Food & Beverage

For generations of San Antonio-area families, certain restaurants have become part of the rhythm of life. They are the places where grandparents once ordered the same chicken-fried steak their grandchildren eat today, where employees learned their first lessons about work, and where birthdays, Sunday lunches and ordinary weeknight dinners slowly became family memories.

That familiar role is getting national attention this month. On Sept. 9, the National Restaurant Association launched Made in Restaurants, an initiative focused on restaurants as community gathering places, economic engines, training grounds for workers and starting points for long careers. The association says 67% of U.S. adults have worked in the restaurant industry at some point, while the industry generates more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales. 

Around San Antonio, that national conversation feels especially close to home. The Texas Historical Commission's Texas Time Travel program recently highlighted eight long-running restaurants across the San Antonio metro area, from San Antonio itself to Castroville, Canyon Lake and Seguin. Together, their histories tell a story that goes well beyond a guide to places to eat. They show how restaurants can become keepers of family traditions, neighborhood gathering spaces and, in some cases, pieces of Texas history. 

DeWese's Tip Top Cafe: generations around the same table

At DeWese's Tip Top Cafe, located at 2814 Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio, continuity is part of the appeal. Winnie and Pappy DeWese founded the restaurant in 1938, and third-generation owner Linda DeWese continues the family business today.

The old-school cafe is known for dishes including fried onion rings, chicken-fried steak and homemade ice box pies. Its knotty pine walls and longtime regulars help give Tip Top the feeling of a place where San Antonio history is still being served daily. Texas Time Travel notes that some customers remember their own grandparents ordering their first meal there. The restaurant was also featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in 2008 and is a designated Texas Treasure Business.

That multigenerational connection fits neatly with the Made in Restaurants idea: restaurants do not simply employ people or feed customers. Over time, some become part of how a community remembers itself.

M.K. Davis grew from an ice house into an Alamo City institution

A few miles away, M.K. Davis Restaurant & Bar at 1302 N. Flores St., traces its story to 1956, when Melvin and Aurora Davis purchased a Lone Star Ice House and renamed it M.K. Davis Ice House.

The operation began modestly, with cold beer, picnic tables and sausage botanas before the menu expanded to hamburgers, hot dogs and fried chicken. Over the decades, American, Mexican and seafood dishes joined the lineup, along with longtime favorites such as chicken-fried steak, fried pollock and crispy dogs. Its large frosted beer schooners have also become a recognizable part of the restaurant's identity. The Davis family has continued the business after the founders' deaths, carrying forward a restaurant that was named a Texas Treasure Business in 2014. 

Little Red Barn Steakhouse went from eight tables to a San Antonio landmark

The story of Little Red Barn Steakhouse, located at 1836 S. Hackberry St., is another distinctly San Antonio tale of a small family operation growing without losing sight of where it started.

Ralph and Lili Hernandez opened the restaurant on Labor Day in 1963 inside a converted meat market. There were just eight tables and room for 32 diners. Ralph served as butcher and cook, Lili waited tables and handled the register, and their daughters helped on weekends.

Today, the restaurant can seat more than 800 people, while the Hernandez daughters continue to run the family business. The western atmosphere, steaks and straightforward hospitality that built its following remain central to the experience. Little Red Barn was designated a Texas Treasure Business in 2014. 

Bill Miller Bar-B-Q shows how a local restaurant can grow with a city

Few restaurant names are as closely tied to San Antonio as Bill Miller Bar-B-Q.

The company's roots date to 1950, when Bill Miller borrowed $500 from his father, bought a three-wheel motor scooter and began selling eggs door to door. That venture became Highland Poultry House, followed a few years later by a small fried chicken restaurant. Hamburgers and barbecue eventually followed. 

The family-run company now operates 76 Bill Miller Bar-B-Q restaurants across the San Antonio, Austin and Corpus Christi markets, along with six Laguna Madre Seafood Co. locations. Its centralized San Antonio operation includes a commissary, sausage kitchen, bakery, warehouse and distribution center, while its barbecue continues to be cooked over Hill Country live oak. 

Its growth provides a particularly clear local example of one theme behind Made in Restaurants: a restaurant can begin as a small entrepreneurial bet and eventually become a major employer, recognizable brand and part of a region's everyday culture.

Castroville restaurants carry their own family histories

The story extends west of San Antonio into Castroville, where two longtime establishments have watched generations of the community grow around them.

Cora's 471 Grill at 2204 FM 471, can trace its roots to 1932, when Henry and Cora Burell operated what was then known as Cora's Place. The business later incorporated a former local schoolhouse, and during World War II it became popular with soldiers stationed at Hondo Army Air Field. The restaurant passed through the family before Shelly and Chuck Hurd purchased it in 1998 and renamed it Cora's 471 Grill. Portions of the old rock house and school structure remain part of the property today.

Nearby, Sammy's Restaurant, located at 202 Old U.S. Highway 90 E., began with an ice house opened by Leon Tschirhart in 1948. Tamales were its first menu item, followed by hamburgers. Leon's brother Sammy joined the operation after military service in Korea and became sole owner by 1958.

What started as a drive-in with carhops eventually became a sit-down restaurant serving American and Mexican dishes, including recipes with roots in the families and employees who helped build the business. Now a third-generation family establishment, Sammy's was designated a Texas Treasure Business in 2013.

At Canyon Lake, Startz Cafe helped anchor a community

At Startz Cafe, located at 10350 Startz Road near Canyon Lake, the restaurant's history is intertwined with the community around it.

The Startz family's Texas roots stretch back to German immigrant Johann Startz, who arrived in 1844. In 1946, Curt and Alice Startz purchased a general store with two gasoline pumps. Alice ran the front and began serving homemade chili and hamburgers from her kitchen.

As construction of Canyon Dam brought more people to the area, the business expanded. Over the years, the Startzville store served not only as a cafe but also as a polling station, post office and community meeting place. The family tradition continues today under Monica Startz Wetz, a granddaughter of longtime operator Lorine Startz. Chicken-fried steak and eggs, enchiladas, hamburger steak and Friday catfish remain among the kind of comfort-food offerings that fit the cafe's down-home history. 

Few examples better illustrate the idea of a restaurant as a "community cornerstone." In places like Startzville, the local restaurant was never only where people ate. It was also where they crossed paths.

Davila's BBQ keeps a Seguin family tradition over the fire

East of San Antonio in Seguin, Davila's BBQ at 418 W. Kingsbury St., has been part of the community since Raul Davila opened the restaurant in 1959 inside an abandoned school building that did not even have a cash register.

Three generations later, pitmaster Adrian Davila continues the family tradition, drawing on the family's barbecue heritage and the vaquero culture of South Texas. The restaurant was designated a Texas Treasure Business in 2022. 

Its longevity reflects something familiar across many of these businesses: recipes may bring customers through the door, but family continuity and relationships with a community are often what allow a restaurant to survive for decades.

Why these San Antonio-area restaurants matter now

The timing of the Texas Time Travel collection and the national Made in Restaurants campaign creates a useful reminder for San Antonio-area residents. Restaurant history is not confined to vintage photographs or anniversary celebrations. It is still unfolding every time a teenager clocks in for a first shift, a family takes over a business from the previous generation, or longtime customers return to a dining room filled with memories.

The National Restaurant Association's campaign is built around four ideas: restaurants as community cornerstones, economic powerhouses, training grounds and career catalysts. Those themes can be seen in different ways across these eight San Antonio-area establishments, whether it is the DeWese family serving multiple generations on Fredericksburg Road, the Hernandez family growing an eight-table steakhouse into a major San Antonio dining room, or the Startz family operating a cafe that once doubled as a polling place and post office.

For residents looking for historic restaurants near San Antonio, the appeal is therefore about more than nostalgia. Eating at one of these places can also mean participating in a story that has been carried forward by cooks, servers, owners, customers and families for decades.

And in a city where food has long been inseparable from family and community, that may be one of the most enduring things made in restaurants.

Stay tuned to My Neighborhood News for more San Antonio-area restaurant news, local business stories and community features.

By Tiffany Krenek, My Neighborhood News 

Tiffany Krenek has been on the My Neighborhood News team since August 2021. She is passionate about curating and sharing content that enriches the lives of our readers in a personal, meaningful way. A loving mother and wife, Tiffany and her family live in the West Houston/Cypress region.

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