San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
3 newBoerne restaurantsworth drive
Great food, drink, music await
Note: The Express-News is suspending traditional restaurant reviews until restaurant dining rooms fully reopen.
When the pandemic dried up the San Antonio hotel and restaurant bookings that provided flamenco guitarist Fernando Santafe a living, he looked to the north for a new start. Boerne seemed like the right place to engage another passion: cooking.
“Boerne people are great. Open-minded, hardworking, classy,” Santafe said. “And people are desperate to go out right now.”
So in September, he and his wife, Aracely Delgado, opened Las Guitarras Cocina Mexicana on South Main Street, taking over the lodge-style building recently vacated by the short-lived Iron Stag steakhouse.
He plays guitar and cooks. She greets people out front and cooks. They trade off, and the result is a congenial spot for Tex-Mex and interior Mexican food, and the exhilarating rattle and strum of Spanish guitar every night at 6.
Las Guitarras is part of an unlikely mid-pandemic surge of restaurant openings in Boerne, a wave that includes the breezy Spanish bistro Botero Tapas + Wine Bar and the broad-shouldered American bar and grill Richter Tavern.
Together, they energize a robust restaurant scene that makes Boerne worth the trip, whether it’s 45 minutes away or just up the road.
Botero Tapas + Wine Bar
Luis and Gaby Mongiello opened Botero Tapas + Wine Bar in May, drawing on their world travels and family ties to Spain, Italy and Mexico to add small plates and sangria to Boerne’s promenade of antique shops and clothing boutiques.
From the front, the corrugated steel building looks like it could be a feed store. But ease around the side and you’ll find a shaded patio buzzing with life. That buzz is fed by red sangria ($12) kissed with fruit and spice to jump-start a menu of 18 tapas and four paellas.
Among the most filling of the tapas, a trio of empanadas ($12) brought fried hand pies filled with beef, choriqueso and beans, all crisp and spicy with hot cabbage slaw on the side. Equally fortifying were two thick slices of
baguette topped with lush braised lamb and melted cheese ($12) and a pair of sliders with beef, chorizo and Manchego cheese ($13).
Chicken tinga rellenos ($10) put on a show, with tangy shredded chicken piled high in blue corn masa cups, and Spain’s fabled jamón serrano gave salty, smoky character to flatbread dressed with caramelized pears ($14).
But the most satisfying moments came from the humble potato, which in Spanish hands becomes tangy fried nuggets of patatas bravas with red chile
sauce ($8) and a tall, layered slice of tortilla de patatas ($12) with chopped tomato bruschetta for an acidic pop.
161 S. Main St., Boerne, 830-4463035, botero161.com. Open 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Thursday; 4 to 9:30 p.m. Friday; noon to 9:30 p.m. Saturday; and noon to 3 p.m. Sunday. Dine-in and curbside available.
Las Guitarras Cocina Mexicana
The guitars in the name and on the wall at Las Guitarras aren’t just for show. They’re at the heart
of the experience, a chance to hear a master like 80-year-old flamenco guitarist Jose Linarez at dinner on a random weeknight.
The food’s just as satisfying, from a menu that ranges from the simple cheese enchilada that comes alongside a juicy, perfectly grilled steak tampiqueña ($21) to a complex chile en nogada, a poblano pepper filled with almonds, pine nuts, beef, plantains, pears and raisins, draped in a creamy walnut sauce bedazzled with pomegranate seeds ($14). Start with a bracing, citrusy, resort-style ceviche of whitefish, mango and jicama ($12.95).
Chef and co-owner Santafe specializes in enchiladas, and the Tricolor Plate brought enchiladas with queso fresco and the dry heat of New Mexico red chile sauce, tangy chicken with tomatillo sauce and a beef enchilada with the familiar comfort of chili gravy ($14.95).
For now, Las Guitarras is BYOB, but Santafe plans to add a full bar in the coming weeks.
911 S. Main St., Boerne, 830-3318787, lasguitarrasfinecuisine.com. Open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Sunday brunch expected to start in two weeks, from10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dine-in and curbside available.
Richter Tavern
The red brick Richter building is full of surprises. Inside, there’s a handful of artsy boutiques, a wine bar called Richter Cork & Keg and a bakery called Richter Bakhaus. But most surprising is a split-level bar and grill called Richter Tavern that looks like a spread in Architectural Digest, with exposed metal beams, windows that reach to the sky, walls of exposed brick and reclaimed wood, and a bar that looks like a set piece from “Lonesome Dove.”
Joi and Guy Sanders opened the wine bar in 2018, then finally brought Richter Tavern online in May, delayed but not daunted by the pandemic. From a kitchen led by chef Bill McGrory, Richter Tavern features ambitious appetizers like chile-garlic shrimp on grilled bread ($10) shimmering with spicy oil that brought tears to the eyes and a stylish charcuterie board with three meats, three cheeses, and a palette of fruit and jams ($23).
The bar, led by kilted renegade Michael Rogers, favors pre-Prohibition creations like the 1920 Cocktail ($12) with the soul of a Manhattan, but it also fully embraces the modern with experiments like the Bloodless Mary ($13), a clear reimagining of that brunch staple that carries all the flavor in a clean, bright form with a single giant ice cube.
Richter Tavern caters to bigger appetites with a perfectly seared New York strip steak plated with mashed sweet potatoes and an iron pan of Brussels sprouts, a solid value at $26. But it’s also fine making a first-class cheeseburger with a fat, hand-formed patty and a toasted housemade brioche bun ($12).
153 S. Main St., Boerne, 830-3312675, richterboerne.com/richter. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday through Saturday. Dine-in and curbside available.