Sometimes, ya gotta have a back-up plan. And sometimes, you need a back-up to your back-up. Today was one of those days where I made a fairly amateur mistake in seeking out a place for my wife and I to try.
I had done a little research on the Google and found a place called Cora's 471 Grill that according to their web page, has been around since 1932. That's a long time to be in bid'ness on a lonely stretch of road, but if you believe their web page and signage, they also have the best nachos in Texas, so they may account for the longevity.
Of course, I'd be telling you about Cora's right now if their business hours matched what their web page proclaims, and they opened at 11AM on Saturday's instead of 5PM. Maybe another time. My amateur mistake was not calling ahead to verify. This is not the first time (nor the last I suspect) that we drove someplace expecting it to be open, only to find out that had we called in advance, we could have saved a trip. 
But, I do like the drive, so what the heck. These are a few shots taken along FM471 between Rio Medina and Castroville. The view from an air conditioned truck is mighty fine.
With Cora's out of luck, I did have a back-up in the form of a Diner in Castroville, but come to find out, they are open on Sundays, but not Saturday.
On to the small town of Hondo where we have had some good dining experiences; Hermann Sons and McBee's to name a few. So the funny thing was, we thought we would let Garmin pick out a few potential places, drive by and then choose what looked good.
The first place we picked was called Olivia's. We followed the directions on Garmin to an empty lot that looks as though it has been cleared to make something else. No sign saying, former home of Olivia's or anything. I seriously believe the answer is that the address is wrong in Garmin - and on Google. Garmin told us to go onto J street and that was where we found the empty lot. Google says it is on 18th Street, but to be honest, we drove down 18th Street and didn't see it there either. Who knows? Perhaps a reader will tell us what we missed.
If that wasn't bad enough, we went with our second Garmin choice, a place called Hi-Way Drive-In. The first clue we had a problem was when the British woman in my Garmin told me to take a street heading away from the highway. Would it make sense to name a place Hi-Way Drive-In and not be on or near the highway? This time, we ended up in front of someones house. And I couldn't even smell a fire going, so we thought perhaps we were in the twilight zone or something.
Instead of driving around in Honda for hours, and let's face it, you could probably do it and see the place several times, we decided to get on Highway 173 and head north to Bandera. I love the drive between Hondo and Bandera because it looks to me like some place they could film an old western flick. I can just see Clint Eastwood or John Wayne riding on a horse along these small hills. If you live up north and see this, yes, it really is this dry and brown, and wide open out here.
Once safely into Bandera (my wife kept mentioning snakes and stuff along the way), we quickly decided to go into Old Spanish Trail. OST is at the intersection of Main Street (173) and Highway 16 which means, you can't get in or out of Bandera without seeing it. Of course, as many times as we have been to Bandera, we thought that we had eaten there before, but when we walked in, realized we had not.
We took a seat in the John Wayne Room where the walls are covered in pictures of mostly The Duke, but many other famous cowboy actors.
The rest of the restaurant has a similar feel about it. Cowboy related memorabilia, a bar where you can sit on a saddle instead of a stool - what fella wouldn't want to sit there after a long day of cowboying? Good stuff.
Just looking at other people's plates, the servings looked fairly good sized. We had heard good words about the Chicken Fried Steak, so my wife was all for it, but opted to get the Kid's meal version (to which they had no problem with). Obviously, the kids in Bandera eat a lot, because the CFS was enough for an adult. She got the mashed potatoes with gravy and a roll (though we may have had to pay extra for the roll). The mashed potatoes were excellent, gravy was awesome and the CFS was a treat. She said it was a bit chewy, but the hunk I had was pretty darn good. Better than Lulu's? No. But worth every penny.
My dinner came with a trip to the salad bar. No complaints from me; it was clean, filled with the stuff they put out, and there didn't appear to be any little kids rummaging through it. I could have used some chopped up boiled eggs, but I need to lose a few pounds anyway.
I opted for the Catfish and shrimp combo and was more than pleased. It came with the aforementioned salad bar and I got the mashed potatoes. The three pieces of butterflied shrimp were not only well-sized, they were great tasting. The catfish was cooked just the way I like it - very close to what the folks at Clear Springs do. For the $12, I might have liked one more catfish nugget, but what the heck, Bandera is a tourist place. I did wonder why they added a bed of lettuce and tomato to the plate when a salad already comes with the entree, but who knows, maybe the cook was giving me a hint: More salad, less fried food.
No complaints at all. Parking could be an issue but usually if you go to Bandera, you are going to shop anyway, so you can always utilize the free parking in other areas and just walk. I would gladly take friends or family and check out some of the many other things on their big menu.
As many of our adventures go, we don't always end up in the specific place we started off toward. I blame today's circuitous route on the fact that I paid $69.95 to upgrade my Garmin, and it still doesn't list any of the restaurants one might find out near Medina Lake, Mico or the surrounding area. So after driving around for a while, we ended up in Hondo and stopped into Hermann Sons Steak House.
My wife has been trying to get me to stop in this place for at least ten years that I am sure of, if not a whole lot longer, and I have always had an excuse about not being properly attired or something of that nature. But today, we were in our Sunday Best (Jeans and a T-Shirt), and I figured why not go ahead and give the place a try. They have been in business since 1946, so surely there has to be some reason they have survived this long.
The parking lot was full and inside, we found a list of people waiting to be seated. We only had to wait maybe five minutes though, and you could tell that this staff was used to being busy.
The place is old. It has the look of a place that has served a lot of people and aside from us, I suspect the staff recognized everyone dining there. The large open area is basically just a big square room decorated with usual countrified accoutrement typical of many of the places we like. According to the history of the place, the building is actually an old barracks that was moved from Hondo Air Base. No wonder I felt the need to drop and give 'em twenty. Of course, I refrained from doing so.
Before I go any further, I will tell you that we will have to return again if only to try the steak. The menu offers a huge selection of beef steaks but we were both feeling like eating something a little lighter. But from looking around the room at other diner's plates, I can tell you there are some serious vittles to be had. And before you order, they have hot, delicious, fresh, soft and doughy bread with honey butter to slather upon it!
My wife decided to get a bacon burger and substitute the fries for onion rings. The patty was a standard pre-fab 1/4 pounder but the grilled bun, generous bacon and fresh fixin's made the difference for her. No, you don't need to drive all the way from San Antonio just to give the burger a try, but it certainly was enjoyable enough to order again. The onion rings are breaded nicely, thick, and the onions are sweet. But for my taste, the breading was very bland. My wife said that perhaps this was to allow the diner's to season to taste.
And since I wasn't having steak, I saw they had catfish on the menu and it was an easy choice to make. The fish came with a choice of sides and a trip to the salad bar. The salad bar was as fully stocked as any I have seen with a few different pastas, potato salad, all sorts of veggies that I wouldn't even think of adding to a salad (raw okra, really!) and even some sort of chick pea business. I went with just standard lettuce, a spoonful of pasta and potato salad, some hard boiled eggs, and these huge croutons that were awesome.
We overheard the waitress telling another customer that you can get a huge trip to the salad bar (they give you an enormous platter) for about $5.00 and honestly, you could make a serious meal from it.
My catfish was way more than what I expected and they gave me at least double the amount of onion rings that my wife got with her order. I was expecting maybe two pieces of fish and the plate was loaded. Back to the breading issue since they made the fish with the same breading as the onion rings. I have no complaint at all on the texture, the consistency, the coverage etc.; it was all good. But really, how about a little salt? On top of that, they served it with lime instead of lemons. The fish itself was wonderful. It was cooked perfectly, served hot and no fishy taste. I salted the hell out of the fish and the onion rings and used tarter sauce to add taste. If we could introduce these people to Season-All, they would be perfect.
Maybe somebody famous had a heart attack and Hermann Sons is single handily trying to make everyone eat a healthier diet. Who knows? All was not lost, though. We did like the breading once we added salt, and the onions themselves were very sweet, and they weren't over or undercooked.
We didn't indulge in dessert, but if you are so inclined, they had a case full of great looking cakes and pies.
We always pass this place on our trips to Garner State Park or whenevr we feel like a drive to Hondo (and who doesn't enjoy that?) and now that we have been, I won't hesitate to pull in for something a little more agressive on the menu - like the steak.
Are you a fan? Do you have an experience from Hermann Sons Steak House we need to know about? Tell me about it or leave a comment.
During the drives my wife and I take, we are constantly on the look-out for the perfect little place to stop and grab a bite to eat. We have a few methods of operation for finding places. First, it is not uncommon for us to get a recommendation from a friend to try a particular place if we happen to be in some town. Other times, we find our place visiting a small town and there is only one place to eat - that makes it pretty simple. The third and very often used method of selection is our friend Garmin.
When we made the decision to make our return home from Devine via Hondo, I consulted Garmin to reveal several potential dining candidates. One place that caught my eye was a Billy Bob's Backyard Barbecue. The other place that caught my attention was called McBee's. I recalled the name because we had seen a McBee's down in Pleasanton on Highway 97, and later, my brother-in-law told me that we had missed some good eatin'. There's only one problem; he is a vegetarian.
As it was already close to 2 in the afternoon, stomachs were rumbling and my wife and I thought we would give Billy Bob's a try. As we drove through town, we started to wonder if perhaps we would end up in some good ol' boy's actual backyard with a huge pit and a picnic table.
Well, it turns out, that is sort of close. When we pulled into the place, there seemed to be a regular restaurant called Billy Bob's Burgers, but in the back, there was a smaller take-out sort of place called Billy Bob's Backyard BBQ. It was such a beautiful day and the smell was great. But then the logistics of where to eat came up. There were a few picnic tables occupied by fine upstanding citizens I'm sure, but for my wife, this was not going to be her idea of a good time.
Not to worry - one day we'll try the burgers for sure.
But over two blocks or so is McBee's. As soon as we parked the smell hit us. This place meant business. The place had the look and style of an older Bill Miller's to it.
Everything looked and smelled good. I ordered a two meat plate - brisket and ribs with potato salad and Cole slaw. My wife got a single meat - chicken with potato salad and ranch style beans. As soon as we sat down, we divvied up all the food so we could each have a little of everything.
The sides are nothing to write home about. I'll just leave it at that and let you know that you can order meat by the pound instead of buying the plate with two sides.
You may recall my wife coined her Eeee-yuk rating when we tried Dickey's BBQ. She is a firm believer that good Barbecue must be able to stand on its own without the use of sauce, regardless of how good the sauce is. Dickey's had a great selection of sauces and for good reason; the meat was not that great.
McBee's chicken is pure heaven. The meat fell off the bones, the seasoning was not overpowering - just some sort of pepper and whatever goodness they rubbed into it before smoking it for however long it takes. I didn't even touch the brisket or the ribs until I had devoured ever edible part of the chicken pieces on my plate. I'm telling you, I would drive to Hondo for for a piece of chicken, and that is saying something.
I must comment on the portion sizes. This place does not skimp on the vittles. The single portion of chicken was enough for two people to share. For about a dollar more, the two meat plate was loaded down.
I am fascinated with ribs from the Rib House, but they are a different sort altogether. Those are your BBQ with sauce ribs. These are your BBQ with seasoning ribs. Do not under any circumstances spoil the deliciousness of McBee's ribs with sauce. They were tender and juicy and tasty.
The brisket had a great taste to it and again, they piled it on. I did break down and try out the sauce that was on the table. I don't know if it was some house brand or what, but it had sort of a sweet taste to it. At first, I wasn't sure, but when I took a piece of bread and covered it with the sauce to taste it, I decided I liked it.
Okay, I guess I will tell you about the sides. The ranch style beans were bland. The Cole slaw was passable and much better looking than what I got at the Rib House. The potato salad was dry. My wife ended up cutting up some pickles and mixing it in and sure enough, that was enough to fix it up. I put a little BBQ sauce on mine.
The chicken alone is worth the trip, and gets McBee's Bar-B-Q in Hondo both the Tasty Treats and the Eeee-Yum seal of approval. If you are heading out to Garner State Park but are worried about getting a grill site, just stop at McBee's, order up several pounds of the chicken and take it with you.
You'd think that we would have something better to do than jump in a little truck and head southwest of San Antonio just for a little drive, and today, we did. We drove through our neighborhood seeking out garage sales, and I must report that the pickin's were mighty slim. So, on a whim, I said, "Let's go to Lytle", and my wife simply responded with , "Let's go!" 
We took Loop 1604 from the GNW and headed south through Atascosa to I-35. At this point I usually insert a comment about how nice it is to drive just a few minutes and be out into the country. I won't repeat it this time, but you can appreciate the feeling (unless you live in a really huge city, or you already live out in the woods and are only reading this blog during your monthly visit to civilization).
Directly west of San Antonio along Highway 90 is a town called Hondo which we have visited before, and today, we ended up there for lunch. I'll tell you about that later. But to orient yourself, check out the handy map provided by our friends at Google Maps, and appropriately annotated by Bill Gates and I using PowerPoint.
I had originally thought of this as being a very brief trip down to Lytle, perhaps lunch at some undetermined restaurant, a few pictures of the things we find interesting and then back home. I also can tell you that I was eager to see first hand the evil Cabaret that has opened outside of the greater Lytle Metropolis, and get a picture of it. I did. You can read more about that over at Strange in SA.
From I-35 south, we headed down 132 which is also US-81 and for those that live there, Main Street. Lytle looks like a typical small town farming community, but a lot nicer than many of have seen in South Central Texas.
Of course, I love the older buildings along the main drag, but the mixture of new homes tastefully interspersed among the older neighborhood just a few blocks in town was a welcome sight for someone who would like to move outside of San Antonio, but not feel as though either everything will be brand spankin'-cookie cutter-new, or completely run down shacks inhabited by folks hiding from the law. Think Christine.
If you need to mail a package or a final resting place, you can do it in Lytle.
Okay, one final shot at the goofy Cabaret thing. The place is not only out of town, but by my calculation, it was also in the next county. When someone in Lytle says, Not in my backyard, they ain't kidding!
Just a stones throw down the road from Lytle is a tiny place called Natalia. It is probably much bigger than what you pass on 132, I mean, there is so much farm land out there and just wide open space, but to the Saturday afternoon drive-by, Natalia looks pretty small.
Sure, they have the post office and even their own memorial to those who have served. Very nicely done and well maintained. This alone is worth a trip to Natalia.
I noticed this tiny little chapel and I swear, I think I have seen this thing in another small town. And if you look at the picture, it looks as though it has been moved. Who knows? I know it is tall enough to walk in, but seriously, you'd have to go outside to change your mind.
Further down the road is the town of Devine. I really enjoyed this little place. We have some friends who live just on the other side of I-35 and it is easy to understand why they are willing to make the commute to San Antonio for work.
And these people put on a serious flea market! We didn't stop, although we seriously thought about it.
This is sort of interesting. You know how sometimes, some guy will open up a business and it does so well, he decides to open up another one right across town? Well, it turns out that some lady named Ruthie knows a good thing when she sees it. Hence, two lounges less than a mile apart. Technically, that is across town.
Devine does have your standard items - the water tower labeled appropriately, and a big huge bank. We actually stopped in the parking lot of the bank and purchased some Girl Scout cookies. The taste just the same out in the country as they do in the city.
One thing that you don't see everyday. A motorized wheelchair junkyard. I guess I just didn't realize there was such a market.
There is an intersection of Highways 132 and 173, and when you head back north, before long, you will make your way to Hondo - and that is what we did. The drive is wonderful. Open farmland and the occasional house. About half way to Hondo, you can begin to recognize the change in landscape. Off in the distance you can see the beginning of the Hill Country. On such a beautiful day, it is a crime not to own a convertible anymore.
I only post a handful of pictures on these little reports, but I often take close to a hundred pictures in just an hour or so. I have a method where I transfer the full-sized photos onto a portable hard drive, then delete the images on my 1gb disk for the camera. Apparently I forgot to clean up the disk, so by the time we got to Devine, my disk was full. First stop in Hondo was the Super Wal-Mart where I purchased two 1gb SD disks for $18.00. How did the people of Hondo survive before Wal-Mart?
Once in Hondo, we were simply famished. I'll tell you about the vittles next time.
I had done a little research on the Google and found a place called Cora's 471 Grill that according to their web page, has been around since 1932. That's a long time to be in bid'ness on a lonely stretch of road, but if you believe their web page and signage, they also have the best nachos in Texas, so they may account for the longevity.
Of course, I'd be telling you about Cora's right now if their business hours matched what their web page proclaims, and they opened at 11AM on Saturday's instead of 5PM. Maybe another time. My amateur mistake was not calling ahead to verify. This is not the first time (nor the last I suspect) that we drove someplace expecting it to be open, only to find out that had we called in advance, we could have saved a trip. 
But, I do like the drive, so what the heck. These are a few shots taken along FM471 between Rio Medina and Castroville. The view from an air conditioned truck is mighty fine.
Instead of driving around in Honda for hours, and let's face it, you could probably do it and see the place several times, we decided to get on Highway 173 and head north to Bandera. I love the drive between Hondo and Bandera because it looks to me like some place they could film an old western flick. I can just see Clint Eastwood or John Wayne riding on a horse along these small hills. If you live up north and see this, yes, it really is this dry and brown, and wide open out here.
Once safely into Bandera (my wife kept mentioning snakes and stuff along the way), we quickly decided to go into Old Spanish Trail. OST is at the intersection of Main Street (173) and Highway 16 which means, you can't get in or out of Bandera without seeing it. Of course, as many times as we have been to Bandera, we thought that we had eaten there before, but when we walked in, realized we had not.
We took a seat in the John Wayne Room where the walls are covered in pictures of mostly The Duke, but many other famous cowboy actors.
The rest of the restaurant has a similar feel about it. Cowboy related memorabilia, a bar where you can sit on a saddle instead of a stool - what fella wouldn't want to sit there after a long day of cowboying? Good stuff.
Just looking at other people's plates, the servings looked fairly good sized. We had heard good words about the Chicken Fried Steak, so my wife was all for it, but opted to get the Kid's meal version (to which they had no problem with). Obviously, the kids in Bandera eat a lot, because the CFS was enough for an adult. She got the mashed potatoes with gravy and a roll (though we may have had to pay extra for the roll). The mashed potatoes were excellent, gravy was awesome and the CFS was a treat. She said it was a bit chewy, but the hunk I had was pretty darn good. Better than Lulu's? No. But worth every penny.
My dinner came with a trip to the salad bar. No complaints from me; it was clean, filled with the stuff they put out, and there didn't appear to be any little kids rummaging through it. I could have used some chopped up boiled eggs, but I need to lose a few pounds anyway.
I opted for the Catfish and shrimp combo and was more than pleased. It came with the aforementioned salad bar and I got the mashed potatoes. The three pieces of butterflied shrimp were not only well-sized, they were great tasting. The catfish was cooked just the way I like it - very close to what the folks at Clear Springs do. For the $12, I might have liked one more catfish nugget, but what the heck, Bandera is a tourist place. I did wonder why they added a bed of lettuce and tomato to the plate when a salad already comes with the entree, but who knows, maybe the cook was giving me a hint: More salad, less fried food.
