La Contessa & Rosarios in San Antonio.

San Antonio is one of the oldest cities in the United States, settled in 1691. It is the second largest city in Texas and the 7th largest in the USA. San Antonio attracts more tourists than any other Texas city.

I first visited San Antonio when our children were young and we did the normal Sea World / Alamo trip. Many years later my wife and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in San Antone and stayed at La Canterra on the north side of town. In the 26 years living in Fort Worth we have visited San Antonio a dozen times and always like the visits.

On this last venture, my son's wedding, we stayed on the Riverwalk Hotel La Contessa which is a very attractive place. All rooms are suites and have a Riverwalk or street view. Here's the good and the bad, in my view:

Room: Our room was perfect, on the 1th floor, riverwalk view, and in the corner of a hallway. It could not have been quieter. Friends of ours had a street-side room and said the noise was more than enough to keep them up half the night. Travel hint: foam ear plugs purchased at any drugstore. Once you learn how to use them,they block noise so well you will wonder how you traveled without them. But as a general rule if I am in an inner city hotel I choose a room away from the street or highway. A good location usually means street noise, that's just the way it is.
Hotel Restaurant: Most hotel restaurants are mediocre at best for many reasons. The main one is that their clientele is always changing and they have little to draw locals back. Also, their business is cyclical creating challenges like keeping them staffed. La Contessa's restaurant seemed to have this particular problem. Nevertheless, the breakfast buffet looked good at the cost of about $12.
Miscellania: Valet parking at $25 per night is convenient but expensive especially after adding a tip. Which reminds me if you are wanting a "travel hotel" with do it yourself service and no tipping, this is not the place. They have excellent staff service but tips are expected.
On a Five Star rating system:
Room: 5
Restaurant: 2
Atmosphere: 4
Location: 5
Friendliness: 4
Cleanliness: 5
Cost for value: 4

All of that to say, I will return but if I can eat other places I will.

Rosarios is a Mi Cocina type Mexican restaurant within walking distance of the hotel with authentic Mexican dishes in large portions. It is the "very good" category and I would go back. I had the pork tacos in flour tortillas and the tacos were stuffed with a spicy pork.

Riverwalk dining. I learned many years ago never to eat anywhere where most of the clientel is tourists. It is usually expensive, the service is bad, and so is the food. The riverwalk may have some good restaurants but I will let someone else discover them.

The Riverwalk boatrides. It looks silly, but the boat drivers are knowledgable and provide much information about the area.

Speaking of Gruene Hall

We get quite a few readers who are new to Fort Worth, or visiting, and are looking for the different "sights and sounds" of Texas.

Here's a suggestion: Gruene, Texas (pronounced "Green").

Why Gruene?

Well, Gruene Hall mostly, the original Texas honkytonk. The fact that Gruene Hall and Bass Hall have the same name is an oddity of the English language. Gruene Hall is a barn with a cement dance floor, a stage, and a bar that serves beer, lots of beer. And they have live music. Mostly country, but all kinds of rock-folk-country music, and all authentic Texan. On a Friday or Saturday night it is packed and a lot of fun. But also, Gruene is kind of a funky little town with shops, a wine tasting room, a few restaurants and the Guadalupe River that runs right through it. When you get down into the Texas Hill country you definitely get the feeling that you are in Texas. It's much drier, more like southern California than Dallas, rooftops are often galvanized steel and the stone is that beautiful whitish- yellow, Austin sandstone. It's hard not to fall in love with "Hill Country" Texas.

Of course, every new Texan needs a visit to the Alamo. But while you are down there get out to the country and enjoy the wide-open, warm, dry spaces of Texas.

Final related suggestion: Get off I35 and try Hwy 281.

Walking in Memphis

On yet another driving trip to Philadelphia (departed yesterday), the staff of Food and Fort Worth (wife and me) made a couple of stops and observations.
Observation 1: While driving on the freeway between the hours of 7 pm and midnight, the truck to auto ratio is about 7 to 1. Trucks being 7.
Observation 2: The clever idea of a rain sensing windshield to activate intermittent windshield wiper sounds good but doesn't work. Why does everything have to be tricked up to the point of failure? My suggestion: an easy to read dial that says 5 seconds, 10 sec, etc., so you can determine the windshield speed. This suggestion is made because it has rained all the way.
Observation 3 (made long ago): In highway motel stops, age is everything, i.e., pick a new or newer motel in any variety and you'll be happier; also get as far from the freeway as possible and always request a room far from the ice maker. Right now Super 8 is expanding and has many newer motels. All with wifi, some with flat screens, all with bad but available breakfast, most clean and cheap. $44 for the two of us. If you speak Sari it helps (I apologize, had to throw that in).
Observation 4: I have a love/hate relationship with tech. I would hate it but love it if all cell phones had GPS, as did all restaurants that wanted to make it easy for you to find them. Such as, type in Starbucks and it directs you to the closest one.
Stop 1: Little Rock, downtown Market Center on river. Very cool place with restaurants, bars, shopping.
Stop 2: Dickson, Tennessee. Overnight. ZZZZZZZZZZZ. It's Dickson, Tennessee. But the drive through the Smokies in Tennessee, and Shenandoah in Virginia, is fantastic.

On Rittenhouse Square and Rehoboth Beach

While F&FW is away in foreign lands north of the Red River, comments on food will include places visited. Such is the case here.

At first glance one might think that Rittenhouse Square (RS), Philadelphia, PA and Rehoboth Beach (RB), Delaware are as different as two places can be. But to my wife and me they have similar attractions. RS is in the middle of a city which is the fifth most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. with almost 6 million people. RB might have 6,000 in the winter months and tens of thousands in the summer. Okay, that's a big difference but in this they are similar.
Both have great coffee shops and bakeries, privately owned bookstores and restaurants, churches that look like churches, and places to walk, and people that walk.
And they don't have the same thing. Waves and waves of Gaps and SuperTargets, souless buildings, 8 foot ceilings, and homogeniety.
Rehoboth and Rittenhouse are as they should be as the places that they are. I mean that they have developed over the years "organically" and because of that have a kind of patina of place. Something, say, Southlake or Frisco can only try to imitate. (I like Southlake and Frisco but you know what I mean)
I remember the first time I went into an Italian restaurant in Italy, Florence to be exact. I expected to hear some good Italian music in the background, Pavoratti or Sinatra, even. But what was playing was Kenny Rogers, The Gambler. At first I thought that kind of strange but then I realized that this was an Italian restaurant and as such didn't have to create the mood of one. It was playing the music listened to by the patrons and proprietor. It was what it was.
For my wife and me there is nothing quite like a quiet evening walking along the beach with the lights and sounds of the boardwalk as a backdrop, but Rittenhouse Square with a good book and a cup of coffee on a cool summer evening is not too bad either. We are enjoying them both.