The name comes from an Americanization of the French word for pachanga; Spanish pintxos glisten behind a sushi case. As with all Chad Carey’s concepts, Bar Bamboosh — the newly opened wine den at 122 E Houston St downtown — operates on its own rules.
“Anybody can say a wine bar, but what does that really mean?” explains the restaurateur. “Little Death is very much a French wine bar, and that extends to the food we serve. This place isn’t a Spanish wine bar, but it's a little bit influenced by the tabernas of all of Spain, but especially the Basque and Catalonia.”
For this wine bar, it means a slight departure from his St. Mary’s Strip passion project. Bamboosh is lined with hundreds of bottles, but the focus is more global than Little Death. By the glass, a Spanish Verdejo shares space with a Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon.
“Most of them will be natural wines, but the whole natural wine category thing is still kind of weird. We're going to work with wines that we're proud to serve and check out the right boxes. In terms of the individual selections, it'll probably be a little less overtly natty in style than Little Death,” says Carey, referring to the most ancient of low-intervention sparkling wines, Pétillant Naturel.
Like any taberna, Bamboosh serves pintxos, small bites meant to complicate the alcohol buzz. Six international jamóns hang behind the counter, waiting to be shaved on a slicer inherited from Steve McHugh’s Cured. Cheeses, ranging from an adventurous Basque Idiazábal to an approachable Pyrénées Brebis, beckon behind the counter.
The composed snacks might surprise guests who stick to patatas bravas at tapas bars. Assertive ingredients like bacalao (salt cod), morcilla (blood sausage), and smoked olives punch up with dill and roasted garlic. For decadence, a flaxen mille feuille is carefully piped with whipped Manchego.
Dozens of bottles line the wine bar's back walls.Photo by Brandon Watson
A new downtown
Bar Bamboosh continues Carey’s investment in San Antonio’s central core. The bar is a few steps from Carey’s Empty Stomach Group restaurants Kaedama Battleship, Leo’s Hideout, and Double Standard. Although neighboring a new location of dessert chain Insomnia Cookies, he isn’t too precious about downtown’s new chapter. He’s more interested in thinking about what role he’ll play.
“There's this thing with downtown — they only want to let non-chain independent places go in when the reality is there's Five Guys in the West Village and sh*tty Chinese takeout in some of the best zip codes in San Francisco.”
For Bar Bamboosh, he’s more encouraged about the boom in multifamily housing than the new baseball stadium, despite being a “proud member” of the 999 Club (nine innings, nine beers, and nine hot dogs per game). Still, he admits the reality of downtown hasn’t yet caught up with its promise.
“We're maybe a little early to be opening a natural wine bar down here, but I'd rather be a little bit early than a little bit late on that front,” he says. “I used to joke all the time that by the time the urbanism of San Antonio matures to a point that really blows my skirt up, I'm going to be too old to enjoy it anymore.”
Still, downtown is not without its challenges. The 1917 building came with covered brick columns that would have added to Bamboosh’s rustic decor, but he wasn’t allowed to expose them.
A detail of the playful artwork.Photo by Brandon Watson
Old bones, new rules
Carey may have strong opinions about downtown growth and a “dogmatic” approach to wine, but he considers Bamboosh a “fun way for the Little Death team to grow out of what the Little Death is.”
Evolution aside, the fun is what matters. Bamboosh is rooted in the same irreverent hospitality as his other concepts, a broad portfolio that includes Barbaro, Petit Coquin, and several St. Mary’s nightclubs. The artwork mixes festival portraits with staff candids and a photo of graffitied lavomatique. In the bathroom, a six-liter Methuselah wine bottle and a wooden rod combine into an ad-hoc toilet paper holder.
And the brand itself is a bit of a goof, informed by Carey’s belief that names don’t make a concept. He borrowed it from bamboche, the French word for a blowout party — Anglicizing it because it would probably be mispronounced anyway.
“I just thought bamboosh was a funny word, like we're gonna have a f*cking bamboosh tonight," says Carey. "Because I think that the wines and the food that we serve are delicious and wonderful and all that stuff. But if we're not having fun doing what we're doing, then we're off the mark.”
