Alamo-area bar owner battles for his business
State wants his bar and patio for planned museum but hasn’t met his asking price — so he’s not backing down without a fight
“He decided he wasn’t going to die here that day. That was his decision.”
Vince Cantu, speaking about Louis “Moses” Rose, who fled the Alamo before or during the battle
SAN ANTONIO — A bar owner near the Alamo isn’t ready to surrender his property — or his patio — to memorialize the historic battleground.
For 12 years, owner Vince Cantu has operated Moses Rose’s Hideout at 516 E. Houston St. next to the 1921 Woolworth Building, one of three stateowned structures in Alamo Plaza to be renovated as part of a $140 million museum and visitor center.
Alamo Trust has tried in recent years to buy his bar, whimsically named after a mercenary Frenchman who slipped out of the Alamo compound to avoid certain death in 1836. Cantu said he’s turned down three offers for the bar.
None of them came close to his asking price of $17 million.
In an April 18 letter, Alamo Trust Executive Director Kate Rogers offered to buy the property for $2.5 million, above its value of $2.1 million, as estimated by a national appraisal management company.
Cantu, 60, stood firm on the price he sent to the trust two years ago. It included the cost of paying off taxes and a bank note, and it accounted for a projected value increase after the museum opening. Cantu said the museum will be “an incredible attraction downtown.”
Alamo Trust officials have said a makeover of the historic mission and battleground is expected to generate $12 billion in economic benefits by 2031 — five years after the museum’s targeted opening in 2026.
Cantu seeks a purchase price that will allow him to retire and be financially secure.
He believes the museum will elevate the value of his property, currently appraised at $888,000 by the Bexar Appraisal District. Though parts of the 4,700square-foot building date to the 1880s, it is not a designated historic landmark. “We came up with a number that we thought was not too extreme and fair for both sides,” he said.
Alamo officials disagreed. The Texas General Land Office recently sent Cantu a letter demanding he remove railings, seating, bench swings and a shade structure from an alley known as Maverick Walk on the side of the business. His 10-footwide patio running the length of the bar is on city land overseen by the land office and Alamo Trust.
Cantu had a permit from the city to use part of the alley as a patio, but it expired in February 2020. Since then, the land office said, he has had “no legal right” to the patio.
But Cantu said he wasn’t aware of any provisions requiring him to remove his patio furnishings upon expiration of the permit. The city stopped billing him for about $500 in annual rent for the patio, but it required him to continue providing liability insurance for the space, he said.
In a June 27 letter, the land office said it would remove the patio and bill Cantu for the cost if the work wasn’t done by Monday.
He’s asked Alamo officials to let him keep the patio until the end of the summer tourist season — a timeline similar to one allowed for tenants in the stateowned buildings on the plaza. Three amusement businesses there must cease operations by Aug. 31 and move out by Oct. 31.
Cantu said the General Land Office has threatened to use eminent domain to acquire his property. The state agency denies that.
“Contrary to Mr. Cantu’s claims, the GLO does not have eminent domain authority,” Land Office Communications Director Stephen Chang said in a statement.
Chang didn’t reveal how Cantu’s building, if sold for the makeover project, might be used. But he said it could be an important asset for the project’s goal of memorializing one of the founding sites of San Antonio and Texas.
“With respect to the future use of this area, like the other areas leased by GLO from the city for 100 years, this space is an instrumental part of the overall Alamo plan, which is focused on ensuring that we honor and remember the defenders and preserve the Shrine of Texas Liberty,” Chang said.
As for the demand that Cantu clear the patio by Monday, Chang indicated Alamo officials would allow more time — but only as much as necessary. He said the situation with the patio was unlike a voluntary agreement with “our tenants” on the plaza.
Cantu said that if he doesn’t sell his bar, he’s willing to consider recasting its irreverent theme. It’s named after Louis “Moses” Rose, who fled the Alamo a few days before the battle or perhaps during the early morning fighting March 6, 1836. Rose, who some have called the “coward of the Alamo,” died 15 years later in Louisiana.
Cantu said he’d be open to the idea of redoing the bar’s motif, perhaps as something more heroic or reverent, to be a better fit next to the museum.
“I would consider anything that anybody asked me,” Cantu said.