Head of the class

San Antonio college unveils opening date for state-of-the-art culinary center and restaurants

St. Philip's College Artemesia's Restaurant

Photo courtesy of St. Philip's College

The St. Philip’s College community has taken a major step toward opening a facility that will make San Antonio a hub for hospitality education. At a ceremony on August 27, Alamo Colleges District revealed that the new Tourism, Hospitality, and Culinary Arts Center for Excellence and its two hospitality projects will open by fall 2020.

The 61,800-square-foot, four-story building, designed by Page Southerland Page, is destined to be a showpiece. There will be new general instruction spaces, administrative offices, common spaces, and teaching kitchens devoted to culinary arts, tourism, and hospitality — all among the vital, growing industries across San Antonio.

Along with state-of-the-art classrooms, the project will include two public-facing components: Artemesia’s Restaurant and 1898 Cafe.

The former is named after late St. Philip’s College president emeritus Artemisia Bowden. Cantilevered off the fourth floor and offering sweeping views of downtown, the restaurant will be where advanced culinary students hone their skills by planning menus and readying and serving four-course meals to the public.

The more casual 1898 Cafe, named for the year the college opened, will serve American cuisine on the center’s first floor.

The $30 million project also includes a 100-seat tiered lecture hall that can double as a food demonstration kitchen and a mock hotel office. Breakout rooms with retractable walls can be configured to act as simulated hospitality spaces, like conference rooms or a hotel ballroom.

Supporters of the project have said the bigger, state-of-the-art THCA Center for Excellence fills a need in the growing city. San Antonio has one of the nation’s strongest tourism industries, pulling a $15 billion impact in 2017, according to a Trinity University report.

“The new facility will rival any program in the country,” said San Antonio celebrity chef Johnny Hernandez in an earlier release.

Artemesia’s Restaurant and 1898 Cafe aren’t the only student-run concepts highlighting the next generation of hospitality leaders. Savor, the still-new restaurant run by the Culinary Institute of America, opened in the Pearl in December 2018.

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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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