San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Bars all about good drinks — and good backdrops
since the bar’s opening, and it’s become an identifying marker for his establishment.
“It has basically solidified what we were going for: a fun, San Antonio cantina where everyone is just friendly and loving, where you can go with your friends and family,” Palacios said.
Veteran restaurateur Patrick Richardson, the force behind the Silo family of restaurants, didn’t have to spend money on neon lights to give his customers a stellar background for photos.
His Fairmount Rooftop Oyster
Bar in the historic Fairmount Hotel downtown boasts one of the city’s best views of Hemisfair. The iconic Tower of the Americas is a prominent feature in the background of countless photos taken from the vista perched above the building’s third floor.
For Richardson, the pandemic has solidified a new business approach. He plans to limit his investments to properties that give customers both ample outdoor seating and spectacular looks at the city’s skyline.
“Our future business model leans more towards the outdoors with views and patios. And I think that’s the business model for the next five years,” Richardson said. “I won’t say it’s exclusively because of the pandemic, but if you look at San Antonio as a whole from a climate standpoint, we have an incredible resource that was probably underutilized.”
The proof is certainly in the profits for Cherrity Bar owner David Malley. His East Side establishment sits in the shadow of the Alamodome with a view of the Tower of the Americas behind that. With 4,000 square feet of patio space alone, the property is approved for an occupancy of 750 people, but with Malley keeping social-distancing protocols in place, Cherrity Bar is currently operating at about 20 percent occupancy.
That doesn’t seem to hurt the bottom line.
“Our business right now is probably 30 percent higher than it was pre-COVID,” Malley said. And a big part of Cherrity Bar’s draw comes from customers sharing photos of themselves enjoying food and cocktails — occasionally with a colony of picturesque bats soaring overhead as they emerge from a nearby bridge — that generate thousands of likes and shares online.
“I honestly don’t know how many people come just for the view. But once they see the view it keeps them coming back,” Malley said. “I think Instagram and photos, it’s probably respon
sible for a 20 percent boost in our sales or more.”
Malley said he intends to add more photo-friendly features around the Cherrity Bar property in the coming months to give customers more options for snapping selfies. It won’t be hard for him, with near-unlimited space on a property that has multiple buildings and occupies almost a whole block.
Older and smaller buildings, which rarely boast the kind of views Malley and Richardson
offer, can create challenges when it comes to providing eye candy for customers.
Peña’s Amor Eterno is tucked into a tiny Southtown house with limited porch seating. He said on busy nights, the crowd waiting to snap pics under the neon sign inside can turn selfie time into a frustrating waiting game. Peña knows giving those customers more photo options is critical to increasing the bar’s exposure, so he added a second neon sign on the porch and colorful murals
around the building.
But there’s one spot inside that still causes him grief.
“All that COVID signage we’re required to post is blocking up one entire wall where I could put up more neon,” Peña said.
For Palacios, the challenge was figuring out how to preserve an old-school San Antonio watering hole’s spirit and clientele — the property was previously home to downtown mainstay Tony’s Bar — while attracting a new base of customers.
The bar’s basic layout remained intact, but despite Palacios’ shoestring budget, he knew he needed at least one defining visual attraction — which eventually became the “Besos” alcove.
“That specific spot, honestly, haunted me for weeks about what to put in there. I was thinking something grand and extravagant. It was my wife who came in and said why don’t you do something with a neon light,” he said, noting the inspiration for the sign came from his wedding day in which friends and family were constantly chanting “besos” at the new couple. “I knew we had something when friends would just eat that sign up and love it. I just needed to put it a little over the top with the orange cushion and blue wall.”
Don’t expect that over-the-top ethos to end anytime soon. With bars doing everything to distinguish themselves visually in hopes of going the right kind of viral, it’s going to be a more-ismore world in San Antonio watering holes for the foreseeable future, according to Peña.
“The more you add aesthetically to a place, the better,” he said. “There’s no shortage of people who want options.”