San Antonio - The Good, the Bad, the Ugly?

[BACONATOR]

So, I saw there is a restaurants thread, and a BOQ review thread, but I am looking for some gouge about things to do, nightlife, outdoors stuff, Local FBOs to rent planes from, singles scene, and hot deals in and around San Antonio, specifically near Randolph where I'm at for about 5-6 months.

I've got a few friends in the area, which is a unique advantage, but I figured there'd be a wealth of knowledge on AW to offer some insight and hidden secrets of this place.

If there's a thread that I missed where this is an appopriate post, then mods please merge.

 

[Scoob]

I guess that Google search didn't turn up much, given that San Antonio is such a small town...

 

[BACONATOR]

Well that would be a voluminous amount of information. All the more reason to get the "gouge", no? I can use yelp anywhere.

 

[statesman]

So, I saw there is a restaurants thread, and a BOQ review thread, but I am looking for some gouge about things to do, nightlife, outdoors stuff, Local FBOs to rent planes from, singles scene, and hot deals in and around San Antonio, specifically near Randolph where I'm at for about 5-6 months.

Go to Austin. That's what everyone else in San Antonio does every weekend.

 

[HuggyU2]

Get Rosetta Stone for Spanish, if you plan to stick around.
What are you there for?

 

[MIDNJAC]

I always enjoyed the riverfront but I won't pretend to be super familiar with the city as a whole. I'm sure having been a corpus guy that you know about Austin, so I'd say that would be an easy trip on the weekends

 

[Alpha_Echo_606]

15 years ago I could have told you all the best places not so much today though. River-walk is always good with lots of good restaurants, and of course the best Mexican food is the mom and pop joints.

 

[Swanee]

There is an awesome Brazilian steakhouse on the north side of town. Chama Gaucha is the name of it (I think). Howl at the Moon is another cool bar, it's just off the riverwalk. The place will be packed with a line out the door on the weekends after 10.

 

[BACONATOR]

Get Rosetta Stone for Spanish, if you plan to stick around.
What are you there for?

PIT

 

[Hotdogs]

Riverwalk has a nice cigar joint called Swigs. All kinds of good liquor as well. Two hot twins also work there, I highly recommend atleast stopping by and having a few.

 

[SynixMan]

Food:
La Frite Belgian Bistro is pretty good. The Monterey has fucking awesome food and a good, chiller vibe, albeit a bit hipster. Oh, and their brunch kicks ass. Also Flying Saucer Draught Emporium is good as well, although a chain.

Drink:
The Friendly Spot is nice and laid back. On the Riverwalk, Mad Dog's Pub had a single hookup party crowd if you're looking for it.

In general, the Riverwalk is the "tourist" part with food and drinks, but locals don't really go there and most of the places suck. South of downtown (where Friendly Spot is) has a nice concentration of decent places and college/post college age folks. There's also a Seaworld you can get free admission at for military.

Oh, and obviously, go to Austin because it kicks ass.

 

[Alpha_Echo_606]

In general, the Riverwalk is the "tourist" part with food and drinks, but locals don't really go there and most of the places suck. South of downtown (where Friendly Spot is) has a nice concentration of decent places and college/post college age folks. There's also a Seaworld you can get free admission at for military.

Don't forget Fiesta Texas, lots of good fun there and you should get a discount too.

 

[dtxz]

SynixMan is spot-on-- The Riverwalk is lame but there are a few good spots. South Town/King William has all the good restaurants (La Frite, Monterrey as mentioned, Feast, the food trucks near the Friendly Spot are great pre-drinking food). The Pearl Brewery area also has some good restaurants and is on the new part of the N Riverwalk: http://atpearl.com/food/restaurants/
You can rent bikes along the more northern and southern parts of the Riverwalk. Good for barhopping and seeing the city during the day.

Beer: Blue Star is alright, the Granary is cool, Friendly Spot has a good selection and atmosphere, La Tuna is similar to Friendly Spot.
Drinks: Esquire Tavern on the Riverwalk has the best drinks, The Brooklynite
Coffee: Local Coffee in Alamo Heights.

Austin is an hour away. Beats SA in every category. Rainey St area for relaxed scene; W 6th for party ops.

 

[Flugelman]

Austin is an hour away. Beats SA in every category. Rainey St area for relaxed scene; W 6th for party ops.

Even less now that they've opened the 85 MPH toll road between them.

 

[armada1651]

Synix has good taste - La Frite is fantastic, the Friendly Spot is one of my all-time favorite bars, and the other stuff around the South Town/King William area is great too. Rosaria's is halfway between La Frite and The Friendly Spot and is my favorite place for Mexican food in town. There are a few good brunch spots around there also, including Madhatters.

Outside of that area, a few other recommendations: Sushi Zushi is pretty awesome up on the north side of town (I believe there's also one in Austin). Someone else mentioned Chama Gaucha, I think that's up in that general area as well. And the Cove is a funky little local burger place near downtown as I recall.

Over closer to Randolph, there's a really good Thai place called Bangkok Thai - the duck curry is one of the best I've had. There's also a good Mexican place in that direction but not quite as far that a lot of people from Randolph hit up for lunch.

And not exactly what you're asking for, but I imagine you've already discovered the Randolph gym is an incredible, multi-million dollar facility, with rows upon rows of shiny new elliptical machines and disappointingly little of anything else (insert AF joke here). But if you want a much better place to workout, check out Crossfit Schertz - Charles is a great trainer and he'll work with you basically whenever you can find time to come in, not just at set class times like a lot of CF places.

And as everyone has said, obviously Austin is awesome, but that's no secret to anyone.