Pearl Market

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Saturday, Nov 14. 

The Market at the Pearl Brewery, San Antonio.

We had read about a wine and food festival happening in San Antonio and so order tickets on the internet for an event. It's a lunch at the Pearl Market in the former Pearl Brewery with a Mexican chef who specializes in fresh local ingredients. The market area is very new, it just opened last April, with construction still going on. It is at the north end of the Riverwalk just up the river a bit from the San Antonio Museum of Art which is located in the old Lone Star Brewery. It's a very pretty area with a small waterfalls. We got to sit in the sun and enjoy the view for 45 minutes after the lunch event as we waited for a riverboat that never came. Although two had been there during the lunch before we got down to the river.

The farmers' market itself was fairly small, perhaps the size of the Stratford Saturday market, but it was interesting. There's lots of locally grown products and we're going to have some with our lunch. We bought shelled pecans to take home for people and an $18 jar of feta in olive oil with sun-dried tomatoes which we can enjoy some night in our long stay with some fresh bread and wine.

The lunch setup for the wine tasting was a little disorganized as was the dinner service. There were tables set outside in the sun by the river for about 32 but probably there were only 24 people there. We sat at a table with two couples who were together and a single woman. Sharon from Chicago is married to a doctor, he's a bit of a know-it-all, but quite nice. They are easy to talk to and are Obama Democrats for "socialized medicine" so we all got along well. The other couple were very nice too. They were about in their late 60's or early 70's and she had had significant facelifts. Kate noted that her face was smooth from the nose up but she had a very wrinkly chin. She also wore an outfit that you could see through to her lacey bra (perhaps it's a bustier/corset). It was a Madonna style of dress, her name was Joyce and she was a little too old to be playing the Madonna card. She nevertheless became Reg's best friend — he couldn't keep his eyes off the goods!

The winemaker wasn't going to get there until 12:15 (the lunch was supposed to start at 11:30) and they decided they would pour all four wines right at the start. They started with the reds which kind of stumped us — there would have been wine pairings and this wasn't it. The wines were from the Chalk Hill Winery in Sonoma, California: there was a 2005 Estate bottled Cabernet, an 2006 Estate bottled Merlot,  a 2006 Sauvignon Blanc, and a 2006 Chardonnay from the Russian River (nearby to Sonoma).

So they had poured all four wines, as well as some bottled water, and had put a bread appetizer on the table. The appetizer was a tuna tartare on a crusty bread — Kate passed on that. Then the food began arriving, and it arrived all at once! The salad had big leaves: two kinds of fresh lettuce from the market with tomatoes, cheese, and nuts. It was very nice. Then there were lightly breaded coconut shrimp from a local shrimp farm which were just okay. Then there was a beef and turnip, potato and yellow beet sort of a stew type of dish. The vegetables on the side with that were a local broccoli and cauliflower which were sort of steamed. The dessert was a bit like a coffee cake with extra fruit.

We think the winemaker would have intended that the courses be served one by one and paired with the wine. For example the Sauvignon Blanc should have been served with the salad, the Chardonnay with the shrimp and the two reds with the beef and veggies. But instead we just kind of chose to drink whatever we wanted with whatever we wanted. They were pretty generous with extra amounts of wine. The couples at our table hardly drank at all and the facelift lady left both of her reds. The fellow from the winery came to talk to us later and it turns out these were very pricey wines and deserved a better service and pairing. The whites were $20 and up and we recall that the reds were over $60 each! He really liked the Chardonnay. Reg was not so fond of it, and it turns out that's their specialty, their signature wine. It's grown in certain vineyard in the Russian River, carefully selected grapes picked by hand, and barrel aged. It is a very good wine and the style that Kate likes.

We hung around polishing off the wine dregs that sober folks had left behind. We'd fit right in with the panhandlers on Pecan, "Shay, buddy can you spare 35 cents for some Thunderbird?" And did we mention the homeless benefit concert coming up? We'll fit right in.

We were going to tour the new part of the Riverwalk but the boat never came! After waiting for a while, and enjoying the fine weather, we abandoned that idea and headed out to the Mexican Mercado so that Kate could pick up some more Mexican pottery light switch covers. When we got there, there was a show going on of young kids in Mexican outfits singing traditional music. After walking around quite a bit in the market we decided to have a drink in an outdoor café/restaurant. Coffee for Reg, the long suffering driver, and another glass of wine for Kate. The couple next to us were having fajitas which seemed to involve a huge platter of beef, tortillas, and beans. But as true Texans they didn't eat the beans ("You don't put beans in chili, you don't water good whiskey down" — Tom Russell). Panhandlers on Pecan would have asked, "Shay buddy, can you spare some beans for a down and out hungry guy? And 35cents for some Thunderbird?"

When we got back to Austin, we checked in at the Homestead long stay suites which are located on S 1st where Barton Springs crosses (very near Threadgill's South which is just across the parking lot). We're on the south side of Lake Austin (the Driskill on 6th, where we had been staying, is downtown and north of the lake). Our room here has much more space, a small kitchen, and refrigerator. It was pretty great. The bed was a bit harder than the one at the Driskill, but at least the window opens and there aren't the dumb accessories (like pillows and cowboy rolls) that only get in the way. 

We stayed long enough to check-in and drop off our bags. We then headed off to Guero's on South Congress hoping to catch the late afternoon entertainment outside "under the live oaks". They have music outside on the weekends. We had our dinner there. Kate had gulf shrimp tacos, which were excellent, and Reg had pork tamales. There are a lot of good Tex/Mex restaurants in Austin — we come to Guero's quite often.

We went home early, waddled to our room, and stayed in despite it being a Saturday night. We've had enough food, wine and adventures for one day.

Transcribed and edited during the OMIGOD! pandemic of February 2022 from notes taken at the time.