2 new breweries getting ready to pour it on in San Antonio area

San Antonio Brewing News

(Courtesy Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Corp.)

Editor's Note: With a new craft beer spot popping up in San Antonio seemingly every month, we've started a new column to track all things beer in Alamo City. Here's our roundup of everything that's brewing in San Antonio.

Boerne’s brewing scene grows
Despite the closure of Boerne Brewery in 2022, the craft brewing community in the Boerne/Comfort area continues to expand and further showcase the Texas Hill Country as a destination for fans of locally produced beer — as well as wine and spirits. Local homebrewer Donald Kretz plans to bring his recipes to the masses this spring with the planned launch of 28 Songs Brewhouse and Kitchen.

(Courtesy Boerne Kendall County Economic Development Corp.)

Donald Kretz, owner of 28 Songs Brewhouse and Kitchen, shows the new signage that a contractor is placing for the brewpub, which will occupy the former Main and Market building at 110 Market Ave. in Boerne.

A veteran who fostered a successful career in the defense/intelligence industry, Kretz is now focused on turning his love for craft brewing into his own full-fledged brewpub. In early January, Kretz and his team began renovating the former Main and Market building at 110 Market Avenue, north of downtown Boerne, where four breweries — Cibolo Creek, Tusculum, Free Roam, and Dodging Duck — all sit within walking distance of each other.

Kretz is using a newly created Facebook page to keep people updated on the brewery's construction progress. In one post, he explained that the name 28 Songs refers to how cardinals can sing 28 different songs, adding that many people in this region feel a spiritual connection to the bird.

According to Kretz, the new nano-brewery will include indoor and outdoor seating for more than 150 people, a five-barrel brew house, and 28 taps to handle a lineup of original core beers and a rotation of small-batch brews.

Additionally, 28 Songs will have live music, a jukebox, games, multiple televisions, and a variety of pub grub made in house. The planned food menu will include appetizers, burgers, sandwiches, salads, flatbread pizzas, and desserts.

Progress at Breakaway Brewing
Meanwhile, San Antonio’s next brewery is humming along. Owners of Breakaway Brewing Co. said in mid-January that beer production has begun at their fledgling East Side facility. The husband and wife team of Chris and Jean Pal-Freeman are developing the cycling-themed brewery in the Government Hill neighborhood next to Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

According to Breakaway Brewing, interviews for food positions are underway, and the first batch of company merchandise has arrived. The owners have been eyeing an opening timeframe in late January or early February.

Weathered Souls making more friends
January 28 will be a big day at Weathered Souls Brewing Co.: That’s when their inaugural Weathered Souls and Friends event takes place, offering visitors a chance to try a few beers produced by more than 20 breweries located around Texas and nationwide.

The idea here, according to Weathered Souls, is to bring bits of different types of small, independent breweries to local craft beer fans who do not get to travel much.

Participating breweries include Baa Baa Brewhouse and Ingenious Brewing — both from Texas — Good Word Brewing & Public House from Georgia, and Claimstake Brewing from California. The fun at Weathered Souls begins at 11 am on January 28.

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Whataburger weighs in as healthiest cheeseburger in the nation

THEMS EATIN' WORDS

With its love of greasy enchiladas, gluttonous fried steaks, and fat-speckled brisket, San Antonio isn’t exactly known as a healthy eating mecca. But it turns out that one locally beloved dish isn’t as unhealthy as one might think.

Inspired by February’s American Heart Month (albeit belatedly), Gambling.com decided to dig deep into which fast-food burger was best for the ticker and the body overall. What that has to do with online slots is anyone’s guess, but perhaps open-heart surgeries are not conducive to risk-taking.

Surprise, surprise, surprise! Local favorite/ food cult Whataburger took the top slot, earning honors with its standby cheeseburger. Assumably, the gambling site considered the mustard-slathered original, eschewing calorie bombs like bacon slices and creamy pepper sauce. Where’s the fun of Whataburger if you can’t get it just like you like it?

To arrive at the rankings, Gambling.com analyzed each burger for sugar, fat, salt, and calorie content per ounce. Each metric was given a one to ten score that factored into the final report card shared with content-hungry food journalists everywhere.

Coming in a close second was In-N-Out’s cheeseburger, a comforting fact for Texans who enjoy complaining about Californians. Rounding out the top five were Checker’s Checkerburger with Cheese, Culver’s ButterBurger Cheese, and Del Taco’s del Cheese Burger.

For those trying to make better eating choices, that list should give some pause. Yes, Whataburger beats out other fast-food faves, but it was competing against a chain that literally toasts all their buns in churned cream. Health is a relative concept.

Elsewhere on the list was another Texas darling, the No. 6 ranked Dairy Queen. Apparently, all that “hungr” is being busted by a hefty dose of sodium. Yes, we will take fries with that.

Disney's Little Mermaid remake goes swimmingly despite new so-so songs

Movie review

The biggest problem with the majority of the live-action updates to classic Disney animated films is that they haven’t been updates at all, choosing to merely regurgitate the moments audiences know and love from the original in a slightly repackaged form. That’s great for nostalgia, but if that’s all viewers wanted, they’d just go back and watch the original.

The Little Mermaid falls into much the same trap, although the filmmakers get at least a little credit for trying to offer something new. The story, of course, remains the same, as Ariel (Halle Bailey) has a fascination with everything above the surface of the ocean. Her rebellious nature, at odds with strict King Triton (Javier Bardem), leads her to spy on a ship with Prince Eric (Jonah Hauer-King) and his crew, putting her in position to save Eric when the ship crashes into rocks.

Now totally enamored of Eric, Ariel is convinced by the sea witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) to give up her voice for a chance to live on land and make Eric fall in love with her. Trouble is, despite the help of Sebastian the crab (Daveed Diggs), Flounder the fish (Jacob Tremblay), and Scuttle the seabird (Awkwafina), Ursula has no plans to let Ariel succeed fair and square.

Directed by Rob Marshall and written by David Magee, the film clocks in at nearly one hour longer than the original, going from 83 minutes to 135. They accomplish this feat with the addition of several songs, including ones “sung” by Ariel while she is without voice, a relatively clever way to get into her thoughts during that long stretch. There are also additional scenes that give Prince Eric more of a backstory, making him more than just a pretty face on which to hang all of Ariel’s hopes and dreams.

The new songs are hit-and-miss; Ariel’s “For the First Time” is a fanciful number that fits in nicely, but “Wild Uncharted Waters,” a solo song for Prince Eric, feels unnecessary, and the less said about “The Scuttlebutt,” a rap performed by Scuttle and written by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the better. What most people want to see are how the original songs are done, and they come off well for the most part. The actors’ voices are uniformly good and the staging is engaging.

Other changes seem half-hearted, at best. A vague environmental theme broached at the beginning is quickly dropped. The cast is very multicultural, but haphazardly so. The film is obviously set on and around a Caribbean island, making it natural for The Queen (Noma Dumezweni), Eric’s adopted mother, and other islanders to be Black. But giving Ariel “sisters from the seven seas,” allowing for mermaids of several different races and ethnicities, feels odd and forced, and a little creepy given that King Triton is supposed to be the father of all of them.

The fact that Bailey herself is Black, while great for representation, is neither here nor there in the context of the film. Bailey has a voice that is equal to everything she is asked to sing, and her silent acting is excellent in the middle portion of the film. McCarthy makes for a great Ursula, bringing both humor and pathos to the role. Hauer-King, who bears a similarity to Ryan Gosling, plays Eric in a more well-rounded manner.

The live-action version of The Little Mermaid, like almost all of the Disney remakes, never truly establishes itself as its own unique thing. Still, it’s a thoroughly pleasant watch with some nice performances, which clears the bar for success for this era of Disney history.

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The Little Mermaid opens in theaters on May 26.

Photo courtesy of Disney

Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid.

These 6 San Antonio museums are offering free admission for military families all summer long

spread the museum love

Half a dozen San Antonio museums are honoring active-duty military personnel and their families with free admission through the Blue Star Museums initiative, May 20 through September 4, 2023.

Established by the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and the U.S. Department of Defense, the Blue Star Museums program annually provides military families free access to 2,000 museums nationwide throughout the summer. The program begins yearly on Armed Forces Day in May and ends on Labor Day.

Free admission is extended to personnel currently serving in the U.S Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard (including those in the Reserve), and all National Guardsman. Members of the U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps and NOAA Commissioned Corps are also included in the program.

Those who qualify can use their military ID to bring up to five family members - including relatives of those currently deployed. More information about qualifications can be found here.

There is no limit on the number of participating museums that qualifying families may visit. Admission for non-active military veterans, however, is not included.

According to the National Endowment for the Arts website, the initiative was created to help "improve the quality of life for active duty military families" with a specific focus on children. The site states two million have had a parent deployed since 2001.

"Blue Star Museums was created to show support for military families who have faced multiple deployments and the challenges of reintegration," the website says. "This program offers these families a chance to visit museums this summer when many will have limited resources and limited time to be together."

Here's a look at all the museums in San Antonio that are participating in the Blue Star Museums initiative this year.

For those looking to take a drive around Central Texas, the Sophienburg Museum & Archives in New Braunfels and Bandera's Frontier Times Museum are also participants in the Blue Star Museums initiative.

More information about Blue Star Museums and a full list of participants can be found on arts.gov.

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