Dining Out
Country Kitchens
The ups and downs of eating in the Hill Country.
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At Boerne try the Antler’s Inn at Main and Blanco. A big pot of beans, hot or plain, will start you out in this old converted limestone hotel building. Steaks and seafood prevail. Moose heads grace the outside walls, and there’s art work from Hill Country artists for sale. The Trophy room upstairs provides Texas-sized drinks and a piano player entertains. Hours are 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Friday and Saturday 5 to 11, and Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Tuesday.
Steve Spence’s Settlement Inn in Leon Springs is an entire community—potter, Western art gallery, and quilt shop, and across the tracks, a blacksmith, weaver, jewelry maker, and restorer of antiques. The food’s all barbecue—ham (somewhat dry), ribs, brisket, and sausage—with standard extras—pickles, onions, jalapeños, potato salad, coleslaw, or beans. The a la carte menu is confusing, so ask for clarifications. The lunchroom is open from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the diningroom from 5 to 9, until 10 on Friday and Saturday. Closed Monday.
One of the best breakfasts in Texas is served at Krause’s Cafe in New Braunfels, one block off the main circle on Castell Street. Krause’s has been in operation 36 years. Tommy Krause, son of the originator, employs a man in the back who smokes bacon and sausage exclusively for Krause’s. The biscuits are good, the hot cakes are made from scratch, and the bread comes from a local German bakery. Two eggs and Krause’s sausage or bacon costs $1.45. You can also buy blood sausage and panna (scrapple to Yankees). Lunch offers enormous and delicious sandwiches on your choice of bread (oh, that poppy seed bun); for 50 cents extra you get a large portion of home fries. A fine hamburger costs 90 cents, a sausage sandwich, $1.35. There’s also German potato salad, pork hocks and sauerkraut, a barbecue plate, coleslaw, pinto beans, bottled and draft beer (dark and light), and homemade German chocolate pie and angel food cake. This restaurant seats 250 people; try to sit in the smaller diningroom, which is quieter. Krause’s is open daily except Sunday from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
You can choose anything from the sublime to the ridiculous in Blanco. Salt Lick Too, an off-shoot of Driftwood’s Salt Lick, is next to the abandoned courthouse. A good barbecue plate for $2.95 (child’s plate, $1.25) provides a generous portion of beef, ribs, or sausage with potato salad, beans, coleslaw, hot bread, and tea. For $1.75 you can get a quarter of a chicken and all the above. Draft and bottle beer are available. For dessert try homemade ice cream at 30 cents or homemade pecan pie. The diningroom is a big clean barny room with yellow picnic tables. Hours are 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day except Monday.
The Hunter’s Inn across the street provides all the amenities of a big slick city restaurant, and is the only watering hole on State Highway 281 between San Antonio and Dallas. The red plush interior is dominated by a nine-foot stuffed polar bear. Of note are the excellent wine cellar, Falfurrias butter, and marvelous hot bread reminiscent of Mexican bolillos. Every meal is cooked to order. The impressive menu includes steaks, quail, jumbo shrimp, frog legs, salmon steak, and fried oysters, rounded out by a salad from the bar, baked potato, asparagus, corn on the cob, broccoli, and homemade desserts. The child’s plate is $1. It is open 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. every day except Wednesday; the bar is open until midnight for late-night travelers.
In Fredericksburg, Traveler’s Cafe at 152 East Main offers barbecue and German or Mexican food. The best weiner schnitzel in town costs $1.85 on the plate lunch; or try fresh Gulf oysters at the same price. Everything is served with German fried potatoes, red cabbage, or black-eyed peas and homestyle bread. A 50-cent loaf of bread is worth the price. It is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, except it closes at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Burrer’s at East College and Llano Street is an old red frame building belching black smoke with a faded sign out front that says barbecue. All barbecue is sold by the pound to go. It is open only on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 a.m. until all the barbecue is gone. Go early.
Cypriana Valdez’s El Gallo at 108 South Crockett in the Security Bank Building is a paneled room, plastic and formica, but you won’t care if you order the chicken enchiladas with sour cream or the chalupas compuestas (which means with guacamole). Cypriana says her customers want guacamole on everything. You will too once you taste it. El Gallo’s is open every day except Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
The Sanchez-Navarro Spanish Cellar, 201 North Llano, is in a marvelous old house, its main diningroom in a half cellar of limestone. Try the chile relleno—one of the best we’ve tasted in the Hill Country. Not only can you buy beer, but also good, reasonably priced Spanish wines. Lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. every day except Monday.
Llano is home of Inman’s barbecue. (Their red caterer’s wagon is always at the Texas Arts and Crafts Fair or Quiet Valley Ranch outdoor concerts.) Their restaurant, Inman’s Kitchen at 1108 Berry (one block off the main street), is an old house with sawdust floors, red checkered tablecloths, tractor seats are the tables, and excellent homemade chow-chow—for sale in pints for 65 cents. Try a beef plate, and serve yourself from the big pot of beans. Inman’s is famous for its turkey sausage, but we find it dry. The hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day except Sunday.
Another gem in Llano is Abby’s Mexican Kitchen in Abby’s trailer house on State Highway 16 on the north edge of town. The sign is small, but the food is superior. Abby prepares every order by hand. The standard array of Tex-Mex dishes are all delicious, especially the enchiladas. There are only two tables in her trailer, so most customers take the food out; if you eat in, you’ll be inundated by delicious aromas and Willie Nelson tapes. Bring your own beer. Abby’s schedule is rather complicated: dinner from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. only on Wednesday and Saturday; lunch 11:30 to 2 Thursday through Saturday. Closed Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.
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