I’m greeted by the golden glow of low-hung lamps reflecting off gleaming wood surfaces on a recent visit to the Esquire Tavern. How such a large and varied space feels so cozy near the city’s ever popular San Antonio River Walk is a mystery. The Esquire boasts the longest wooden bar in Texas, but there are also booths, tables, a downstairs bar with two lounges, and a riverside balcony. This is a place for adults: no blaring music, no abundance of flat-screen TVs, no shouting voices, no skimpily dressed waitresses, no hurriedly assembled five-item menu.
“I like the Esquire for the historical vibe, the intimate ambiance, and the elevated bar menu,” says San Antonio resident Joyous Windrider Jiménez. “I come here to hide away and decompress from the hot streets.”
I am tempted to sample all 12 Texas draft beers, but the cocktail menu wins me over. The James Beard Awards have twice nominated the Esquire Tavern for Outstanding Bar Program. The standout for me is the Bexar Hug with blanco tequila, guava, lime, and sparkling wine. The food menu offers items like South Texas quail legs, a pork belly torta, and mussels, but I go with the bison burger—crescenza cheese, bacon jam, shaved onion, and French onion spread with a side of thin and crispy chile salt fries.
The Esquire Tavern’s sense of a luxurious escape is fitting for a bar that opened the day after Prohibition ended in 1933. That freedom is expressed through the massive bar top—109 feet of solid oak. Some new icehouses in Texas claim theirs are bigger. But size doesn’t mean much compared to the Esquire’s near century of beer and liquor spills, tears of joy and sorrow, and memories good and bad.
