It’s a business of churn, the restaurant business. Old favorites close, burn down or fade away. Dreamers take their shots, and 50 years from now, their menus will say “a San Antonio original since 2022.”
As we take stock of some of the notable San Antonio restaurants that opened and closed in 2022, it feels like this year churned especially hard. Biblically hard. Sixties folk song hard. To everything, there is a season, churn churn churn.
READ MORE: Mike Sutter’s Top 10 San Antonio restaurants of 2022
Opened in 2022
For pure momentum, 2022 was the year of the Pearl. New projects brought brunch, Italian, South Texas, Mexican and Middle Eastern food to the sprawling bar and restaurant mecca at the restored brewery complex.
Allora (403 Pearl Parkway, 210-979-9950, allorapearl.com) and Arrosta (1803 Broadway, Suite 101, 210-979-9950,arrostapearl.com) opened within weeks and within blocks of each other early in the year, with Allora chasing a refined and more formal coastal approach and Arrosta going for a more rustic Italian vibe.
OPEN: Carriqui
Mike Sutter/Staff file photo
With a menu embracing South Texas, Carriqui (239 E. Grayson St., 210-910-5547,carriquitx.com) took over the former Liberty Bar space in September, followed soon after by the Mediterranean-influenced Ladino (200 E. Grayson St., Suite 100, at the Pearl, 210-325-6007, ladinosatx.com) and the brunch concept Full Goods Diner (200 E. Grayson St., Suite 120, at the Pearl, 210-819-4226, fullgoodsdiner.com). The Pearl’s Bottling Department food hall brought on the pizza-by-the-slice kiosk WonderSlice (312 Pearl Parkway, 210-462-1505, wonderslicepizza.com) and the Mexican pop-up El Diente de Oro (312 Pearl Parkway, Instagram: @eldientetx).
OPEN: Double Standard
Mike Sutter/Staff file photo
It wasn’t all the Pearl’s world. A handful of San Antonio restaurant veterans breathed fresh air into the scene, including raconteur Chad Carey with his downtown American tavern Double Standard (114 E. Houston St. in the Rand Building, 210-977-0005, doublestandardsatx.com), chef Chris Cullum with his eclectic nouveau diner Cullum’s Attaboy (111 Kings Court, 210-601-5353,cullumsattaboy.com), chef Lettoia Massey with the relocation of her Jamaican phenom The Jerk Shack (10234 Texas 151, Suite 103, 210-776-7780,thejerkshacksatx.com) and chef Luis M. Colón with his kitchen leadership at the revived Fig Tree Restaurant & Cocktails (515 Villita St. in La Villita, 210-595-1313, figtreerestaurant.com).
OPEN: Reese Bros Barbecue
Mike Sutter/Staff file photo
Silo owners Patrick and Cari Richardson added to their portfolio with a third La Fogata (1133 Austin Highway, 210-824-8686, lafogata.com) and the new Nonna Osteria 1604 (434 N. Loop 1604 W., Building 1, Suite 1106, 210-483-8989, nonnasa.com). And San Antonio natives and brothers Nick and Elliott Reese brought their Reese Bros Barbecue (906 Hoefgen Ave., 512-925-9205, reesebrosbbq.com) into full bloom near the Alamodome.
It wasn’t all great news, but at least it was entertaining. Sugar Factory American Brasserie (849 E. Commerce St., Suite 109, 726-204-2020, sugarfactory.com) made one of the year’s most hilariously awful splashes on the River Walk.
Here’s a sampling of some of the year’s other notable restaurant openings:
- The Beignet Stand
- Bésame food truck park
- Bright Coffee
- Cake Thieves
- Cody’s Restaurant, Bar & Patio, New Braunfels
- Coffee + Culture Bakery
- The Cottage Irish Pub
- Crockett Tavern
- Early Bird Coffee
- Gather Boerne
- Hanamaru Cafe
- Himalayan Kitchen
- Hola Southtown
- House of Smoke
- Kerbey Lane Cafe
- Krazy Katsu
- Naco 210 at Los Patios
- 1Watson
- Panfila Cantina
- Puro Taco
- Rancho 181 food truck park
- Restaurant Claudine
- Rooster Crow Bakery
- Round Table Pizza
- San Taco
- Sari-Sari Supper Club
- Smoke BBQ + Riverbar
- Summer Camp
- Sushi Haya
- 375 Social Kitchen
- Tiger’s Chinese Cuisine
- Time To 8
- Uncle Joe’s Tacos
- Via 313 Pizza
- Viking Tavern
- Vintage Wine Bar
- Voodoo Doughnut
- Wild Barley
RELATED: The 5 worst things Mike Sutter ate in San Antonio in 2022
Closed in 2022
There was no good news for fans of the South Side soul food staple Mr. & Mrs. G’s Home Cooking, which closed its doors in July. And it was a rough year for barbecue, with the loss of Alamo BBQ Co., Bandit BBQ and Two Sawers BBQ in Floresville.
CLOSING DEC. 31: Tenko Ramen
Mike Sutter/Staff file photo
The same incubator spirit that brought WonderSlice and El Diente de Oro to the Pearl food hall also meant plans to say goodbye to its oldest tenant Tenko Ramen on Dec. 31 and the closing of Kineapple and Fletcher’s Hamburgers earlier in the year.
CLOSED TEMPORARILY: Jacala
Jerry Lara/Staff file photo
It was bad news-good news for some of the city’s biggest restaurant closings in 2022. A fire razed the beloved West Side Mexican restaurant Jacala in March, but the owners have promised to rebuild and reopen.
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The original Rosario’s Mexican Cafe y Cantina in Southtown closed in November as it prepared to move to a bigger, better location at the old El Mirador site just down the street on South St. Mary’s in early 2023. And just this month, the popular UTSA-area watering hole The Well announced it will close Dec. 31 to become the third location of Big’z Burger Joint.
Here’s a sampling of some of the year’s other notable restaurant closings:
- Bobby J’s Old Fashioned Hamburgers, Helotes
- Broken Stone Pizza Co., Boerne
- Cerroni’s Purple Garlic, Austin Highway
- Cervecería Chapultepec
- 5 Points Food & Drink
- GiGi’s Deli
- Glass and Plate
- Gunslingers
- Hello Paradise
- Hometown Burger
- Jacked Potato
- Lazo with Don Strange
- Max’s Wine Dive
- Mi Casa Tamales, Boerne
- 188 South, New Braunfels
- Playland Pizza
- StreetFare SA food truck park
- Thyme for Lunch
- Tio’s Tex-Mex
- Trilogy Burger Bistro
- Truth Pizzeria
msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalking | Instagram: @fedmanwalking