This was originally published in 2018. I’m back in San Antonio for a U.S. Travel Association meeting and thought I’d re-post this blog, with a bit of added information.
SAN ANTONIO – Judith Ely is showing me around the San Antonio Museum of Art, a surprising spot with treasured art from around the world.
She points to a mosaic on the floor in the ancient Italian/Greek section of the museum.
“Look at this one,” she says. “It’s a rendering of an Italian wedding but there’s a lot of shenanigans going on. People are having sex and disrupting things. But then look who’s coming to the rescue; the Greeks. Men, of course. And they’re naked. And they’re all perfect male specimens.”
I had to admit I hadn’t picked up on exactly what was transpiring in the mosaic. So I’m immediately impressed. Then comes the kicker.
“When kids come to the museum I tell them that the way they made the Greeks look perfect is the original Photoshop.’”
Over the course of a brief, one-hour visit Ely has me thoroughly entertained. She shows off more naked bits, including a statue of a particularly well-endowed woman.
“Sometimes I have to keep the boys from reaching out to touch that one,” she says with a smile.
Ely shows off precious Chinese art work and ancient ceramics, as the museum has what’s said to be the one of the largest collections of Chinese art in the Western Hemisphere. Who knew?
Judith Ely is a delightful docent at the San Antonio Museum of Art, a fun and feisty guide with tremendous knowledge. JIM BYERS PHOTO
As we cross a glass bridge from one part of the facility to another, Ely points out the nearby Pearl District (more on that later) and some lovely architectural bits. We start to head down a set of stairs. Ely, a tiny thing with a shock of white hair and someone who seems reasonably past mandatory retirement age, looks back at me.
“Are you okay,” she asks. “Some people say I walk too fast for them. Some say I talk too fast, as well.”
She pauses for a split second and smiles.
“I tell them I’m originally from Chicago.”
I have only 60 minutes to spend on my tour but I’m smitten with Ely. Her knowledge is impressive. Her enthusiasm, irreverence and youthful enthusiasm take things to a wondrously higher level. If I’ve had a better museum tour in my life, I don’t remember it.
The museum is located in a magnificent building; a former brewery that was built in 1884 and formerly produced Lone Star Beer. There wasn’t a lot of industrial architecture being preserved in the 1970s, but Ely said this was a rare exception and that the museum opened in 1981.
The San Antonio Museum of Art has fabulous items from China, Latin America and other parts of the world. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“We do art parties once a month with music and drinks,” she said. “People can come by barge since we’re right on the river.”
Ely shows me some ancient coins from before Christ. And here I was thinking my 1896 U.S. silver dollar was pretty cool.
The previous night I’d dined at a fun spot called Southerleigh in the Pearl District, also a former palace of beer (this time Pearl, and later a brewery site for Pabst). They make beer here again, 21 varieties in all; from lighter beers to IPA’s and seasonal offerings. The ceilings are high enough for a giraffe to play basketball, and feature all kinds of cool, hulking bits of brewery architecture, as well as exposed pipes, thick wood floors and other features.
Owner/chef Jeff Balfour is from Galveston and named the restaurant as a play on words for the southerly winds that usually blow in his neck of the Texas woods.
“I call the menu Texas food with a Gulf of Mexico twist,” he tells me.
We dine on good grits with cheese and cornbread, plus fried oysters and excellent redfish with crab. Since opening in April of 2015, they’ve added caviar service and seafood towers, Balfour tells me.
The Pearl District is centred around an old brewery that now houses a restaurant and hotel. It’s a wonderful part of San Antonio. JIM BYERS PHOTO
I have dinner with an old friend, David Gonzalez of San Antonio Tourism, who tells me about other up-and-coming-fast areas of town, including Southtown and the King William district.
After dinner we have a brief look at Hotel Emma next door. It’s a truly remarkable design that incorporates old brewery machines and overhead hooks and all sorts of industrial treasures. Inside the bar you can dine inside the base of rounded towers that held tons of grain back in the day.
The exterior of the building is beautiful, golden-coloured brick, with fancy, cut-stone arches above the windows and a tower on top that feels like something out of a Gotham City/Batman set. The scale is larger and the brick a different colour, but the parallel to Toronto’s Distillery District is an easy one to draw.
It was built in 1894 in what’s called the Second Empire style; very masculine and imposing yet graceful.
The hotel website says the property is named after Emma Koehler, who ran the brewery after her husband, Pearl president Otto Koehler, was killed in 1914 (more on that in a minute, too). Most breweries closed during Prohibition, but Emma Koehler kept things going – and kept employees in their jobs – by turning the facility into a maker of near-beer, as well as soda it also served as an auto repair spot and dry cleaners. Koehler retired in 1933 but “was a formidable presence” at the brewery until her death ten years later.
The hotel has e a glorious library, where the hotel greets guests with a stylish drink. When we visit the bar, there’s a woman crooning some sexy tunes from a balcony above one of the finest wooden bars I’ve seen.
A light installation in San Antonio’s Pearl District. JIM BYERS PHOTO
The bartender tells me their speciality drink is called The Three Emmas. If I have the story right, Emma Koehler was in a car accident at one point in her life and needed home care. Otto, her husband, hired a nurse to look after her, also named Emma, and they had an affair. Emma the nurse had a tall, blonde friend whose name was, you guessed it, Emma. Koehler couldn’t resist her charms, either.
Apparently, Emma II and Emma III, the two friends, were housed together and, perhaps over a late-night drink, finally cottoned onto Otto Koehler’s divided attentions. Shortly after hearing the news of Koehler’s infidelity, Emma III (the tall, blonde one) grabbed a shotgun and delivered a blast to her lover, killing him on the spot.
I come back to the Pearl District the next day and enjoy poking around some cool shops. I sit outside on the patio and have a fine lunch at Bakery Lorraine, where they make a fabulous Quiche Lorraine with a perfect, flaky crust. The owners met while working for legendary chef Thomas Keller at Café Bouchon in Napa, California, so they know their stuff.
Of course, no visit to San Antonio is complete without checking out The Alamo and the city’s renowned Riverwalk, a remarkable set of waterways that snakes through the downtown and well beyond and is lined with cafes and bars, as well as some handsome architecture. It’s not a great weather day when I visit, but I manage a quick lunch at an outside table a few inches from the Riverwalk, watching the odd boat slide past under the deep green shade of thick trees. You can take a boat ride for a few bucks and enjoy a guided tour as you slowly move past restaurant patios, hotels and civic buildings, many of them strikingly handsome.
Grab a tour boat and enjoy the famous San Antonio Riverwalk. JIM BYERS PHOTO
I spot dozens of folks milling about with frozen margaritas or cold beers in their hand, which is apparently perfectly legal (not unlike New Orleans).
It’s raining by the time I finish my boat tour but it’s a fun ride that leads me wanting to come back on a warmer day and sip a margarita or two at one of those cafes and watch the couples stroll arm in arm.
My hotel for the night was directly on the river, The Mokara Hotel and Spa. It’s a solid, stately and lovingly designed place with a “you’ve arrived” kind of feel to the lobby and expansive rooms. Mine had a Texas-sized bathroom with a shower and a spear ate jacuzzi tub, plus high ceilings and a great bed with a big ol’ desk in the corner.
The Alamo is said to be the most popular attraction in the state of Texas. It’s a rootin’ tootin’ American story that focusses on the Texas revolution, when Texans were chafing under the rule of Mexico and staged a rebellion.
I take the audio tour and discover that the actual building most of us see in photos isn’t the fort itself that was attacked but the chapel inside it. The actual Alamo lands covered a full three acres. I also discover that the word “Alamo” is Spanish for cottonwood, a well-known tree found in the region.
Mokara Hotel and Spa is a lovely, quiet spot right on the San Antonio Riverwalkl. JIM BYERS PHOTO
Out front you’ll find a plaque that contains the plea for American help from William Barret Travis, a 26-year-old lawyer from South Carolina who was in charge of the troops at the fort on the day the Mexicans attacked in 1836.
“I am besieged by a thousand or more of the Mexicans,” Travis wrote in a letter to “the people of Texas and all Americans in the world.”
“I call on you in the name of liberty, of patriotism, everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch.”
Jim Bowie, the famous American fighter who would have a knife named in his honour, was there that day, as was Davy Crockett, who had recently lost his seat in Congress. Bowie was killed by bayonet in the surprise attack and the Mexican forces took no prisoners (but they did spare the lives of women, children and slaves, I was told).
The old chapel at The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. JIM BYERS PHOTO
General Sam Houston was too late to save the victims, but he did launch an attack on the Mexican Army, during which he is said to have shouted the famous fighting words “Remember the Alamo.” Houston trounced Mexican General Santa Anna near San Jacinto, Texas. The story (perhaps enhanced by the winning side) goes that 600 Mexicans died, compared to just six Americans, and that the battle lasted only 18 minutes. (Who was using a stopwatch, we don’t know).
Santa Anna surrendered, and Mexico was forced to give up the Texas territory, which became an independent country and later joined the U.S..
In addition to the chapel, you’ll find other buildings from the time of the attack, including a beautiful courtyard with a massive, shady live oak tree that dates to 1874 and, of all things, a Japanese monument “to the memory of the heroes of the Alamo” that was donated by a Japanese geography professor in 1914.
Out back is a lovely garden and an outdoor, covered area where they show a short video about the history of The Alamo.
Since I was here the last time they’ve added a fine new museum called the Ralston Family Collections Center, with more than a hundred Alamo-era artifacts, including tiny Derringer pistols, an ornate candelabra and a harmonica. Some of the items were donated by rock star and Alamo enthusiast Phil Collins, who also narrates an audio explanation of the battle in an area of the center with a large Alamo diorama.
I was told they’re adding a new, $25 million visitor center, which should open in 2026, which will dress up and repurpose the historic Crockett and Woolworth buildings.
The Visitor Center will also feature a 4D theater, special event space, rooftop restaurant, retail space, and will be home to the entire Phil Collins Texana Collection.
The Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas. JIM BYERS PHOTO
I also had a chance to visit Historic Market Square in San Antonio today, and had a fabulous media brunch at the lovely Witte Museum, “where nature, science and culture meet.” There’s a lot to admire, and the grounds (it’s on the San Antonio River) are very leafy and tranquil.
I’m in town for this year’s U.S. Travel Association’s IPW convention, and the opening reception was held Sunday night at La Villita Historic District, a fine area with historic, old buildings and more than 25 artisanal shops and galleries. It’s a beautiful on the Riverwalk, and I highly recommend you stop in.
I haven’t had much time in this city, but if you ask me what I think of San Antonio I’d say go for the Alamo and the Riverwalk, but stay for the Pearl District and the museums. And, when you get to the art museum, see if Judith is still giving tours.
FURTHER INFORMATION
http://visitsanantonio.com/
https://www.traveltexas.com/
