I may have to interrupt this dinner report with a quick session of purging if only to allow my stomach to fit conveniently below the computer desk. With that bit of appetizing information, I will now tell you of bar none, the best catfish ever.
Years ago, my late grandparents along with my parents came from Florida for a visit to San Antonio. They stayed at some forgettable time-share place out at Canyon Lake, and during that trip, my grandfather had inquired as to the availability of catfish in the area. Thankfully, the store clerk he had asked had advised him to skip all the local Canyon Lake area eateries, and head directly to Clear Springs Restaurant on Highway 46 between New Braunfels and Seguin. The next day, we made the trip and it was a thing of beauty.
As we all went around the table ordering up the various plates with sides and such, when the waiter got to Boppa as we called him, he asked for a pound of catfish and nothing else to interfere with it. I'm guessing he was about 80 at the time and between sips from a draft beer, he promptly consumed that full pound of catfish and barely did more than eat and smile during the meal.
That was back in the mid-90's and both Meemo and Boppa are gone, but I get a warm feeling when I think about catfish and I have a special fondness for Clear Springs. When they opened new restaurants here in San Antonio (one at Afton Oaks and the other over off of Bandera Road which closed soon after), I thought it would be so wonderful, but I have to be honest, I like the feel of the original on Highway 46.
Okay, so on to tonight. Eating lunch - any lunch today was a mistake; wolfing down half a muffeletta was plain silly. I might have been better off fasting for a week or so. Nevertheless, we had plans to take my son and his girlfriend out for an early birthday dinner and he decided he wanted Clear Springs. The one issue I have with the Afton Oaks location is the location. Those of you who live in Stone Oak or the greater 1604 - 281 nightmare, I just don't know how you stand the traffic.
When you arrive at the Afton Oaks Clear Springs, you are taken away from the traffic and road rage, and welcomed into a quiet, down home atmosphere with lots of trees and a porch reminiscent of an old country home.
Once inside, they mix the look of your standard Chili's full of old stuff mounted on the walls and ceiling beams with the atmosphere of a hunting lodge. Add in a huge bar and it is time for a cold beer and a hot serving of onion rings.
Unless you have a group of 5 or 6, the small order of onion rings are plenty. Trust me on this. My wife and I are pretty particular about onion rings and onion blossoms and such. The trick with these is, dip them in Clear Springs creamy tarter sauce. You simply can't go wrong. Or eat them plain. You still can't go wrong.
I had this idea that I would just order up a small plate or maybe even share a plate with my wife. But once I started seeing the plates come out for the people seated around us, it was clear that I had to go with the Fisherman's Platter. You get both catfish and shrimp. And these aren't the tiny little shrimp that resemble sea monkeys, I'm talking good sized shrimp breaded and fried.
My wife went with just the shrimp (she can't bare to eat catfish, what with it being a bottom feeder, but she is cool with the shrimp).
Some how they have it timed so just as you take that last bite of onion ring, the food comes sizzling out to your table. The standard sides are fries, Cole slaw and ranch style beans, but I substituted some green beans with mine. They also serve up some tiny little hush puppies that come equipped with little chunks of jalapeño pepper in them.
The most important thing you need to know is that the breading on the catfish (and the shrimp and the onion rings) is not some sort of overpowering super seasoned mixture. Far from bland, it simply gives you a surface for which to hold the aforementioned creamy, heaven-like tarter sauce on. One of my huge complaints about some catfish I have had is that it is so crispy and crunch that you feel like it is work to eat. I try not to over use this phrase, but I mean it when I say that your catfish will simply melt in your mouth, and regardless of what you had for lunch, you will simply consume it all and consider getting a pound to go.
Another thing to consider when dining is the wait staff or lack there of. At Clear Springs, they know they have a crowd coming for dinner and they have the wait staff to handle it.
I will tell you this, you pay for what you get. The Fisherman's Platter is $12 or $13, but well worth it. For those of you not down with the seafood, you can still go and enjoy burgers or steaks or chicken, though in all the times we have been, I couldn't tell you what any of it tastes like. 
Clear Springs always has and always will be a Tasty Treat in my book.
And, they have a nice beaver.
Oh, and apparently, Colon is Good.
I had this urge for catfish like you would not believe. After my visit to the Rib House the other day, I had a sneaking suspicion that I might need to make a quick return for the fish, but at the last minute, a friend mentioned Blake's Cafe off the FM 725 exit from IH-10 just West of Seguin in McQueeney.
Mind you, it was just after noon and I needed to get myself back into our jurisdiction by 3:30PM for the kick-off of the NFL Playoffs, Packers-Seahawks game, but we figured an hour from San Antonio to get there, an hour to eat and look around, and an hour back, and we'd be in like Flynn.
We have been to the Guadalupe River before, but just never in McQueeney. As soon as you pull off of IH-10 and head toward the small town, you can appreciate the wonderful landscape of the area.
I stopped to take pictures at several spots along the way. Loved the cows!
As if I have some sort of ESPN or something, I had mentioned on our trip to Buc-ee's that the drive into San Antonio is pretty ugly. I suggested some buried Cadillacs. Here, they chose buried boats! And of course, like all places that are a place, McQueeney has a post office, and I snagged a picture.
As soon as we pulled into town and saw Blake's, we were eager to get in and get started with the vittles.
The interior is typical of the style I really like - an old barn or dance hall turned into a bar, and later, a restaurant.
To top it off, old signs and collectibles attached to the walls and suitable for admiring as you wait for your food.
As we waited to be seated (several minutes as we requested non-smoking vice first available) we looked around and checked out the plates as they came out to other diners. The special of the day included some sort of smothered chicken and before I could allow the thought to leave my lips, my wife reminded me that I was here for the fish.
Once seated, we waited for several minutes so people could walk around and ignore us. But as I mentioned, I'm fond of the signs and memorabilia on the walls, so I really wasn't worried. When our waitress did come and take out drink order, I was concerned that she seemed less than enthusiastic about our participation in this afternoon's lunch service.
Not to worry. Before too long, we were munching on a hot loaf of bread with butter and my wife was actively engaged in her salad. I'm sure the picture makes the bread look bigger than it really was, or at least, that's my story because it was so good that I'm pretty certain my wife only got one or two small morsels between bites of her salad, and I inhaled the remainder.
I don't mean to be a whiner, but for the size of the crowd, the wait for vittles seemed a bit long. there was no shortage of wait staff, hostess or manager, so I can only guess these was an issue in the kitchen. In fact, the people in a booth behind us were told that there was a glitch with the special and it would take a little longer. But it seemed like it got to them pretty quickly thereafter.
In our case, maybe we were just hungry but I started to look at my watch and wonder if I could make it home for the start of the game. Not to worry. As if they could sense me starting to take pictures of my watch, our plates arrived. 
My wife is no catfish fan. She ordered up the shrimp and the onion rings. These onion rings look thin, but they were damn tasty and definitely worth ordering. Those are some good sized shrimp and they were good. (Yea, I had to taste them for the accuracy of this report). My wife was put off by the fact that lemon wasn't served with the shrimp (or the fish), but what can you do?
My preference is catfish in the form of fried nuggets, but I ordered the planks they had along with the onion rings and the green beans. The green beans were certainly suitable and in fairness, if I weren't such a green bean connoisseur, they could be the best green beans in the greater McQueeney area, but I had just been to the Rib House on Friday. I did eat them all, and enjoyed them. 
The catfish was great! Not a single complaint and in fact, I have nothing but good things to say about it. It came served hot and the breading was awesome, cooked right and the tarter sauce that came with it in a little cup was creamy and tasty. The hush puppies were burnt, but I ate them. I had never placed butter on a hush puppy before, but I had used all the tarter sauce on the fish and the first two hush puppies. Try it sometime.
I know this doesn't come across as a glowing report for Blake's Cafe but I am willing to believe that we just went on an off day. It was a spur of the moment thing and we placed a little too much emphasis on lunch whereas normally, the focus of our trips to places outside of San Antonio are the town itself. When we decide to eat, we find a place nearby and enjoy the surprise of it.
In this case, we drove an hour to eat and were instead extremely happy about the town that surrounded the restaurant. I want to go back if only to take a few more pictures of the river and the incredible views nearby.
And we'll try Blake's again. I'll definitely have the onion rings.
The last stop on our trip to Luling, TX was the small town of Kingsbury located just west of Luling and a few miles from Seguin on Hiway 90 toward San Antonio. I only make note of this small blip on the road because I was interested enough in what I saw to turn around and go back for a few pictures.
As we left Luling, the ride along Hiway 90 to get back to I-10 was very nice. Lots of open space and nice ranches filled with cattle and the occasional oil derek. There seemed to be a never ending piece of land or farm house that my wife would like to move into for retirement. I have to admit, even in the dry conditions of January, it looked wonderful.
Out of the blue, we were upon a small town consisting of just a few buildings and businesses. The old post office (pictured at the top) certainly caught my eye, but it has been replaced by this newer version - though probably a little more consistent with modern times, not nearly as interesting as the original.
But there was something more to be seen and I turned around to get a quick look. It was some sort of display of junk complete with fancy hand made signs and oddities spread all across the front of what appeared to be an old school.
As I made my turn to go back for a few important pictures, I noticed there was a kid or young man perched upon his carport in a small little chair observing the traffic as it passed his spot in the road. Perhaps sunning himself on such a nice day, or perhaps they don't have cable TV in Kingsbury, and he was just killing time. Who knows. He looked at us as we drove up, but I suspect that he has seen more than one car do the double-take to see the old antique filled lot next to his house more than once; and promptly paid no attention to us at all as I snapped a few pictures.
It seems as though whoever owns this property has a sense of humor if nothing else.
I suppose you could buy anything you see, but on a Saturday afternoon, we didn't see a salesman - unless the kid sunbathing on the carport was waiting for us to make an offer on something.
This is a continuation of our trip to Buc-ee's in Luling, TX reported here.
I like to have a good idea of where we are planning to go when we set out on one of our little trips, and as you might have gathered from reading past reports, I tend to take eating into a big consideration in the plan. When I first suggested we take the drive to Luling, I thought we would zip into Buc-ee's check it out, buy a few souvenirs, then head back toward Sequin and New Braunfels so as to have lunch at the Clear Springs Catfish Restaurant on Hiway 46. But when we didn't even leave our house until a little after 11am, it was pretty clear that we would need to obtain vittles closer to Luling.
We thought of grabbing something to eat in Buc-ee's, what with the Pulled Pork Sandwiches and deli-like atmosphere seeming to be a huge hit with the never-ending stream of people, seemingly all needing gas and all hungry at the same time. But there wasn't really a place to sit down and take pictures of my food, a requirement if you are obsessive about providing historical documentation your lunch like I am. So, we consulted Garmin and sure enough, just a few miles up the road on Hiway 90 was Luling BBQ.
But before you can eat, you have to see the local land marks. Though Luling is known for being involved in the oil business, (there is even a museum in town), they seem to currently be known for their watermelons. 
Or at least the Watermelon water tank.
Oh, and there is a big chicken on the side of the road. 
Attention residents of Luling: It is January. You may now place Santa back in the attic until next year. I just love these little oddities that dot the Texas landscape in just about every small town we visit. They say something very welcoming about the communities; If you move here, you won't have to worry about being the weird family - we got plenty here already. And I like that.
We pulled onto Davis Street and found a parking spot just across the street from Luling BBQ. There seemed to be some sort of flea market situation happening and interestingly enough, the convention of Mopar cars we had seen at Buc-ee's had pulled into the same area to show their nice rides. But we were hungry - and as soon as we opened the doors of the truck, we could smell the goodness in the air.
In San Antonio, we love the idea of the "hole-in-the-wall" as a place to eat. I'm not so sure the outside fits the description, but once inside, you get the distinct impression that these folks are more concerned about the eats and less concerned about how spiffy the place looks. Which is fine by the way. 
It wasn't dirty or anything like that, just quaint. Who needs matching restroom doors anyway?
We didn't even bother to check out the menu, instead my wife asked the kind lady what sort of plate deal they had, and we opted to go with the small plates consisting of one meat and two sides. We wanted to try everything, so she got chicken, potato salad and mac & cheese.
I got the brisket, green beans, and some sort of broccoli salad. Then we just sampled from one another's plates.
I read a review written by some barbecue aficionado from several years back about this place, and he wasn't dismissive of the quality, but seemed put off by small portions and that they hadn't trimmed all the fat from his brisket. Whatever. We both ate for under $12 and everything - everything was lip-smacking good.
My wife has this thing about meats being able to stand on their own flavor and the seasoning that they were cooked with. To her, if you add some sort of barbecue sauce, it is an indication that the meat wasn't prepared in a tasty enough fashion. Though I agree with her reasoning, I like the sauce.
Her chicken was so tender and flavorful, it would have been offensive to smother it in sauce. The brisket was extremely tasty and though, I'm sure I've experienced just as good or possibly better, it was certainly a delightful taste; one I would easily recommend. I did add a little of the house sauce to it, just because that's how I like it. The plastic squeeze bottle on the table had a taped on label that identified it as BBQ Sauce, so I don't know if it was something they made locally or if it was as my wife suggested, Hunts. Either way, I was pleased.
On to the sides. The potato salad was nice and creamy and had a really good taste. The green beans were just your standard fare with no real hint of anything fancy, but I'm a lover of green beans just out of the can, so I was pretty pleased with them. The mac & cheese was also standard but well cooked and cheesy.
The important thing was the broccoli salad. I'm not sure how they made it, but what it tasted to me like was a recipe for Cole Slaw, but replaced the cabbage with the cut up pieces of broccoli. I'm here to tell you, it was fantastic!
I should also mention the sweet tea. I ordinarily order my tea unsweetened (just cause that's how I like it) but for some reason, I filled my cup with the sweet tea. 
No telling if it was some house blend or if it came directly from HEB, but it was a fine treat for sure. After lunch, I refilled my cup and sipped it all the way back to San Antonio. 
Make no mistake, Luling BBQ gets the full Tasty Treat accolades and we'd be happy to recommend it to others. My wife reserves a special "Eeee-Yuck" for places she doesn't like, but three bites into her lunch, she was in full "Eeee-Yum" mode. So there you go.
You should know that Luling has more to offer than just the one diner. In fact, there are a few other places we would be glad to try out. I'm assuming that Honey-Buns Inc. is a place to get some pastries, but you never know.
I really enjoyed the old-style buildings that made up Davis Street along the railroad tracks. I could see someone picking a place to film a movie here.
And perhaps if we had more time, we could have stopped into Monte's for a cold one. Either way, Luling makes a nice day trip and isn't too far from San Antonio.
Where did you go this weekend? I'd love to hear about your small town adventure.
I may have to interrupt this dinner report with a quick session of purging if only to allow my stomach to fit conveniently below the computer desk. With that bit of appetizing information, I will now tell you of bar none, the best catfish ever.
When you arrive at the Afton Oaks Clear Springs, you are taken away from the traffic and road rage, and welcomed into a quiet, down home atmosphere with lots of trees and a porch reminiscent of an old country home.
Once inside, they mix the look of your standard Chili's full of old stuff mounted on the walls and ceiling beams with the atmosphere of a hunting lodge. Add in a huge bar and it is time for a cold beer and a hot serving of onion rings.
Unless you have a group of 5 or 6, the small order of onion rings are plenty. Trust me on this. My wife and I are pretty particular about onion rings and onion blossoms and such. The trick with these is, dip them in Clear Springs creamy tarter sauce. You simply can't go wrong. Or eat them plain. You still can't go wrong.
My wife went with just the shrimp (she can't bare to eat catfish, what with it being a bottom feeder, but she is cool with the shrimp).
Clear Springs always has and always will be a Tasty Treat in my book.
And, they have a nice beaver.
Oh, and apparently, Colon is Good.
