Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle

DREAMSCAPES WINTER/SPRING 2020 12 chef-owned restaurants, and cool cocktail lounges. New buildings have been erected and many original buildings have been ren- ovated for new uses. The bottling plant is now a food hall with five restaurants and a bar. The administration building, where workers once collected their pay, is now an excellent charcuterie restaurant called Cured. The stable, which once housed the horses that pulled the brewery's beer wagons, is now an events venue. The brewhouse has been revamped into the grand Hotel Emma. Old brewery equipment has also been repurposed. Ammonia tanks have found new life as planters, enormous fermenting vats have been turned into funky bar booths, and instead of crystal prisms some chandeliers sport vintage beer bottles. Food is a major draw. In addition to restaurants, there are coffee houses, a French patisserie called Bakery Lorraine, and the Texas campus of the Culinary Institute of America, where many Pearl chefs trained. A weekend farmers' market runs year- round. It's chock-a-block with stalls selling local foodstuffs—honey, fresh produce, just-baked bread, cheeses, sausages, pickles, jams and more. During my visit there was a yoga class on the lawn, and a high-energy performance by the San Antonio Spurs' co-ed dance team. First-time visitors should make time for one of the free tours. Our knowledgeable guide Sissy Henges dished on everything from the tall tales of former brewery workers to the scandal of the three Emmas. But you'll have to visit to hear about all that! See atpearl.com. KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL Delicious as they are, there is a lot more to the local food scene than Tex-Mex and bar- becue, and we're not the only ones who have noticed. In 2017, UNESCO designated San Antonio as a Creative City of Gas- tronomy (one of only two places in the United States to earn the designation). UNESCO deemed San Antonio's culinary heritage to be significant for its confluence of European and Mexican cultures, as well as its geology and geography. Now a new generation of creative chefs is pushing culinary boundaries even fur- ther. Here are a few examples: • With more than two dozen eating estab- lishments within steps of each other, Pearl is a dining hub. Cured has a tasty meat- centric menu of organic, handcrafted cured foods from charcuterie to pickles while Botika's eclectic menu features both "Chifa" (Chinese-Peruvian) and "Nikkei" (Japanese-Peruvian) cuisines. A delicious experience is guaranteed at CIA's Savor, which has a prix fixe menu of fine dining options prepared and served by culinary students. See curedatpearl.com, botikapearl.com and savorcia.com. • Central San Antonio has many options. For breakfast, head to La Panaderia and fuel up on pan dulce (Mexican pastries) and handmade breads, or try the scram- bled eggs with onions, jalapenos and ABOVE: The Pearl Weekend Market runs rain or shine year- round. The Saturday market is reserved for locally produced food while the Sunday market has more artisanal and prepared foods. Either way, it's a great place to sample everything from meats to breads. Robin Robinson BELOW: Tex-Mex is not San Antonio's only cuisine, but it is the most well known. Located downtown, La Panaderia is a go-to for a hearty Tex-Mex breakfast, breads and pastries. Robin Robinson OPPOSITE: Mission San José is one of five frontier missions built by Franciscan missionaries in the early 1700s. Together the missions form a must-see UNESCO World Heritage Site. visitsanantonio.com/Bob Howden

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