Pearl

by Jeremy Banas

  The home stayed in the Mueller family until 2004, when it was sold to Silver Ventures and the Pearl LLC. Fast-forward almost a decade and the Rattray brothers were bringing brewing back to the Pearl for the first time since 2001. The Granary became a massive part of the effort to revitalize the Pearl and this historic area of San Antonio. Chef Tim Rattray was no stranger to restaurants, having been involved in the Pearl’s first two restaurants, Il Sogno and the Sandbar. His brother, Alex, who gained a deep love of brewing after spending time in England, had begun homebrewing several years earlier and set out to master his craft before the brewpub opened by attending brewing school at the respected Siebel Institute of Brewing in Chicago, thus giving him some production brewing experience. Alex Rattray now heads up brewing at Freetail Brewing’s brewpub off Loop 1604 in San Antonio.

  Can Plant apartments at the New Pearl complex. Jeremy Banas.

  B-Cycle station provides locals and visitors to the Pearl an option to get around the area. Jeremy Banas.

  The Granary ’Cue and Brew. Jeremy Banas.

  Oddly enough, the Rattray brothers had little idea about the historical significance of the home they would soon remodel into their restaurant and brewery, although it was hardly lost on them once they found out. Even with having expanded the historic home to include a massive outdoor smoking pit, things are tight in the old home. The Granary houses a seven-barrel brewing system, as well as fermentation and serving tanks carefully placed in the smallest of spaces in the old structure. Despite this, the brewpub is easily able to accommodate patrons, as well as multiple taps serving beer from guest breweries, including brews served from two old-school beer engines.

  On the food side, the brewpub serves traditional American barbecue via counter service, with meat by the pound from St. Louis, Texas and Memphis during the day. The evening fare is a little worldlier, with barbecue represented from around the world, a more formal setting, wait staff and food pairings but with a relaxed feel. Why the two different approaches? The brothers wanted to make lunch efficient and approachable for those on the go but have a refined and relaxed feel in the evening. Both the beer and food are all artisan and elevated in approach, with a focus on getting local ingredients as often as possible. The meat is sourced from local ranches that humanely raise their animals. The brewpub approaches operations in the best possible way, with a huge focus on service, taking care of employees and only doing business with those who feel the same way. Sounds like the Granary fits right in with Silver Ventures’ philosophy just fine. The brewpub’s website sums up this philosophy perfectly: “We are a globally inspired barbeque restaurant, rooted in Southern hospitality, hand-crafting our own beer.”

  The Granary at night. Nan Palmero.

  After the opening of the Granary, another restaurant moved into another historic Pearl building. Local celebrity chef Steve McHugh opened his restaurant Cured in the 114-year-old former business office building of the Pearl. Much like the Granary, McHugh had a lot of remodeling to do in order to transform the former offices into a restaurant and bring the building up to code. Cured’s location almost makes it as much a centerpiece of the New Pearl as the iconic brewhouse. McHugh utilized local branding school SCAD to help create his brand identity. On SCAD’s website, Cured’s focus is described perfectly: “This multi-layered and many-faceted project incorporated both the historical elements of the Pearl and the Chef’s personal narrative. An expert in Charcuterie, Salumi and all forms of preserves Steve is also a cancer survivor. As he cures, is cured, and continues to cure the needs to the community with his cooking and charitable work, it was not hard to determine a name and a path forward.”

  BREWING RETURNS TO THE PEARL BREWHOUSE

  The Granary and Cured were only the beginning of Silver Ventures’ and New Pearl’s determination to bring brewing, as well as the brewery’s historic buildings, back to life. There was still the matter of the iconic brewhouse. Enter another local celebrity chef, Jeff Balfour. Balfour hailed from Texas’s Gulf Coast area, specifically Galveston, and had made quite a name for himself in San Antonio as the head chef at Citrus in the Valencia Hotel. Balfour was also looking to open a brewpub in San Antonio and saw the Pearl as an option. After Balfour and Silver Ventures discussed ideas, Southerleigh Fine Food and Brewery was born. The new brewpub would occupy the former Pearl Brewhouse, bringing brewing back not just to the Pearl area but also to the former brewhouse itself.

  Southerleigh is on point, with its master chef and brewer extraordinaire William Les Locke (Locke was also the first head brewer at Branchline Brewing in San Antonio) paying homage to the Pearl’s past while looking forward to the future with its own identity. Balfour had been looking to open a brewpub for a while prior to getting in contact with the Pearl group in 2011, and he felt that the original brewhouse was optimal. “When you look at the space and the artist’s renderings, it’s just perfect,” said Balfour, who along with Locke sat down with me to discuss Southerleigh.

  San Antonio Brewing Association employees in front of the original Pearl bottling building, early 1900s. Pearl LLC Archives.

  Southerleigh Brewing employees (current occupants of the Pearl brewhouse) in front of the rebuilt Pearl bottling building, 2017. Jeremy Banas.

  “The Pearl group had always wanted brewing to return to the brewhouse,” said Balfour, who had looked at a few other locations prior to the Pearl. With this revitalization of brewing tradition, both Balfour and Locke hope that it serves as a model for other defunct regional breweries. “We’re excited to continue the Pearl tradition with Southerleigh,” said Locke. “It’s a feeling that can’t be put into words.”

  Southerleigh does more than just continue the brewing tradition of the area. Most of the building incorporates a large amount of the original brewery. Much of the original equipment has been incorporated as part of the brewery’s motif. Four fermenters, original to the Pearl, are kept on the upper level, visible to patrons of Southerleigh’s south dining room, and serve to cover many of the serving tanks. The building’s original arches have also been kept, in addition to some of the original pumps and firkins. The brewpub’s north wall features an artist’s rendering of the original brewhouse blueprints along with a timeline of its history.

  Southerleigh features a menu that adjusts with the season, reflecting Balfour’s upbringing in Galveston, Texas, and traditional southern dishes. Some menu items include hand-rolled pretzels, Texas Longhorn jerky, wood-fired meats, traditional shellfish boils and beer-braised meat, among many others. Balfour enjoys dazzling patrons with his creativity and passion for traditional foods that often take on a modern flair.

  Original Pearl kettles used as a façade for serving tanks at Southerleigh Brewing. Jeremy Banas.

  Kegs full of malted goodness sit at Southerleigh waiting for distribution. Jeremy Banas.

  Southerleigh Fine Food and Brewing restaurant manager Philippe Place watches over the brewpub, which now occupies the Pearl Brewhouse. Jeremy Banas.

  Assistant brewer J.C. Norris and Southerleigh Brewing employees cleaning up after a long day of brewing. Jeremy Banas.

  This creativity and innovation does not just stay on the food side of the house. Balfour advised that he and Locke have an open collaboration with the food and beer menus. “We will be constantly working to create beers that have our dishes in mind and vice versa,” said Balfour.

  This philosophy is shared by Les Locke, who sees a symbiotic relationship with Balfour and the food side of the business. Locke has been known to use unusual ingredients in his beers that can easily pair with almost any dish. “I was excited for the building and equipment to be completed so that Jeff and I could begin working together,” said Locke. “He has the same philosophy as I do when it comes to food, and with the unlimited versatility of beer, the pairings are endless.”

  Southerleigh has ten to twelve house beers and several guest taps. Regular offerings include a California common (steam beer), a German-style Helles and what Locke refers to as Darwini
an IPA, an India pale ale that is always evolving. A barrel program that includes sour ales is also in the works, with the Helles being used as the base beer for the sour program. Southerleigh already bottles a few of its regular offerings, and a canning line is on the horizon as well. With all this production, Locke is putting his brewing system through its paces, often adding a second brewing shift. To help ease this pace, a production brewery is also in the works.

  View of Southerleigh. Jeremy Banas.

  Les Lock, head brewer of Southerleigh Brewing, looks stoic in his role as the latest brewer inside the historic Pearl Brewhouse. Jeremy Banas.

  Signage directs visitors to the Pearl to Southerleigh. Jeremy Banas.

  Southerleigh boasts a fifteen-barrel system from Portland Kettle Works out of Portland, Oregon. “It’s important to us that all aspects of the restaurant and brewery reflect an American feel—specifically southern,” said Balfour. “We want our customers to feel that they can relate to us when they are here,” added Locke. “We want all aspects of the restaurant to be approachable so that regardless of your income level, you’ll feel at home here.” Don’t take this laidback approach for granted, though, as all employees need to meet Balfour’s high standards for culinary knowledge, as well as share his philosophy on food, and servers are no different when it comes to the beer side.

  Silver Ventures was not finished with the brewhouse, however. Plans had been in motion for a hotel as well. The hotel would take the back half of the brewhouse building adjacent to Southerleigh, with a massive new addition, making the overall building much larger than it had been historically. Dubbed the Hotel Emma in honor of Emma Koehler, this is one killer boutique-style affair. Boasting 146 rooms of a unique caliber, the idea behind the Hotel Emma was to create an experience that screamed refined, sophisticated, classy, historical and welcoming all at the same time. For the brewhouse portion of the hotel, design firm Roman and Williams masterfully melded the historic aspects of the building with a modern flair that made sense, an approach that was replicated with the new addition as well.

  The brewhouse tower section of the hotel features six incredibly unique suites, each with a different feel and experience. It is like stepping into the past in a way that makes visitors feel as if they are back in the 1890s. Two of the six suites are named for the original Otto Koehler and Emma Koehler and reflect styles akin to the two Pearl superstars themselves, with the remaining four suites encompassing the feel of the original building and that of San Antonio itself. The remaining rooms of the hotel capture this historic feel yet lend a sense of the modern as well.

  The Hotel Emma. Jeremy Banas.

  Adding to the overall ambiance of the Hotel Emma is the hotel’s focus on a superior food and drink experience. The hotel houses a combination deli and corner grocery store that butchers its own meat. The Larder also carries a wide variety of prepared foods in addition to its mini coffee shop, all with a sophisticated European feel to it. Just down from Larder sits Supper, an elevated approach to a family-style restaurant with both a farm-to-table and bistro approach. Perhaps the crown jewel of the trifecta is Sternwirth, a bar and clubroom that smacks of private English club with classic cocktails, wine and craft beer. Outside of its nineteenth-century English décor, which fits right in with the Pearl’s history, Sternwirth features a cocktail aptly named the Three Emmas, which both honors and acknowledges the drama behind its name.

  Pearl liquor still no. 2. Jeremy Banas.

  Although Pearl Stables have been many things since they fell out of use with the brewery in the early 1900s due to the advent of motorized transportation—for example, a storage unit and the Jersey Lilly taproom—the stables are now home to a beautiful renovation that houses space for a variety of social events.

  Silver Ventures recently re-created another historic building associated with its brewing past. The bottling building, built in 1897, was lost to a fire in November 2003 that was accidentally caused by demo workers who set fire to the cork walls with cutting torches. Goldsbury and Silver Ventures rebuilt the 5,500-square-foot building from the ground up at the original location, using photos to create an exact replica of the bottling building façade. The rebuild was handled by Clayton and Little Architects and included the use of salvaged cornerstones and masonry from the original building. Although the new bottling building will not be packing beer this time, it houses Jazz TX, a throwback jazz nightclub, in its basement and a food hall on the ground floor that houses six food vendors featuring innovative local chefs, as well as a bar. Elizabeth Fauerso, Silver Ventures’ chief marketing officer, said that it will feature a communal dining area for visitors in the hope that it acts as a restaurant incubator that will spur culinary creativity.

  The resident restaurant inside the Hotel Emma. Supper delights both locals and visitors alike. Jeremy Banas.

  The XXX marker adorns a sidewalk at the Hotel Emma, letting those who enter know that they’re about to experience the best. Jeremy Banas.

  Pearl signage at The Cellars luxury apartments. Jeremy Banas.

  The Pearl Stables today. Jeremy Banas.

  The reconstructed Pearl bottling building, now home to a food hall and jazz club. Pearl LLC Archives.

  The Pearl’s long and storied history, from its unofficial beginnings in 1883 as the City Brewery to its official beginnings in 1886 and its present period (which began in 2002), has had nothing short of an amazing and irreplaceable influence on San Antonio and Texas in general. It looks to remain so for the unforeseeable future. Perhaps it has another 131 years in it for future generations to enjoy. In all aspects for regional breweries such as the Pearl, it is truly difficult to measure the impact they have. Most of us take for granted the little details. We go about our lives never truly looking at what we have and what it will be like when it is gone.

  In the last decades of the Pearl, some would even call into question the actual quality of XXX Pearl Beer and the brewery’s other brands. Yes, changes to the ingredients used had an effect on the taste despite the formula remaining the same, but each brewer, each employee on the bottling line and each sales representative put their proverbial blood, sweat and tears into the Pearl, and this cannot be overlooked. Pearl employees were loyal, much as residents of San Antonio are massively loyal to their city. How exactly can you measure that type of overall influence? The simple answer is that none of us can truly put into words exactly the type of impact on history and ourselves that something like the Pearl can have. It ceases to just be a brewery and evolves into a state of mind, a state of being. It embodies what we feel as our community’s identity.

  We must raise our hats to what came before us, what influences us to do what we do in our own lives. We must respect what came before us, lest we lose any basis for establishing a community or individual identity. We must tip our hats, not only to Otto and Emma Koehler, Otto A. Koehler, Oscar Bergstrom, Otto Wahrmund, J.J. Stevens and B.B. McGimsey but also to every single employee who kept the brewery moving along over its 115-year history, as well as to Kit Goldsbury and Silver Ventures, who are keeping this tradition alive for generations to come. We must never forget to always say, “A bottle of Pearl please.”

  APPENDIX I

  THE KOEHLER HOUSE

  The Koehler House has become something of a legend in San Antonio, situated in the Laurel Heights area of San Antonio just north of downtown and a stone’s throw away from the Pearl Brewery. Real estate developers began construction of residences in Laurel Heights in the early 1890s, along with other areas such as Alamo Heights and Beacon Hill.

  The popular legend as to why Otto Koehler chose this particular location in Laurel Heights was so that he could overlook the skyline of the city; it also gave him a perfect view of his brewery. As family folklore would tell it, Otto Koehler would sit on his porch and watch the brewery to see if they were working or not—allegedly by the color of the smoke coming from the brewery stacks.

  The home was designed by local architect Carl Von Seutter and was
heralded as the most expensive home in the city. Von Seutter had only worked as a draftsman for another local architect, James Riley Gordon, who also designed the Bexar County Courthouse. Von Seutter finished his professional training as an architect and opened his own firm, Murphy and Von Seutter, with a partner in 1897. In about 1899, Von Seutter left his partnership with Mr. Murphy but remained in the architect’s offices, although he would change office locations multiple times over the next thirty years.

  Von Seutter enlisted local contractor Jacob Wagoner in the construction of the Koehler residence, going for a flamboyant Victorian style for the façade. Von Seutter combined old styles and new ones more in tune with the times. Many Renaissance elements—such as Italian Palladian windows, balustrades, large columns and sculpture garlands—were incorporated. Near the basement level, massive round arches went in, as well as turrets and a round base with Richardsonian Romanesque tones that he may have learned during his time with James Gordon. The home featured a grand dining room with a rather large solarium on the side that housed hundreds of plants.