An Average Joe in San Antonio

For any Austinites living in San Antonio who are missing the quirky charm that their city has, I suggest you try dining at Twin Sister’s Bakery off of North New Braunfels St in Alamo Heights. Inside you will be greeted with bright colors, different posters/newspaper clippings from a time past, calaveras, and wait staff of truly eclectic people who are nothing but nice.

I went to breakfast on a Sunday morning and was able to get a table after about a 5-10 minute wait.  The place was jumping with 09ers who were trying to get their Sunday breakfast in.  I really liked the atmosphere; it had a nice quality of liveliness to it where it was humming with patrons talking, but you didn’t have to shout to be heard.

The wait staff was truly excellent, for being as busy as they were, I still felt that they were paying me plenty of attention and there when I needed them.  The waiters/waitresses do have that independent spirit and style to them that one would expect to see on a lot of the newer rockabilly folks.

The coffee was pretty good, and there was always someone nearby to fill up my cup.  I ordered fruit cup and a half order of raspberry-lemon pancakes, that days specialty.  Unless you really want fruit (like I did because I just got finished with a morning run), I would suggest you just take that money and go to the HEB and buy some.  The fruit was fresh, but it was overwhelmingly cantaloupe, or what I like to refer to as filler fruit.

The raspberry-lemon pancake left something to be desired.  Don’t get me wrong, the pancake was nice and fluffy and tasted fine, but it wasn’t what I expected.  I did not really taste any raspberry or lemon in the pancake and I determined that the reason was that I had only one (no, I am not exaggerating) raspberry in the entire pancake (that bite was really good though).  I know we are in a recession and all, but one raspberry?  That was fairly disappointing to me.

I know that this could be just bad luck that caused me to get a pancake with one raspberry in it; everything was so good and the people were so nice that I am definitely going to give the place another chance.  Overall all, I would recommend you visit Twin Sister’s for breakfast one day!

Value: 8/10 (expect to spend roughly $10 a person)
Atmosphere: 9/10 (I really liked the funky atmosphere on the inside and how alive the restaurant felt)
Service: 9/10 (really good service, even though they were busy; would like to go when it was slower just to talk with the wait staff)
Taste: 7/10 (now this could be artificially low just because my pancake didn’t deliver; I am going to go back and see what another dish tastes like!)
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Rolando’s Super Tacos, off of Hildebrand, is an institution of San Antonio; they were the Chipotle or Freebirds before those restaurants even knew what a gigantic tortilla was! Located in one of the older parts of San Antonio, the side of the restaurant proclaims “Jesus is King” in bold colors; this may be the case but the tacos at Rolando’s are close up there.

You can either make your order to go or dine in.  I would suggest dining in namely because you will receive some warm chips and three different types of salsas.  There is a brown salsa (a slow initial burn but a very hot finish), a red/brown salsa (hot from the start), and a red salsa (medium).  The salsas are flavorful, but have a very thin texture so it is tricky keeping them on your chip.

I know that Rolando’s has some excellent priced lunch specials, but you came to this restaurant to get tacos right?  So you might as well get them.  On the recent trip with one of my roommate’s, I wanted to sample two tacos — the papas con chili y queso (potato, chili, and cheese) and the Tita (steak a la Mexicana, beans, cheese, chili and guacamole).  Each of these tacos was around $3.  The potato one was interesting for the fact that instead of the potatoes being cubed (common in SA), they were sliced (like a potato chip).  The two tacos definitely filled me up.

Now if you are really macho, you will do as my roommate did and order the Super Taco (each taco has a small and super option).  These tacos are about $6 but are literally bigger than your head.  No joke.  Do you hear me laughing?  I would guess that one Rolando Super Taco would make 3-4 normal people tacos.

My roommate got the Guivi which was comprised of shredded chicken, guacamole, cheese, lettuce, and tomato.  The Super Taco at Rolando’s would be akin to the Monster at Freebirds, but instead of being rolled, it is folded like a normal taco.

So if you are out partying on the River or Saint Mary’s strip and need some grub the next morning to help you get through your day, go to Rolando’s where you can get a huge taco and maybe even find Jesus is King.

Value: 10/10 (how can you go wrong on $6 for a Super Taco that is the size of 3-4 normal tacos?)
Atmosphere: 7/10 (if you like hole in the walls, then the atmosphere won’t bother you; cool to see pictures of a stop that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Taratino made there along with some of Rodriguez’s movie posters on wood paneled walls)
Service: 9/10 (the waitress was incredibly fast and friendly)
Salsa: 8/10 (I admire the three different types of salsas, but prefer my salsa to be a little thicker)
Taste: 9/10 (a tasty taco!)

That is a super taco!

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Good Time Charlie’s has the look and feel of some type of honkey tonk that should be removed outside of the city limits, but is instead located between Alamo Heights and downtown on Broadway.  The beer comes in bonafide buckets (not the commericial kind that beer companies dole out), the floor creeks, and there is even an old Ronald Reagan newspaper add hawking cigarettes as a part of the hodgepodge of Americana on the wall.

So what do you need to get?  I highly recommend ordering a burger, because they are one of the better ones in town.  They are not incredibly greasy, but they do pack in a good taste.  This Thursday night I had a jalapeno queso burger and added guacamole (had a nice lime-y taste to it) and bacon.

This is one burger joint where you have to order your fries on the side.  I know, I know, for you folks on a budget this can be a little disheartening.  If you are ambivalent towards fries, I would suggest not ordering them (the burger will be enough); however, if there is a group (3-4) of you there, forget the fries and order a basket of onion rings.

The onion rings at Good Time Charlie’s are probably better than their burgers — again, they are not greasy and you don’t have the problem of the batter seperating from the onion as you try to eat them.  Really really good.

Be sure to get a bucket of beer instead of ordering it on tap.  I don’t know why, but the mugs are kind of small and plastic (I always like glass mugs).  The buckets are incredibly reasonable  — 6 come to a bucket and the domestic bucket is $12 and the import is $16.

Overall, I would have to say I have a good time at Charlie’s!

Value: 8/10 (beer is what wins here; kind of sucks to pay for the side item)
Atmosphere: 8/10 (enjoy the old time-y feel)
Service: 10/10 (even though they were busy, the waitress was incredibly good)
Taste: 8/10 (my that is a tasty burger)
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Howdy and welcome to my part in the blogosphere.  I have been wanting to start this blog for a while and look forward to talking with you about some of the best food and sights in San Antonio.  I am just an average Joe who is a young professional that enjoys finding the life and culture in a city that many young professionals are quick to write off as being lame.

There are plenty of interesting things to find in good ole San Antone, although you might have to look a little bit.  My goal is to do that looking for you and provide my unbiased opinion of good places to eat, drink, and be merry.

If you are a tourist and stumbled across this blog, please, PLEASE check out some of the places that I recommend to eat and see while you are here during your stay.  Believe it or not, there is more to the city than touristy River Walk food and more to see than just the Alamo (although it is the greatest thing to see in Texas)!

I warn you, I am not a writer but more of a talker, so I imagine that my prose will be a little colloquial and tend to run-on.  That’s OK, that’s just me.

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to shoot me any information if you have a good find too!