Gristmill River Restaurant & Bar – New Braunfels, Texas

My mom was born in 1929, the last year of the Great Depression.  She still recalls that during her childhood, her family would take grist ( grain) and separate it from its chaff (seed coverings and other debris) in preparation for being ground into flour.  They would then take the family’s horse and buggy over the precipitous mountain roads to Cleveland (the one in New Mexico).  In Cleveland, they would have the grain ground into flour in “el molino,” the Cleveland Roller Mill.   The Mill is a three story adobe edifice with a water-powered mill used for grinding.  Today, that mill has been turned into a local museum where its original machinery remains intact and has been restored significantly to the point that it can be operated for demonstration purposes. When I asked my dear friend and trusted guide Melinda Martinez to pick where our next culinary adventure would be, she selected The Gristmill River Restaurant,  located on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Gruene Historic District, in New Braunfels, Texas. Gruene is located in the Texas Hill Country, 30 minutes north of San Antonio, and 45 minutes south of Austin, on IH-35.   The setting was spectacular, my delightful…

Burnt Bean – Seguin, Texas

Legend has it that shortly after the horrendous mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas,  Burnt Bean pitmaster and co-owner Ernest Servantes was asked to serve barbecue to law enforcement officials in Uvalde.  According to sources, Servantes, himself an Uvalde native, refused to serve anything to the milksops whose cowardly inaction resulted in the fatal shooting of 19 students and 2 teachers, and the injuring of 17 others.  Servantes wasn’t around when my new friend and dining companion Melinda Martinez and I finally completed our time in the purgatory of a queue that snaked to the end of the block.  We asked one of the restaurant’s servers, but he was unable to either confirm or refute the story.  At any regard, it’s a good story that endeared me to a pitmaster whose reputation places him in a heroic pantheon. There are several certifiable, irrefutable truths about Servantes and his partner Dave Kirkland that transcend legend.  In 2022, less than two years after its launch (during the Cabrona Virus), Burnt Bean garnered the number four spot in Texas Monthly’s 50 Best Barbecue joints.  Cognoscenti consider “best in Texas” synonymous with best in the universe.  Fourth best means it’s on the Mount Rushmore of…