My office shut down around noon'ish today so it was a perfect opportunity for the whole family to get out and do some errands - you know, buy some replacement underwear for my son at WalMart and stuff like that.
We found ourselves downtown San Antonio and in the Mercado, the little shopping area that is open year round, but really only busy during Fiesta and Cinco de Mayo and such. Oh sure, there is a steady stream of tourists all the time, but how the shops there make it during the off times is beyond me. But what do I know.
The good thing is, since NAFTA, there is no real reason to go to Mexico (unless you just have a hankerin' to get kidnapped or shot, or both), because you can get all of your authentic Hecho in Chino Mexican items for about the same price. Just a thought: Once you have a dozen blankets, ponchos, a tortilla flattener, and that little rock bowl you display to make people think you grind up your own spicy salsa fixin's, what else could you need? Oh yes, large over priced beers and a few t-shirts.
But it is fun and I never get tired of watching the grandfathers and fathers stand outside the stores as their wives look at the same traditional Mexican dress in different colors that they will surely wear once they get back to Wisconsin or Minnesota, just to impress friends. Even my son gets in on the act, practicing I suppose.
This caught my eye. At first, I only saw the top part of the sign, and I though for a minute we had moved into an R-rated section of the place.
And of course, you know it is almost time for a festive Christmas in San Antonio when El Mercado busts out the pink Christmas tree display.
We were all pretty excited about taking the kids to Augie's Barbed Wire BBQ for a late lunch. We pulled into the lot and I thought to myself that this was perfect timing. We had missed the lunch crowd and there were only a few other people in the lot that would be ahead of us in line.
We all got out and started to walk in when I noticed the people parked a few feet from us were getting back in their truck. Then, I noticed a few folks standing in the entry way of Augie's, drinking a cool mug of beer. A lady said, "We're closed." And the guy hoisted his beer and said, "It's beer time." I chuckled and said to myself, "Okay, I'll play your little game." We continued to walk toward the entrance. "No, seriously, we closed at 3 today" the guy said, and we all just turned, totally dejected, just like the people parked a few feet away from us, and left.
Since we were there, my wife said she had wanted to take the kids to Broadway 5050. I've told you about our last lunch there. We liked it, though I know several other readers were not impressed.
Today, my wife and I both ordered the Memphis style pork sandwich with the slaw on. It was good but just not the same as the pulled-pork I planned on getting at Augie's. And I have to put my foot down here and now. People of the food industry: Quit serving those stupid little hay stick/shoestring french-fries. They just do not work for me.
My daughter had the brisket sandwich which she absolutely loved. It is good and for what is really just a bar, they do serve a good brisket. She did not care for the potato salad and upon inspection, I did not either. I'm pretty sure it was better the first time we went.
My son got the same fish & chips platter I got on our first visit and we was pleased with his, just as I was back then.
In the end, it was all good. We had solid service, the price was very reasonable, good food and I still just like the feel of the place inside. Give it a shot if you are in the area.
We got in the habit when our kids were a lot younger that we would take one day during Fiesta, go down to the Market Square for a brief wandering through the area, eat some vittles, see all the weird people found during the day, then leave before the evening crowd arrived. 
It isn't that we are anti-social (okay, maybe a little), but the truth is, if we wanted to have our kids mingle amongst a bunch of sweaty people spilling beer on everyone and acting all a fool, we'll just have a cook-out at home and save a bunch of money.
So over the years, we got in this habit of going to the same place, doing the same thing and we have it down to about a two or three hour operation. Since we did it today, I took a few pictures that I'd like to show you and perhaps make a comment or two about.
I already mentioned that we had lunch at La Margarita, then it was off to gawk at our fellow citizens and the tourists who try so hard to understand our ways.
During the early afternoon, people drink just as though they were attending in the evening. Granted, many of the same people who drink during the day continue drinking into the evening, hence my references to spilled beers. But what this causes is a serious fart smell that permeates the area. 
And imagine if you were at face level with every ass in the crowd? 
The music is loud and when people gyrate to the sounds, I guess it just happens. 
Or in my case, I wait until I'm around someone who looks like they would be the guilty person, and I generally let loose there.
You can always tell who started really early. They are the lone dancers. They got the beat. The rest of us gawk. The tourists assume that it is part of the show.
San Antonio is not a svelte city. But we look good at it.
If you live in San Antonio and understand the "lingo", you would recognize this picture as a solid candidate for Jay Leno's Headlines. But I don't know about "Delicious".
Lest you think it's just a freak show, there are lots of otherwise entertaining things to see at the Mercado. Great bands and people who can do more than make fools of themselves on the dance floor. This couple put on quite a show.
My wife wanted me to get out there and dance with her but she realized that some idiot would take pictures of me doing my fantastic dance-moves in public, and she'd end up as an example of what not to do on someone's blog, so instead, we just enjoyed the sights and were happy to leave before anything really got going.
As you may be aware, San Antonio is in the midst of Fiesta which is just another excuse for us to party and such. There are so many events to pick and choose from during the two week period, but it seems like every year, we do our own ritual that involves going down to the Farmers Market or El Mercado early in the afternoon, eating lunch at La Margarita, then seeing the sights and getting the heck out of the place before any real fun starts. I'll tell you about our brief Fiesta visit later, but first, an important lunch report on La Margarita.
Many of you know that there are three restaurants owned by The Cortez Family in the same general area. La Margarita, Pico de Gallo, and Mi Tierra. Of the three, we just happen to prefer La Margarita. I have nothing bad to say about the others, but my wife would probably be willing to share her thoughts with you if you asked her.
I have always liked the beef fajitas at La Margarita and I like the fact that they serve up a cold schooner of beer. I guess I'm pretty easy to please that way.
On out trip in this afternoon, we had no wait at all. I think we missed the real lunch crowd and beat the dinner crowd to be honest. And that's fine. I like it when we can get in, and get served fast, and today, that happened.
I'm big on atmosphere and for some reason I like this place. We sat in the main dining area, where you see a really nice mural of Mariachis and other paintings on the walls.
I also enjoy the bar area. I recall once, we sat in what seemed to be an overflow area and it was really a back room of some sort with no other connection to the restaurant. We felt as though we were seated at the kids table at thanksgiving or something. But not this time.
We were seated, our waitress got us the standard chips and salsa, gave us our menus and took our drink orders in near record time.
From there, we no sooner ordered the mixed chicken and beef fajitas for two and I just have to assume they had a batch coming off the grill in anticipation because our order was on our table before I could wolf down more than a handful of chips slathered in salsa and flush it down my gullet with a swallow or two of beer.
This order comes with a cup of beans, rice, a plate of guacamole and such, and then the huge steaming plate of fajitas with grilled onions and tomatoes. The smell is simply wonderful. For those of us in San Antonio, we could argue all day long about who has the best fajitas. I'm not going to say here and now that La Maragrita's make the top of my list, but let me tell you something, they work for me. As an ordinary rule, you order either chicken or beef, but we often like to mix. I'm going to tell you that the beef are far better than the chicken at La Margarita. But the chicken is good, just not as good as the beef.
Okay, so that was all I was going to say about La Margarita because really, we just wanted to get down there, eat, take a few pictures of Fiesta in the Market area, then get back home because we had something else going on later. And the way things started off, I was no kidding ready to tell you that this was the best service experience we had ever had at this particular restaurant. And then things fell apart.
In fairness, I am convinced that this had to be an isolated incident. But after we ate, we realized that we wouldn't be able to finish everything so we started thinking about getting a to-go container for the chicken fajitas, leftover rice and wonderful tortillas. And we sat there looking around for our waitress so as to ask for the container and our check. And we sat there some more. And we looked around at all the other waiters and waitresses and the mariachis and the other diners, but we could not locate our waitress to save our lives.
The fact that I saw so many other wait staff, I was starting to think that maybe they had gone through a shift change and our waitress may have passed on the bill to someone else. We look around some more and my wife decides to slip off to the powder room, thinking that will get us our bill. Nope.
Finally, I get up and find a man at the cashier desk and tell him that I seem to have lost my waitress and I need a to-go box and a check. He runs off, returns with the styro-foam container and then runs off again. Moments later, our waitress arrives, and almost as though we have interrupted her from some sort of international negotiation with the UN, hands us the ticket with a forced smile then spins around and is gone. And just like that, her tip which my wife had already laid out on the table got cut in half.
So we walk up to the counter to pay the bill and then head out the front door. What do we see just outside? Our waitress making lovey-dovey with a waiter from the restaurant across the ally. What the hell? No wonder she was so eager to get away from our table. I thought they were going to have to get a room for a minute. So I casually snapped a picture of them. By now, they had retrieved their tongues from one-another's lungs.
And my wife went right back inside, picked up what remained of the tip and then went to the cashier and told her that if the waitress asked about her tip, to tell her "that her "F'ing" boyfriend already gave it to her".
My wife is hard core like that. But aside from that little misstep, I enjoy La Margarita and we have never had service like that. It is a great place to take guests from out of town or just a good place for a little lunch. I give the beef fajitas a definite Tasty Treat, and you will too.
The good thing is, since NAFTA, there is no real reason to go to Mexico (unless you just have a hankerin' to get kidnapped or shot, or both), because you can get all of your authentic Hecho in Chino Mexican items for about the same price. Just a thought: Once you have a dozen blankets, ponchos, a tortilla flattener, and that little rock bowl you display to make people think you grind up your own spicy salsa fixin's, what else could you need? Oh yes, large over priced beers and a few t-shirts.
But it is fun and I never get tired of watching the grandfathers and fathers stand outside the stores as their wives look at the same traditional Mexican dress in different colors that they will surely wear once they get back to Wisconsin or Minnesota, just to impress friends. Even my son gets in on the act, practicing I suppose.
This caught my eye. At first, I only saw the top part of the sign, and I though for a minute we had moved into an R-rated section of the place.
Since we were there, my wife said she had wanted to take the kids to Broadway 5050. I've told you about our last lunch there. We liked it, though I know several other readers were not impressed.
Today, my wife and I both ordered the Memphis style pork sandwich with the slaw on. It was good but just not the same as the pulled-pork I planned on getting at Augie's. And I have to put my foot down here and now. People of the food industry: Quit serving those stupid little hay stick/shoestring french-fries. They just do not work for me.
My daughter had the brisket sandwich which she absolutely loved. It is good and for what is really just a bar, they do serve a good brisket. She did not care for the potato salad and upon inspection, I did not either. I'm pretty sure it was better the first time we went.
My son got the same fish & chips platter I got on our first visit and we was pleased with his, just as I was back then.
