{"id":365609,"date":"2026-07-08T17:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/365609\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:33:07","slug":"san-antonios-esquire-tavern-changes-hands-after-15-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/365609\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio&#8217;s Esquire Tavern changes hands after 15 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The oldest bar on the River Walk is shaking things up. After 15 years, San Antonio architect and developer Chris Hill is handing the keys to downtown\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/esquiretavern-sa.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Esquire Tavern<\/a> to its longtime beverage director, Stephan Mendez.<\/p>\n<p>If Esquire wasn\u2019t quite the genesis of San Antonio\u2019s craft cocktail revival, it certainly nabbed the most attention. Before rescuing the bar in 2011 after a five-year closure, Hill drafted acclaimed Austin barman David Alan and one of the central figures in the city\u2019s developing bar scene, Jeret Pe\u00f1a.<\/p>\n<p>Pe\u00f1a was succeeded by an equally lauded mixologist, Houston Eaves, now the Beverage Director of Emmer &amp; Rye Hospitality Group (Pullman Market, Ladino). In a few brief years, The Esquire became one of Alamo City\u2019s can\u2019t-miss destinations. To date, it is one of two San Antonio bars (Weathered Souls is the other) to be nominated for the James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program.<\/p>\n<p>Hill didn\u2019t just revive The Esquire by attracting top talent, however. Before his tenure, the smoke-stained bar was a dive, lined with wooden booths outfitted with personal jukeboxes. Hill reupholstered the seating, ripped out the tabletop selectors, and added a kitchen helmed by chef Brooke Smith. The neo-Victorian damask wallpaper, installed in the \u201860s, was lovingly restored.<\/p>\n<p>Five years later, Hill tackled the basement, opening Downstairs at the Esquire with another legendary Texas barman \u2014 the late Hank Cathey. The purportedly haunted room, lined with taxidermy, remains one of San Antonio\u2019s most distinctive spaces.<\/p>\n<p>Mendez is no doubt aware of the bar\u2019s heritage and does not plan to tinker with the menu or the historical 100-foot wooden bar. As a founding member of the local United States Bartenders\u2019 Guild chapter, he\u2019ll keep nourishing the next generation of San Antonio bar talent.And Hill feels his 155 E. Commerce St. passion project is in good hands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery person who has ever pulled up a stool here has become a part of what makes this place special,&#8221; he said in a release. &#8220;Stewarding that legacy has been one of the greatest honors of my life, and I&#8217;m proud to pass it on to someone who will carry the same passion for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The oldest bar on the River Walk is shaking things up. After 15 years, San Antonio architect and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365610,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4262,1634,993,3950,3934,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-365609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bars","tag-cocktails","tag-downtown","tag-nightlife","tag-river-walk","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365610"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}