Mark another off the list...
As my wife and I were making our way back to San Antonio from our afternoon in San Marcos, naturally the topic of eating came up. This happens often when we get in the car.
Anyway, since we were near New Braunfels, she suggested that maybe we should stop into the Clear Springs Restaurant off Hiway 46. Hindsight being 20 - 20...
Anyway, she also had mentioned the fact that she has never been to Pappadeaux. That was about all it took and I made a beeline down I-35 and off of Loop 410 and onto McCullough so we could get some.
My only previous experience with Pappadeaux involved a business meeting, an expense account, lots of steak & shrimp and numerous beers, so even though I would be paying this time, I was sort of happy to return.
The first thing you need to know is that the place is fairly big. The place looks mighty friendly on the outside with great landscaping, covered porch with rocking chairs, and just an inviting atmosphere to it.
Inside, there is a fairly large bar area where you can imagine people staying in nearby hotels routinely use for an after work hang-out.
We sat at a table near the center of all traffic; every person entering the place seemed to walk by us and every member of the waitstaff hung out or got their trays loaded in front of us. Sure, we could have asked for a different table, but I like to watch the excitement.
Pappadeux offers something I really like to see in a restaurant and that is a hustling staff. The people were really moving and maybe it was the time that we visited (around 5PM), but our appetiser and food arrived fast.
With our drinks, we got a loaf of hot & fresh french bread that was nothing short of outstanding. In fact, I could have just stopped there, but my wife wanted some too.
We decided to get the calamari as a starter and it was out in a matter of minutes, very hot (which is required for calamari) and it came with two sauces. One was some sort of cocktail sauce that was out of this world and the other was some sort of creamy, lemony sauce that I can't recall the name of, but it was also good.
My wife ordered the fried shrimp and instead of fries had the steamed broccoli. Dude, look at the size of that broccoli! Once she cut away all the excess undercooked parts, she was good with it. She was also happy with the shrimp, though in fairness, it was basically bland. At a Cajun place? Really.
If I had seen a steak & shrimp combo, I probably would have ordered it, but I just didn't see it on the menu. Instead, I went with the ol' standby and ordered catfish and shrimp. How can you screw that up if your a seafood place, right? Can I just say that they give you entirely too many fries? Of course I can, it's my blog. I mean, is it any wonder why people in San Antonio are so enormously fat?
More importantly, it creates a logistics problem. I don't really care for fries, so they just get in the way. Not to worry, the catfish was hot, but again extremely bland.
I know that the Pappadeaux people will spice up your meal if you want it really hot or they will tone it down if you can't handle the pica, but geeze, this crust was just so without taste that it seemed a shame to cover the nicely cooked catfish beneath it. And the shrimp was not special at all. Look, if we were talking about Long John Silvers, I'd be okay, but in case you hadn't seen the menu, prices for this stuff start at about $20.
It's a shame too. We had great service, it was fast - in fact my wife joked that the meal came faster than a lot of fast food places we have been to - and although it was loud, the place has a nice atmosphere. But when you into a place and spend $60, it should be at least as good as what you can get at Chili's or some place like that for $35.
In a head on comparison, I'll put Clear Springs restaurant and their catfish and their shrimp (and their fries for that matter) up against Pappadeaux any day of the week. And I promise it will cost a lot less.
Fire the cook.
I had to make a short trip downtown today yesterday and thought, what the heck, since they claim to be coming really close to finishing our new River Walk extension, it must be worth taking a minute or two to gander over the side of the bridge. From my vantage point at the bridge on McCullough and St Mary's, here are a few pictures.
The landscaping is coming right along with several areas full of green grass, lots of small bushes going and of course, palm trees.
I'm thinking with some good rain, things will fill in nicely. I can almost see the river boats full of fancy tourists floating by while drunk people drop cell phones and beer bottles in the water in appreciation. Good times.
Interestingly enough, there have been several stories about the art going in around the bridges - lots of sculptures and such. Under this bridge, it looks like the artist has made some sort of screens. I know I could probably do a quick search and figure out what he/she was going for, but I'm not that interested, and I'm sort of lazy that way on a Friday afternoon. In spite of not knowing what it is, it looks kinda nice.
Wanna see more? Head on over to the Flickr page to get the full River Walk Construction Experience. Perhaps that can be a new ride at Fiesta Texas next year.
My wife and I are still playing catch-up after our long weekend in Florida last week, so the thought of going beyond the general area of home seemed out of the question - until my wife mentioned knocking the Olmos Pharmacy off of our list of places we need to eat. So, what the heck, off we went!
If you are familiar with the McCullough - Hildebrand part of town, you know exactly where Olmos Pharmacy has been, for many, many years. I love that entire area and occasionally will take a drive through there when coming from my downtown office. In spite of driving past the place numerous times, I just never stopped in. So today, we took care of that.
We sort of expected to see a pharmacy inside of Olmos Pharmacy; wouldn't you? Instead, it was just a diner complete with a long bar with stools for folks to sit up at the counter. I trust that the pharmacy part closed a while back but the milkshakes and malts were enough to warrant keeping the soda fountain part of the store open.
Instead of sitting at the counter, we opted for a booth so we could sit back and take it all in. Like some of the other diners we have visited in town, there is this genuine feeling of near time-travel back to an earlier time. Does that even make sense? I mean, couldn't an architect with a few drawings taken from an old Life Magazine simply recreate the 1950's experience? I suppose, but when I sat down in the cushioned booth we were seated in, I swear it felt like years and years worth of peoples butts had softened the cushions. And it felt pretty good!
There is nothing special about the place unless you count the history and the fact that they have been around for so long. In other words, don't go expecting some special, elegant or super fancy diner; it is what it is and for us, that was good enough.
My wife ordered a burger which comes with Ruffles chips. It wasn't jumbo sized but neither was the price. She was more than pleased with it and even did a little bit of the Happy Dance at one point.
I opted for a patty melt on rye bread. Not bad at all. The sandwich was certainly enough, and chips versus fries was actually a good idea since we both ordered Malts.
If you haven't read a reason to make a visit to Olmos Pharmacy up until now, I understand. But if you have ever enjoyed a shake or a malt, I think you will find the trip very worthwhile, if only to experience one of these. I ordered chocolate and my wife got the strawberry. 
When our waitress brought them out, they were served in the actual mixing cups. This seemed highly unusual to me. We both sort of looked at one another wondering what the protocol is for getting the malt from the mixing cup to the mouth. There were straws at the table, but this was really thick. Then the waitress came back and brought long spoons and asked us if we wanted whipped cream. We both nodded yes and she brought us these small cups filled about quarter full with the whipped cream.
In looking around, we also noticed several other folks pouring their shakes or malts into the smaller cups, and we were then sufficiently educated enough to proceed. Good Lord; you can't take us anywhere fancy.
One note - if you are eating lunch and you want to order a shake or malt, they are big enough and filling enough that you could easily share one between two people - assuming you can agree on the flavor.
One final note. We noticed that on some of the signage outside, they referred to it as Olmos Bharmacy (as in "Bar"). And, behind where we were seated, there was a fully stocked bar. I didn't ask, but I got the distinct feeling that when the milkshakes and malts shutdown, the beer and bourbon opens up. Who knows?
Have you been to Olmos Pharmacy - or Bharmacy? Were you there when GW Bush visited? Tell me about it or leave a comment here.
In case you hadn't seen the news, San Antonio has been in a record setting drought this year but in the last two days, we have gotten a wonderful, almost steady stream of the good kind of rain that fills the aquifer and makes the grass turn green.
So today, I had to do some work at my downtown office and thought I would wander over to the River Walk near McCullough and St Mary's, to see how the sudden onset of precipitation had impacted the construction.
Well! I wasn't expecting water in the river! I know, that probably sounds goofy, but if you have been following my river walk construction updates, you know that the water along this stretch of river has been diverted into two huge pipes. Apparently, all this rain was a bit more than the pipes could handle. And look how the brown grass (which I was sure had just withered and died) is totally golf course green.
And of course, other shrubs and plants and trees (except for the palm that looks like it didn't make it) are looking good. The last picture (above, right) shows the end of the water pipe feeding back into the regular river at the Lexington Avenue Bridge. It is flowing pretty darn good! We'll see how long it takes the excess river water to be drained.
Wanna see all the pictures? Of course you do. Head over to the River Walk Construction page on Flickr and see the transformation.
I had to make a short trip downtown today last week and thought, what the heck, it's probably too cold for tourists, so why not see if anything else is going on over the side of the bridge, and in fact, we have some actual progress in our new River Walk extension. From my vantage point at the bridge on McCullough and St Mary's, here are a few pictures.
At least I'm honest enough to tell you that I took the pictures last week but was too busy to upload them in a timely manner. So to save time, I cut and paste from the last time I posted a River Walk Construction Update and even used the same link to the street view. The most important thing to note is the addition of some palm trees going in.
On the other side of the bridge, more of the same - a palm tree going in and not much else.
Oh, look all the way in the center of the picture at the edge of the water. (You can click on it to see it bigger). Is this guy walking on water just for fun? Get back to work, dumbass!
These are pictures taken from the usual location, the bridge at McCullough Ave near North St. Mary's Street. Here. we are looking north of the downtown area. Notice the ground cover coming in a little more.
Looking toward downtown, you can see the palm trees are still taking root and the light poles are firmly in place. Off in the distance is the Lexington Street bridge and there is a river barge turning around (since the water pretty much stops there).
