Longtime downtown restaurants a constant in these changing times

Bill Lyons, the longtime owner of two storied downtown restaurants — Casa Rio on the River Walk and the street-level delicatessen Schilo’s — isn’t retiring anytime soon.

He said he still finds his employees a joy to work with. And he still enjoys greeting regulars at his restaurants, which he has owned for more than four decades.

“It’s fun being here and being part of downtown and the city,” said Lyons, 82. “I have been blessed.”

Casa Rio, one of the first restaurants on the River Walk, dates back to 1946. His grandfather, Alfred Beyer, opened the eatery in his late 50s, after his San Antonio appliance store began losing customers to big department stores.

“He opened the restaurant in desperation, to find something that worked,” Lyons said. “The appliance business was being taken over by the big guys, Montgomery Ward and Sears. He was just a little independent guy, and the handwriting was on the wall.”

Beyer’s former appliance store on East Commerce Street now houses Casa Rio’s party rooms. The main restaurant sits on the River Walk.

Lyon’s other restaurant, German delicatessen Schilo’s, is next door to Casa Rio. Schilo’s is the oldest operating restaurant in San Antonio, dating back to 1917. The restaurant has been in its East Commerce Street location since 1942. Lyons purchased it in 1980.

Lyons took over Casa Rio in 1977 after the death of his father,

Bill, who had taken over the restaurant from Beyer, his fatherin-law, in 1972.

In addition to the restaurant, Beyer started another River Walk tradition: shuttling tourists on the San Antonio River. He began with

canoes, gondolas and paddle boats but eventually traded them in for barges. Lyons continued in the business until 1995.

Lyons said the restaurants have been going strong for years. However, over the past several

decades, tourists and conventioneers have largely replaced downtown workers in the dining rooms as numerous companies moved their offices from the inner city to the suburbs.

Lyons said he’d been fine relying

on out-of-towners for his business — at least until the pandemic hit a year ago.

Business slowed last year, of course, as COVID-19 choked off the convention business and severely reduced the number of

Billy Calzada / Staff photographer Bill Lyons is owner of Casa Rio and Schilo’s, believed to be the oldest continually operating restaurant in San Antonio.