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Vote for the Tastemakers

San Antonio's 8 best new restaurants heat up the Tastemakers tournament

Chantal Rice
Apr 11, 2022 | 12:01 pm
Modern Texas cuisine anchors the Ambler menu.
Modern Texas cuisine anchors the Ambler menu.
Courtesy of Ambler Texas Kitchen

San Antonio's dining scene is flourishing with exciting new restaurants, and eight of them are going head-to-head in our annual CultureMap Tastemaker Awards Best New Restaurant tournament.

Our 2022 nominees for Best New Restaurant range from Italian-inspired hot spots to splashy new concepts from top local restaurateurs. They were selected by our expert panel of judges, but the winner is up to you.

Now through April 25, you're invited to vote in our Best New Restaurant tournament. The tournament starts with the eight restaurants below, and the winner from each matchup moves on to the next round, until only one remains.

Meet all of the restaurants below, vote for your favorites daily, then join us April 26 at The Espee for our inaugural San Antonio event. We'll unveil the Best New Restaurant champion — plus all of this year's San Antonio winners — during our live awards program. Tickets are on sale now.

Allora
Inspired by the stunning beauty of Italy’s Amalfi Coast, Allora delivers the equally dazzling flavors of Italian seafood and pasta to the Pearl. Living la dolce vita is a cinch at this beautifully adorned restaurant, where the aim is to redefine Italian food in San Antonio. Menu highlights include a staggering amount of shareable antipasti and crudi (sashimi-grade seafood) dishes, a vibrant selection of first-course pasta plates, and a mix of main course offerings that span seafood, steak, and game. Diners can even opt for the condividere menu, which includes larger shareable plates like the stunning lobster lasagna, perhaps the restaurant’s most tantalizing dish.

Ambler Texas Kitchen & Cocktails
Hotel Contessa’s showpiece restaurant is a culinary tribute to Texas, so it’s fitting that its backdrop is one of the Lone Star State’s most striking locales: the River Walk. While Texas-inspired cuisine anchors the menu, executive chef John Zaner is quick to note that Ambler Texas Kitchen & Cocktails does not simply serve Tex-Mex. Here, diners can delight in chicken-fried Texas quail, roasted cauliflower and chorizo queso, an array of ranch-cut steaks, and other house specialties. The folks at Ambler sum up the River Walk restaurant’s offerings best: “Brisket from nearby Augusta Ranch, coffee beans from San Antonio’s own Merit Coffee Co., and Shiner Bock-infused shrimp boil tell you everything you need to know about our Texas-on-a-plate menus.”

Arrosta
Arrosta, billed as San Antonio’s first Italian-style rotisserie cafe and bakery, features Bohemian charm, European flair, and uniquely Texan flavors. Mornings start off savory or sweet, and whether you opt for the frittata, focaccia, or Nonna’s Torta, you’ll definitely want to do as the Romans do and pair it with a perfect espresso. Lunch and dinner offerings range from quarter-pound meaty trays served with sides, dipping sauces, and breads, to pizza, panini, and irresistible cups of crispy fried snacks. Wash it all down with a glass of house wine or a carbonated soda to get the full Italian experience.

Box St. All Day
Box St. All Day is the big sister to popular local food truck and catering company The Box Street Social. Located at The ’68 development at Hemisfair, it offers some gorgeous views, from the natural surroundings to the Tower of the Americas and Yanaguana Park. From brunch and coffee to dinner, wine, and cocktails, Box St. All Day boasts a vast menu of comfort food ideal for gobbling up while kicking back on the 5,000-square-foot patio. Menu highlights include the must-have Box St. Brekky and milk bread French toast, Thai fried wings, the bacon jam burger, and the crispy-skin snapper Grenobloise.

Dashi Sichuan Kitchen & Bar
New from Sichuan House, one of the city’s most celebrated Chinese eateries, is Dashi Sichuan Kitchen & Bar, which aims to integrate the diversity and innovation of Sichuanese cuisine with a modern American-style dining experience. Dashi, which means “grand artist” in Chinese, is an appropriate moniker for this spirited gathering spot where familiar Chinese food favorites meet more adventurous ingredients in a bevy of family-style dishes. Cold-plate specials include Spicy Listeners (five-spice pig ears), while warm plate offerings include a variety of savory “little eats” like crispy dumplings and Sichuan classics. Various noodle and rice dishes, soups, and sweet treats round out the ambitious menu.

Naco 210
Located in the Los Patios development, Naco 210 features longtime Naco favorites and new dishes, as well as brunch offerings. All-day specials include a wide variety of enchiladas, tacos (which can be made keto with Naco 210’s irresistible cheese “tortilla”), tortas, and the incredibly popular chilaquiles. Mexican brunch is a must here and includes such crave-worthy specials as huevos ranchero, Double Black Benedicts (with huitlacoche and black garlic salsa), loads of breakfast tacos, pancakes, and omelets. While the restaurant’s interior is colorful and vibrant, its massive tree-lined deck offers a lovely spot for a brunch-fueled hiatus.

Sari-Sari Supper Club
Quaint family-owned Filipino eatery Sari-Sari recently unveiled its new west side supper club, which offers both pickup orders of its Filipino fare, as well as special event supper club dinners. Traditional dishes like lumpia, wok-fired noodles, Filipino-style steak sandwiches, and savory barbecue skewers and rice bowls dazzle the palate. Sari-Sari Supper Club dinner events include multicourse chef-prepared menus with such drool-inducing dishes as duck fat seafood gumbo, six-hour braised short ribs, and sweet potato beignets. Complimentary wine and live music entertainment turn the experience into a dining adventure.

Up Scale
Given the immediate success of their Little Em’s Oyster Bar concept, San Antonio restaurateurs Emily and Houston Carpenter were wise to quickly follow with their splashy seafood restaurant, Up Scale. The high-end eatery oozes glam, from its elegantly embellished and thoughtfully designed dining room to its menu of freshly caught luxury seafood dishes like the dover sole, which is presented tableside with foie gras, buttered farro, and beurre blanc. Up Scale also specializes in decadent meat dishes, like its 60-day dry-aged tomahawk steak, as well as a luscious assortment of nigiri, sushi rolls, and apps.

Dashi Sichuan Kitchen + Bar.

Dashi Sichuan Kitchen + Bar San Antonio
Dashi Sichuan/Instagram
Dashi Sichuan Kitchen + Bar.
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Nonprofit news

San Antonio nonprofit breaks ground on new West Side campus

Katherine Stinson
Oct 31, 2022 | 4:37 pm
SA Hope Center
Courtesy of SA Hope Center

SA Hope Center is expanding to San Antonio's West Side with a new campus.

The SA Hope Center is expanding to the West Side of the city with a brand new campus. The aim of the new campus is to continue the SA Hope Center's mission to assist families experiencing major crises like poverty.

The new campus will be an expansion at the original SA Hope Center location on N. General McMullen Drive. Thanks to generous donors like H-E-B and Valero, the SA Hope Center will be able to provide a new assortment of services at the exanded campus to help more families in need of assistance.

SA Hope Center CEO Megan Legacy summed up the non-profit organization's excitement over the campus expansion in an official statement, explaining that, "This campus is a place of hope and new beginnings for the people of San Antonio who need assistance, guidance, and compassionate support. This expansion will allow the SA Hope Center team to help families overcome poverty and thrive. We are so grateful to all of our major donors who are making this possible."

So what services will the SA Hope Center be able to provide at the new campus expansion? According to a release, the expanded services will include mental health services, drop-in childcare, and a renovated family assistance center that will provide healthy, nutritious food for families, clothing assistance, and expanded case management offices.

The SA Hope Center's campus expansion will also give the nonprofit the opportunity to provide more immediate and long-term services for San Antonio families in need.

For those unfamiliar with other services the SA Hope Center typically provides, here's a general overview: They offer financial literacy classes, workforce development, parenting education, spiritual services for those who are interested, and many other supportive services. The aim of the nonprofit's services as always is to help families develop enough financial stability and long term monetary planning to evade poverty and live happy, fulfilled healthy lives.

For more information on the SA Hope Center's services and update information on the opening, visit SAHopecenter.org.

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Bon Voyage

San Antonio chef invites locals to explore Europe on guided culinary adventures in 2023

Hannah J. Frías
Oct 31, 2022 | 11:50 am
Tim the Girl curated travel
Courtesy of Tim the Girl
Chef Tim McDiarmid is hosting two curated trips through Europe in summer 2023.

Good news for San Antonio natives who have been enviously binge-watching From Scratch lately: One of San Antonio's best chefs is inviting locals along on a delicious, food-filled adventure through Europe next year. Founder of The Good Kind Hospitality Group (which includes Tim the Girl Catering, The Good Kind restaurant, and the Ivy Hall Events venue), chef Tim McDiarmid is hosting two curated trips in summer 2023.

Born in British Columbia, the award-winning chef is a James Beard Fellow (2019) and former Chopped competitor got her start in New York City, where she worked in restaurants for over 20 years before moving with her son to San Antonio in 2011. As a single mother in need of a flexible schedule, she founded Tim the Girl Catering that same year.

In 2017, McDiarmid opened her first retail outpost, The Good Kind, in the Historic Pearl’s Bottling Department food hall. She went on to open a second Good Kind location in 2018 and took over the management of Ivy Hall Events venue space in the King William district before closing the Pearl location of the Good Kind in 2020. In 2019, she was selected as a James Beard Fellow for the James Beard Foundation's Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership program.

Along the way, McDiarmid has guided numerous groups through Italy in collaboration with a travel company, ItalianFix, which curates tours for those seeking to experience a place, rather than just pass through. McDiarmid is the perfect guide for these adventures, weaving her culinary and hospitality experience into a highly curated itinerary. In turn, she pulls from her travels as inspiration for her catering company and restaurants back home in San Antonio.

In 2023, McDiarmid will host two trips. The first will be a woman-only getaway to the The Cinque Terre, exploring picturesque seaside villages along the Italian Riviera for eight days and seven nights between June 24 and July 1, 2023. The second is open to all adults and spans three countries, traveling through the the Italian & French Rivieras for nine day and eight nights from July 3 to July 11, 2023.

Reservations for these one-of-a-kind trips are already open, and payment plans are available after a small initial deposit. Space is limited, so interested travelers should scurry over to italianfix.com to sign up and start planning for the adventure of a lifetime.

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H-E-B scoops new Spurs-inspired ice cream flavor to honor 50 years of hometown team

Real-world events make the message of Call Jane all the more relevant

San Antonio museum's popular Sips and Sounds series returns with night of Norteño music

Let's Talk about Bruno

Disney debuts immersive, family-friendly experience in San Antonio in 2023

Hannah J. Frías
Oct 31, 2022 | 10:53 am
Disney Animation: Immersive Experience
Courtesy of Lighthouse Immersive Studios
Disney Animation: Immersive Experience is coming to San Antonio in 2023.

A family-friendly immersive experience is coming to San Antonio in 2023. From the same team that brought Immersive Van Gogh to cities around the world, Lighthouse Immersive is bringing Disney classics to life, including The Lion King, Aladdin, and newer favorites such as Encanto, Frozen, and more.

"Like so many of us, I have a life-long love of Disney films,” said Lighthouse Immersive founder Corey Ross in a release. “I’ve grown up with them since childhood and so has my family. The work lends itself brilliantly to the immersive experience and I am confident this program will give our guests the opportunity to be engulfed in the world of Disney, making them feel like they’re standing next to their favorite characters and seeing the world through their eyes.”

Ross captures the excitement both Disney and Lighthouse Immersive feel for the project as he describes how it begins:

“Just imagine journeying through Zootopia with Judy Hopps, diving to the ocean floor with Ariel, flying on a magic carpet with Aladdin, and stepping into Casita with Mirabel and the family Madrigal. This is where the Disney Animation: Immersive Experience will take you.”

Oscar-winning producer J. Miles Dale (2018 Best Picture: The Shape of Water) is leading the creative team on the production, a collaboration between Lighthouse Immersive and Walt Disney Animation Studios.

“Trailblazing in a new medium is always exciting, and this is truly going to be the most challenging and rewarding project of my career," Dale shared in a release. "Being entrusted with Disney’s rich archive of animation is a great honor, but also a tremendous responsibility. With such a wealth of material and a treasure trove of memorable characters, it will be a thrill to bring the work of all the great Disney animators and performers to life in a 360-degree immersive environment.”

Coming to Lighthouse ArtSpace venues in late 2022/2023, the show will debut in just nine North American cities. San Antonio's opening date is set for February 28, 2023, and tickets (starting at $39.99) are already on sale at disneyimmersive.com.

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most read posts

H-E-B scoops new Spurs-inspired ice cream flavor to honor 50 years of hometown team

Real-world events make the message of Call Jane all the more relevant

San Antonio museum's popular Sips and Sounds series returns with night of Norteño music

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