San Antonio

December 14, 2009

I headed to San Antonio for five days for work meetings, in conjunction with the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. I flew in on a Wednesday afternoon, and checked into the Westin Riverwalk.

I met up with some co-workers for happy hour at the bar at the Hotel Contessa next door. We then headed out for dinner on the Riverwalk, and as we're in Texas, we might as well start with barbeque....right? So, no better than to head to The County Line.

The Riverwalk at night:
I had meetings on Thursday and Friday, with lots of drinks and dinners as well. I also went running on the Riverwalk with some of the team and checked out the nice extension to the Riverwalk. And, we went clubbing on Friday night to the famous Bonham Exchange, which was a blast. I hadn't gone dancing in quite some time!

On Saturday, I tried to spend most of the day NOT working, and did some touring around San Antonio. That included checking out the Alamo.


It didn't take very much time to check out the Alamo, so I headed back to the Riverwalk via a couple more sights...










On Saturday night, I joined some other coworkers for dinner at Biga on the Banks, the famous flagship restaurant of James Beard award-winning chef Bruce Auden.

You know you're in Texas when...
I started with one of Biga's trademark appetizers, the Bibb and radiccho game packets with Asian chili sauces. Delicious!
My coworker had the other trademark appetizer, the Chicken fried Gulf oysters with squid ink linguini, Swiss chard, pancetta and mustard hollandaise.

For dinner, I had the seared duck breast and braised leg with egg noodles, baby bok choy and shitake master sauce. It was so yummy that I had forgotten to take a pic, so here's a pic during the meal...

For dessert, we shared the souffle of the day, which was an orange brandy flavor, and divine it was.

On Sunday, I had meetings for most of the day (boo!), but they were productive.

I went for another run along the Riverwalk, and for the first time all week, it was sunny and nice out. Which was good, considering the meals and drinks all week, I needed that second run.

For a team dinner, we headed to the Little Rhein Steakhouse on the Riverwalk.

Some black-eyed peas to help start the meal...

I enjoyed some pretty tasty steaks while I was in San Antonio, reminded me of the quality meat back home...

I had an early flight home on Monday morning, which was painful, especially as I headed right to work. But alas, it was a good and productive week, and I had some great food.

So long San Antonio, and thanks for all the meat!