smaller than you would think. As a matter of fact, mention San Antonio in a crowded room and you are more than likely to hear the words “Alamo” and “smaller than you would think” from at least 20% of those present. At least, this is my experience.

We parked in a garage and on our way toward our Alamo-gawking activities, the sign festival began. I spotted two of them on the corner: one from Casa Rio, one of the older Mexican restaurants in town, and a neat perhaps-old but perhaps-not Parking garage sign:

I snapped off this quickly and we turned the corner toward tourist country. Despite the fact that it was a Thursday morning, the fellow tourists were out in force. We made our way over, and, true to my nature as a tourist in this strange and foreign land, got the Alamo shot:

Smaller than you’d think

We wander around the grounds, and perhaps it’s only because several people had told me the same thing, that it was smaller than I would think, that it appeared considerably larger than I was led to believe. Towards the back, I look up and see something that more than catches my attention. The Crockett Hotel, which sits across the road from the Alamo, has a large neon sign on its top, and it’s obviously been there for years.

It took a few shots, but I finally got the one I was looking for. So far, I had gotten a few signs and I wasn’t even really looking. It made me optimistic for what the next few days would hold.

We did the Riverwalk thing, like any good tourist. Hannah got us tickets for the boat ride, and we got to see the sights from the river, which was still green from St. Patrick’s Day. While I was at it, I swiped another shot of Casa Rio from down below:

And then on to the food. Hannah had heard good things about The Luxury, an outdoor eatery along the Riverwalk. What I didn’t know is that, although the place was new, their neon sign was nod to the great old ones. What I also didn’t know was how good the fries were. This was the perfect confluence of food and sign.

First, the sign, and then…

I had the pulled pork (pictured right) and a heaping helping of fries. The sauce on the fries was a combo of ketchup, chopped onion, and what seemed to be an aioli made by particularly contented angels. What you see above disappeared with startling quickness.

We continued on our way, toward where we would eventually eat that night. The Riverwalk was closed for a brief portion, causing us to detour up and across a bridge, and when we did so, I spotted this sign, for the Samuels Glass Company.

The sign is meant to be viewed from I-35, so it wasn’t the easiest shot ever. The above was probably the best of the bunch, and although I got it from many angles, none of them came out particularly great. Slightly disappointed, we moved on.

The one shot I knew I wanted was a “Coffee Shop” sign that was attached to Mary Ann’s Pig Stand, which was not far off. When we had ceased our Riverwalking, we returned to Hannah’s vehicle and proceeded to that particular sign. For the first time all day, the sun and everything else seemed to be in my favor. This one was worth the price of admission:

The March sun was getting hot. Well, hot for a poor old pasty New York boy, anyway, so it was to rest up before dinner. On the way, Hannah suggested the Big Red sign along the highway. It took some doing, but we finally figured out the best way to get to it. It involved me hanging halfway out the window like a happy Golden Retriever, shooting rapid-fire. The last shot was the best. I’m a sucker for a lot of white space, and this provided the goods:

That night for dinner, we went to The Granary, just up from the campus of the Culinary Institute of America. The building was the private home of the Chief Cooper at the nearby Pearl Brewery. I’m a big fan of any restaurant that’s in a building that wasn’t originally intended to be a restaurant, so they had me right away, before I had even eaten anything.

This place is Hannah and Dan’s favorite and it was very, very easy to see why. I had the Pork Shank, a marvelous fall-off-the-bone concoction with lentils, preserved lemon, and apricot. Regrettably, I ate it too quickly for it to be photographed, but in the midst of this feeding frenzy, I managed to snap a shot of Laura’s dish, the Beef Clod (beef topped with a coffee quinoa crunch) before it, too, was ransacked beyond all recognition. I leave you with this.

The San Antonio Food and Sign Festival, Day 2

The San Antonio Food and Sign Festival, Day 3: Austin Bound

The San Antonio Food and Sign Festival: The Leftovers