This week's hot headlines

Mary Lou Retton interview tops this week's 5 most-read San Antonio stories

Mary Lou Retton calls herself a "fighter" following a health scare in October 2023

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Editor's note: A lot happened this week, so here's your chance to get caught up. Read on for the week's most popular headlines. Looking for the best things to do this weekend? Find that list here.

1. Gymnastics hero Mary Lou Retton recovering at home in Boerne following health scare. Olympic gymnastics great Mary Lou Retton said she faces a long battle recuperating at home from a rare form of pneumonia in which doctors weren't sure whether she would survive. Retton sat down at her home in Boerne, outside San Antonio, for an interview with Hoda Kotb that aired January 8 on NBC’s Today show.

2. Another rash of closures darken San Antonio restaurant news. Not everyone participates in Dry January, but the second week of the month remains sobering for the San Antonio hospitality industry. The recent rash of closures continues unabated while corporations rush to snag the limited dining dollar.

3. Outdoorsy music festival near San Antonio to take place under total eclipse. Utopia, Texas (about 80 miles west of San Antonio), will be firmly in the middle of the solar eclipse on April 8. A music festival that originated there is returning to celebrate from April 5-9.

4. New seafood fusion restaurant hooks spot in darling SATX development. The Creamery, the ambitious mixed-use development near Pearl, soon will welcome the second of five promised concepts: Hook Land & Sea is set to debut on Monday, January 15. As the name implies, the menu features various seafood dishes alongside a few meatier options for landlubbers.

5. 2 San Antonio-area ZIP codes stand out in new list of hottest U.S. housing markets in 2023. Despite higher mortgage rates, San Antonio's housing market continued to attract more people to the suburbs in 2023, according to a new report by Opendoor. Two San Antonio-area ZIP codes were among the top 10 locales in the nation, coming in at No. 9.

sports celebrities closings festivals housing market seafood hot-headlines

Say Uncle

Founder of award-winning bourbon brings book and booze to San Antonio

Uncle Nearest founder Fawn Weaver and master blender Victoria Eady Butler

Uncle Nearest/Instagram

Founder Fawn Weaver (left) and master blender Victoria Eady Butler (right) are going to get a kick out of San Antonio.

While Dry January may be well under way for some, it’s not too early to start planning a more “spirited” February. One event at Stable Hall will appeal to whiskey drinkers and historians alike. Taking place Thursday, February 20, the event space on the Pearl Brewery campus will host author and CEO Fawn Weaver for the Love & Whiskey Unfiltered Book Tour Experience.

The fireside chat will give attendees unprecedented access to Weaver, a New York Times bestselling author and founder of Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey. According to the brand’s website, the spirit is the first in the world to be named after a Black American, Nathan “Nearest” Green. Its portfolio is the most awarded bourbon and American whiskey of 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Published in June 2024 and an instant bestseller, Love & Whiskey tells the story of Green’s friendship with Jack Daniel and how he played a pivotal role in the creation of the whiskey that bears Daniel’s name. Weaver’s account delves into both the rich history of American whiskey and her own present-day quest to honor Green’s legacy by founding a brand in his name.

Joining Weaver on the tour is special guest Victoria Eady Butler, the brand’s four-time Master Blender of the Year and a fifth-generation descendant of Nearest Green. Throughout the event, Butler will guide guests through a tasting of four premium whiskeys from the award-winning brand.

All tickets to the February reading will also include a signed commemorative copy of Love & Whiskey and food from James Beard Award nominee (and our 2024 CultureMap Tastemaker Chef of the Year) Nicola Blaque.

Launched last summer, the book tour has already seen sellout success in cities like Tampa, Atlanta, and Chicago, so San Antonians should secure their tickets sooner than later.

To learn more about the brand and prepare some questions ahead of the event, guests can head to the Uncle Nearest website. There, they’ll find a detailed history of the brand, as well as a short film narrated by Emmy-Award winning actor Jeffrey Wright.

whiskey distilleries books