We all know about New York's Broadway. But San Antonio has a Broadway just as historical. Broadway starts downtown and winds north through one of the oldest bedroom communities in Texas—Alamo Heights. You can spend a whole day checking out this great street—eating and drinking in the many restaurants, as well as seeing some of the most interesting sites in San Antonio.
Just north of downtown is the "Pig Stand", a San Antonio landmark since 1921. The Pig Stand has an impressive claim to restaurant "firsts": first drive-in, first to use carhops to deliver food to diners, and first to offer fried onion rings.
Further north, you can turn left at the entrance to Brackenridge Park—a hot spot in San Antonio for just over one-hundred years. The San Antonio River flows by the park where you can walk or bike on paved, tree-lined paths. If you're too tired to walk, hitch a ride on the miniature railway that runs for four miles through the park.
While you're at the park, be sure to stop at the Japanese Tea Gardens, located in an old limestone quarry. You can wander winding walkways past waterfalls, stone bridges, and tranquil pools. If golf is your game, the Brackenridge Golf Course, the oldest municipal golf course in Texas, is also located within the park.
The park is also home to the San Antonio Zoo, ranked one of the best in the country and the only zoo to exhibit the endangered whooping crane. If you want to take it all in at once, hitch a ride on the Swiss cable cars called the Brackenridge Skyride that offer a breathtaking view of both the park and the city.
Moving on up Broadway, you may want to explore San Antonio's Witte Museum, where the main attraction continues to be the H-E-B Science Treehouse, which boasts four levels of interactive exhibits in a playhouse setting. A great place to have some fun after conference.
Just past the corner of Broadway and Hildebrand, you can experience the grocery shoppers dream store—the Broadway Central Market. Not your average grocery store, the store boasts over 500 varieties of fresh produce, including one-hundred organically grown fruits and vegetables, a buffet of specialty salsas, olives and pickles, more than eighty varieties of fresh fish, a selection of more than one-hundred cheeses, and a wonderful bakery. You can even watch the chefs baking via closed circuit television. Central Market has more than 2,000 wines and 400 beers, and a walk-in humidor that features 125 cigars. As you walk through, enjoy the sample stations that are typically set up throughout the store. Sampling can serve as a nice pre-dinner snack. Or check out the coffee, juice, and smoothy bar.
Moving further up Broadway, turn right onto Old Austin Highway and follow the signs to the McNay Art Museum (6000 N. New Braunfels). Housed in a fabulous Mediterranean-style mansion, its beautiful surrounding grounds are worth the trip alone. The museum's impressive collection focuses on nineteenth and twentieth century European and American art and features works by Rodin, Cezanne, Picasso, O'Keeffe, and Matisse. The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts is considered one of the best in the world and includes thousands of rare books, stage designs, drawings, and prints. The admission fee is optional and the museum is open on everyday except Monday.
If you're just looking for some examples of eclectic Americana, you won't want to miss Barney Smith's Toilet Seat Art Museum on Abiso Street in Alamo Heights—off Broadway. Wonder at the near 500 toilet seats decorated to reflect American pop culture in the twentieth century. Each seat has its own theme—see a piece of the space shuttle Challenger, barbed wire from the Auschwitz concentration camp, a collection of Indian arrowheads, or an ode to O.J. Simpson.
Hop on 410-West where it intersects Broadway and you can culminate your trip at the North Star Mall, home of the world's largest cowboy boots and a myriad of nationally recognized stores.
So, from high art to parks to shopping carts, you can find a world of entertainment on and off San Antonio's Broadway.
Note: For bus routes up and down Broadway, check the Via Metropolitan Transit web site:
http://www.viainfo.net/.
For more information, contact Jennifer Evert (jennifer.evert@lexis.nexis.com).
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