Eat your heart out

8 menus you must try this summer during San Antonio Restaurant Weeks 2019

From A to Zinc, San Antonio's best eateries are participating in Restaurant Weeks.

Photo by Kody Melton

Editors note: After publication of this story, the menus at Boudro's and Zinc were slightly adjusted. The article has been updated with current offerings.

It’s possible Lana Del Rey wouldn’t experience so much "Summertime Sadness" if someone would have told her about San Antonio Restaurant Weeks. It’s almost impossible to be in a foul mood when the best Alamo City restaurants are offering red-hot deals.

From August 10-24, spots across town are featuring specially priced prix-fixe menus in support of nonprofit Culinaria and its mission to promote San Antonio food. Lunches are $15, dinners range from $35-$45, and brunch is $25.

Start getting excited with these eight mouthwatering menus, and click here to see full list of restaurants. Many of San Antonio’s most acclaimed eateries are participating, and menus are being updated throughout the week.

Benjie’s Munch
Don’t let a packed schedule keep you from taking part in Restaurant Weeks. Benjie’s is offering a quick all-day lunch that can be easily squeezed in between yoga and an afternoon meeting. The three-course feast offers a choice of appetizer, entrée, and side. Best bets are crispy Brussel sprout leaves with smoked sea salt, an Angus cheeseburger on a brioche bun, and addictive flash fried green beans. Low carb types will want to stick to a chicken or sirloin keto quesadilla with a genius cheddar-jack shell.

Boudro’s Texas Bistro
This River Walk institution is getting into the Restaurant Weeks spirit with a $35 menu that features seasonal produce and hearty mains. A delicate frisee salad with beets and a charred cumin-orange dressing whets the appetite for either a wood-grilled heirloom pork chop or boneless Angus short rib. A lemon pudding cake ensures the meal ends as a sweet dream.

Grayze
Make brunch even better with Grayze’s $25 Restaurant Weeks menu. Wake up with a choice of tomato basil soup or roasted corn and baby arugula salad, crab and crawfish corn fritters with poached eggs and onion pesto hollandaise, and beignets with caramel coffee cream sauce. Drinks are extra, but one can’t call it Sunday Funday without a Smokey Maria or a sparkling Irish Sunrise.

Joshua Creek Ranch
Get a taste of the Hill Country at this beautiful Boerne property, which is offering a Texas-inspired dinner for $45. Start with a classic Caesar salad before moving on to a juicy Kona coffee crusted filet drizzled with chipotle béarnaise and served with jalapeño mashed potatoes and bacon-wrapped asparagus. Then, dive in to a decadent Bourbon pecan pie. The deal is only available Thursdays through Sundays only during Restaurant Weeks, and a reservation is required.

The Melting Pot
Sure, this chain is a little bit cheesy, but it also makes for a memorable date. Swoon over a $35 prix-fixe menu that includes queso salsa fresca served with artisan breads and seasonal veggies, a strawberry Caprese salad, a choice of main, and chocolate fondue for dessert. For extra points, add one of the affordable extras like a charcuterie board or a lobster tail.

Periphery
This charming restaurant is dishing out international comfort food for its contribution to Restaurant Weeks. Starters include polenta crusted pimento cheese with bacon jam and smoked pork meatballs and mains run the gamut from a summer ratatouille to barbecue catfish with green tomato relish. Each table also gets an cast iron corn bread skillet with ranch butter. Note that $35 cost goes up to $45 after 6 pm on Friday and Saturday. Additional sides are available a la carte, and a wine pairing is offered for $15.

Shuck Shack
From a traditional Southern catfish fry to a Maine lobster roll, Shuck Shack’s $35 dinner is a tour of America’s coasts. Each table gets an order of Kewpie (Japanese mayo) deviled eggs, and choices include a half dozen Gulf oysters, creamy lobster bisque, and hot fried chicken strips for those who want to take a break from the seafood. The eatery is also offering drink specials priced between $5-$6 and paletas from SA Pops for $2.50.

Zinc Bistro & Bar
This cozy downtown spot is offering a $35 dinner, but we’re most stoked about the $15 lunch. Fight the weekday blues with a simple Little Gem lettuce salad, a cardamom and vanilla bean rice pudding, and weekly specials like short rib bulgogi and almond crusted redfish. Wine is not included in the fixed price, but sneak in a glass anyway. Zinc has one of the best lists in town.

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SPARE ART

North San Antonio gets crafty with new creative supplies shop

Photo by Ismael Rodriguez.

Local nonprofit Spare Parts recently opened its brick-and-mortar center for creative reuse.

One local nonprofit organization has spent years getting environmental accountability and community education down to a fine art. And now it’s getting crafty with a new brick-and-mortar shop in North San Antonio aimed to help locals to go green.

Spare Parts was founded in 2010 by executive director and longtime arts educator Mary Elizabeth Cantú to provide a creative spark for area students and schools lacking arts funding and resources. Through a variety of educational programs, public art exhibitions, events, and the organization’s traveling Mini Art Museum, Spare Parts has enlightened thousands of students and San Antonians, all while fostering reuse practices and sustainability, a key tenet of the nonprofit.

Spare Parts’ latest endeavor is another artistic triumph. Its new center for creative reuse, located at 13451 Wetmore Rd., is nothing less than a crafter’s delight. The shop features an impressive array of “pre-loved” and price-reduced artsy merchandise — from paint supplies and paper crafts to sewing items, beading and jewelry, school and office supplies, vintage gadgets, and crafting kits — all of which has been rescued from area landfills.

Cantú notes that proceeds from the new Spare Parts’ shop will enable the organization to further increase creative and educational experiences for San Antonio students and families. But even more so, she hopes the shop will help locals embrace the concept that one person’s trash can be another’s artistic treasure.

“There really isn’t any more room in the world for this stuff. Buying pre-loved at places like Spare Parts or other stores is a way to reduce the amount of things [people] feel that they need,” Cantú said in a recent interview with the San Antonio Sentinel. “We’re challenging people to rethink things around them, buy pre-loved, and find a way to be creative in their lives.”

In the time of COVID-19, however, getting the creative juices flowing isn’t as simple as popping into the Spare Parts shop. Though the center for creative reuse is open, the store is currently offering only weekend curbside pickup of items ordered through its website. But crafters shouldn’t despair, as Spare Parts is offering private in-person shopping experiences in the new year, with the first planned for January 16 and 17.

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