Monday, August 28, 2006

Sizzling San Antonio

I spent the weekend in San Antonio with my parents in celebration of their 40th anniversary. As always, we stayed at the historic Menger Hotel next to the Alamo, lunched at Schilo’s Delicatessen on Commerce St. and dinnered at the Menger’s Colonial Room.

I’ve been going to San Antonio with my parents for their anniversary since I was a little kid. I used to sleep on a rollaway bed in their room, which didn’t strike me as conducive to romance even as an eight year-old, but that’s how it was in my compact family unit. I do have my own room now, in case you're wondering.

San Antonio is bone dry these days. It’s even worse than Austin. They’ve quit running fountains because of the drought, which has turned the Convention Center/Hemisfair Park complex into a blazing concrete jungle. I’d hope for a tropical storm if I wasn’t worried it would smash into the coast as a Category 5 hurricane.

Also, Earl Abel’s has reopened in a former HomeTown Buffet out on Austin Highway. It’s a shame developers tore down Earl Abel’s architecturally distinctive building on Broadway, at least the restaurant survives.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I tried to take my wife to Earl Abel's this weekend while in San Antonio and was horrified to discover only a fenced-off vacant lot with a few piles of asfault rubble where the diner used to be. I grew up in SA and used to hang out at Earl Abel's when I was in high school. I had no idea it had been sold and demolished and it came as a total shock. The condo developers strike again.