Deep dish

Favorite St. Mary's pizza truck fires up new East Side brick-and-mortar

Sulla Strada moves indoors at its new location.

As the cost of living in San Antonio continues to rise, both potential homeowners and renters have increasingly looked to the Eastside for its historic homes and central location.

Now a local real estate developer is banking on that growth with a renovation project that will bring new businesses to the area including a branch of Credit Human and the first brick-and-mortar location of Sulla Strada pizza.

Although the Dignowity Hill Historic District building at 1602 E. Houston St. has been used as a storefront in the past, most recently it was a storage space. Zurich International Properties will transform the complex into a commerical hub with up to six tenants.

Currently operating out of St. Mary’s dive bar and live music venue Squeezebox, Sulla Strada will bring its affordable, signature pies like sausage with caramelized onions; pears and gorgonzola; and classic pepperoni to the strip. The space will give owner John Winkler 1,500 square feet to work and, perhaps more importantly, a commercial air conditioner (handy when you are working with a wood-fired oven).

According to Rivard Report, Sulla Strada is set to open in July. Winkler also told the publication that a second unnamed hospitality project was nearing a lease agreement. No word yet on whether a bigger space will allow Winkler to expand the menu past pizzas, or whether the new project will be serving beer, wine, or cocktails.

pizza openings

NYT loves AUS

Pastry chef from San Antonio makes New York Times Best Bakeries list

Comadre Panadería/Instagram

Comadre Panadería is known for nostalgic Mexican bakes with feminine flair.

The New York Times has once again shined its spotlight on Austin’s culinary scene. It included Comadre Panadería, an Austin bakery by San Antonio native Mariela Camacho, on its new list of the 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now.

Interim food critic Priya Krishna praises pastry chef Camacho’s pastries that include conchas and her signature pink cake. “Despite their saccharine appearances, not one of the desserts is overly cloying, and even the coffee drinks (Texas pecan horchata! Cranberry vanilla agua fresca!) strike the playful tone of the pastries,” she writes.

Comadre Panadería has been widely recognized, including by this publication; Camacho, who is now based in Ausitn, won Pastry Chef of the Year in the 2023 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. She also earned a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Camacho and Comadre as a whole are both invested in using baked goods to make a more equitable world, from the bakery's early days as a fundraiser for disaster relief, to a current insistence on charging enough to support ethical and organic foods, and paying staff enough to keep up with rising costs in Austin.

Although Camacho was born in San Antonio and started her baking career there, she also spent a significant time in Seattle, Washington, where Comadre started as a pop-up. According to Austin Monthly, she then moved back to San Antonio, and then to Austin. But no matter where she is, the Mexican cooking traditions of her ancestors take precedent.

Mariela Camacho of Comadre Panaderia in Austin Mariela Camacho, Comadre Panaderia. Courtesy photo

The Times also recognized Houston's Koffeteria. Krishna hails the bakery for pastry chef-owner Vanarin Kuch’s creative fare that includes dishes such as beef pho kolaches, Chinese sausage breakfast tacos, and butter mochi.

“Some of Mr. Kuch’s offerings are rooted in his Cambodian American identity — he makes cornbread with the coconutty, scallion-forward flavors of Cambodian street corn — while others are odes to Houston’s multicultural makeup. But most of the fun of Koffeteria is having no idea what Mr. Kuch will do next, and eagerly awaiting his next innovation,” Krishna writes.

Open since 2019, Koffeteria has been riding high this year. It earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Bakery and a CultureMap Houston Tastemaker Award for Pastry Chef of the Year.

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Comadre Panadería and Koffeteria are the only Texas establishments to make the Times’ list. Only California and New York City, which each have three representatives, earn more recognition.

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