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July 1, 2019 | By Kimya Kavehkar
The Elk Store Winery & Distillery traces its lineage to a Prohibition-era Central Texas moonshiner. Owner Todd Smajstrla named his spot on Fredericksburg’s Main Street after the old general store in Elk, just northeast of Waco, where his great-grandfather, John Cyril Smajstrla, made clandestine moonshine.
May 23, 2019 | By Phil West
Craft beer fans might be pleasantly surprised by what awaits them in Corpus Christi: A trio of breweries opened within the past five years, and a couple of restaurants have recently started their own brewing operations. The result is adventuresome brews in a city more accustomed to mass-produced, beach-ready 12-packs. These days, when it comes to sipping in style, Corpus has you covered.
May 23, 2019 | By Kimya Kavehkar
All beer has four main ingredients: grain, hops, yeast, and water. Southerleigh, a restaurant and brewery in San Antonio’s Pearl entertainment district, has crafted a limited-edition beer with all those ingredients sourced from Texas. Now that the craft beer movement is here to stay, it seems like locavore beer is the next wave.
March 1, 2019 | By Gene Fowler
Texian revolutionary Ben Milam may not be as famous today as James Bowie, Davy Crockett, and William Barret Travis, but he should be. After all, Milam led the Siege of Bexar in late 1835 that drove Mexican forces out of San Antonio and the Alamo and set the stage for the Republic of Texas to win its independence the following spring. Felled by a sniper, Milam gave his life to the cause.
March 1, 2019 | By Clayton Maxwell
“It’s called Dripping Springs
for a reason,” says Meryl Sager, the
sparkly-eyed bartender at the Desert Door tasting room as she spoons a glob of honeycomb into the Yaupon Palmer, a sotol-based version of an Arnold Palmer made with yaupon tea. “Everything here is dripping.” Sager’s right. When you drive the back roads around Dripping Springs and Driftwood, you are meandering through Central Texas’ distillery motherland. Although not visible from these pretty, tree-lined roads, barnfulls of stills are near at hand, all bubbling away to create small-batch spirits—
from gin to sotol to whiskey—ready for you to swill, preferably while sitting outdoors on a breezy day with friends. These springs drip the good stuff.
January 31, 2019 | By Shawna Graves
You can belly up to any bar in West Texas, whether it’s a dark dive or a glamorous hotel, and, without even glancing at a menu, order a ranch water. Heck, these days, you can do that at pretty much any bar in Texas. The simple cocktail has developed quite the fan base, and it’s led to contested origin stories and bubbling debate about the proper ingredients.
December 27, 2018 | By Kimya Kavehkar
The Alpine brewery hopes the closing will be temporary. Texas beer lovers must bid adieu (for now) to “the beer from out here.”
November 19, 2018 | By Kimya Kavehkar
While most of us might be too old to sit on Santa’s lap, that doesn’t mean we’ve outgrown holiday merriment. For a warm glow within and without, make plans to stop by Miracle, a pop-up concept coming to five Texas bars this season. Miracle transforms watering holes in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, and Galveston into full-blown holiday wonderlands with nostalgic, kitschy décor and themed specialty cocktails Nov. 23 through Dec. 29. The concept debuted in New York City in 2014 and now has 80 locations internationally.
November 1, 2018 | By
Worldwide, Amarillo is probably most famous for The Big Texan Steak Ranch and its free 72-ounce steak (“if eaten in one hour”), a deal promoted on billboards from Arizona to Arkansas.
September 27, 2018 | By
Nacogdoches business owners value the college students and professors as customers. John D. Bradford is a good example. A Stephen F. Austin banner hangs from a tin roof above the distilling tanks at his Front Porch Distillery, which he opened with his four daughters in late 2016, creating it from an old catfish restaurant on the outskirts of town.
August 27, 2018 | By Kimya Kavehkar
Desert Door’s sandstorm margarita combines its signature sotol with lime, peaches, rosemary, and jalapeño.In 2016, graduate students Judson Kauffman, Brent Looby, and Ryan Campbell stood around in a college parking garage drinking Mexican sotol from the bottle before class.
May 23, 2018 | By
Just as you’d expect of the fourth-largest city in America, the vibe is delightfully diverse—a 20-something couple canoodles in a seating area made from a retrofitted shipping container; a group of coworkers roll up their sleeves, setting newly freed elbows on a picnic table; and a trio of pals stare up at a television watching the tense last moments of a basketball game. Different races, ethnicities, and age groups have come together, cradling amber and coffee-colored pints of beer, carrying on the centuries-old tradition of breweries, pubs, and taverns as centers of their communities.
Published 10 times per year by the Texas Department of Transportation, Texas Highways, the official travel magazine of Texas, encourages travel to and within the Lone Star State and tells the Texas story to readers around the world.
