Wondering what the best local spots to visit in San Anto are? Want to get the 411 from local community and help defend against gentrification? Check out this list of food, music, and community spots personally recommended by local Mijente members and show your support for local San Anto community business!
via Facebook page
The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center is a historic grassroots arts & cultural organization founded in 1987 by mostly Chicana activists. Committed to serving marginalized communities and preserving San Antonio’s unique cultural history, Esperanza’s work honors traditional cultures, renews the soul, breaks stereotypes, and strengthens communities. We’re grateful to Esperanza for hosting us at the Peace and Justice Center on Friday evening and at El Rinconcito throughout the weekend.
via Facebook page
Mujer Artes Cooperativa is a cooperativa de mujeres artesanas that work with clay, they do amazing work. They have a beautiful studio echo de adobe that they helped build, it’s pretty cool. They’re located in a separate building at the same spot as Rinconcito de Esperanza in the historic west side 816 S Colorado (they’ll open and sell arte this Saturday during lunchtime at Lánzate!)
via google images
La Botanica brings together Tex-Mex, the Gulf Coast, Mexican, and New Mexican cuisine, all while striving to respect people and our planet. It’s a vegan hot spot with live music and an outdoor patio owned by Rebelde. This is a Saturday night venue for Lanzate!
via stmarysstrip.com
St Mary’s Strip is known as the entertainment district. Squeezebox and The Mix can be found here– Squeezebox is a live music venue known for being laid back and chill. Showcasing great conjunto, chicano, y tejano bands, there’s a $3 cover charge on Friday and Saturday nights. The Mix hosts a wide variety of live music every night of the week from DJs, international bands, to funk.
Sunshine Bakery POC family owned panadería that was just reopened by the granddaughters of the original owner. One of them is Kayla Matta who is the owner of Pan Dulce gallery. She’s a badass artista y all around chingona. The address is 1001 N New Braunfels Ave. They have vegan conchas and other vegan options and amazing drinks like horchata latte and vegan horchata.
Taquitos West Avenue Jalisco style tacos, local business owned by a Mexican immigrant who started selling tacos that he’d cook out of a wooden barrel-turned-propane grill he built with his savings. They bring produce and spices from Mexico to keep the flavor authentic. This is one of my favorite spots. The address is 2818 West Avenue Friday and Saturday they close at 3am y Sunday they close at midnight.
Señor Veggie pa’ lxs vegans! Local, made-from-scratch, delicious vegan/vegetarian food at 620 S Presa.
La Pulga – the Mission Open Air Market, this Pulga vende de todo new and used everything. They have delicious food and snacks too. They open from 6am – 3:30pm at 207 W Chavaneaux Rd, San Antonio, TX 78221.
Las Nieves local business that has the best snacks, nieve, elote, mangonadas, chicharrones etc. 1118 W Hildebrand.
Galleria EVA Owned by Verónica Castillo Salas, an Endowment of the Arts recognized artist, who works with clay and makes amazing tree of life sculptures. She has a tiendita where you can find huipiles, rebozos and other cool stuff. 3412 S Flores.
The Gay Strip is located on N. Main street (a few blocks from the St. Mary’s strip and a 5 min walk from The Esperanza) it’s a street that has queer owned clubs and businesses including:
- Luther’s Cafe 1503 N. Main st open till 3am
- Sparky’s pub -used to be mostly a lesbian bar pero I haven’t been in a while
- The Heat night- club check their social media they have a drag shows some nights
- Pegasus -they have karaoke sometimes
via Facebook page
The Bang Bang Bar – local, queer woman owned, cool bar they have karaoke and live music sometimes.
Brick Sunday Market at Blue Star – A market of local artists/vendors. You can find everything from cool graphic t-shirts, prints, enamel pins, zines, jewelry, tiles, stickers, totes, mugs etc. open Sunday 12/2 from 12pm- 5pm. Address is 108 Blue Star.