{"id":369630,"date":"2026-07-11T17:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/369630\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T17:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T17:17:17","slug":"esquire-has-a-new-owner-former-bartender-stephan-mendez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/369630\/","title":{"rendered":"Esquire has a new owner, former bartender Stephan Mendez"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a new boss in town where the ice-cold beer began flowing from taps for the first time on the very same day Prohibition ended on Dec. 5, 1933.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Esquire Tavern<\/a>, the oldest bar on the San Antonio River Walk, announced new majority ownership Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Architect and developer Chris Hill<\/a> has passed the torch to Stephan Mendez, the Esquire\u2019s longtime operator and beverage director, and now owner of the storied tavern.<\/p>\n

Hill has owned the establishment since 2011, reopening it after a five-year closure and reigniting a cocktail culture<\/a> in San Antonio.\u00a0 In 2017, the Esquire was nominated for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar Program.<\/p>\n

Hill said he\u2019s happy to \u201cpass the proverbial cocktail shaker\u201d to Mendez even as he remains at the Esquire as a minority partner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Esquire is more than a bar; it\u2019s embedded in the history of San Antonio,\u201d Hill said.\u00a0 \u201cEvery person who has ever pulled up a stool here has become a part of what makes this place special. Stewarding that legacy has been one of the greatest honors of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendez followed noted mixologists Houston Eaves and Jeret Pe\u00f1a at the Esquire and is a founding member of the United States Bartenders\u2019 Guild in San Antonio. <\/p>\n

For the past dozen years or so, Mendez has gone from serving as back bartender to head bartender to bar manager to beverage director to overseeing operations of the parent company Spot On Hospitality, which includes the Tokyo Cowboy restaurant and Hugman\u2019s Oasis, a tiki bar.<\/p>\n

\"\"In this file photo from 2013, Stephan Mendez is seen crafting a \u201cTexecutioner\u201d cocktail. Credit: Photo by Steven Starnes<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been kind of doing everything for quite a while, and Chris and I have been close friends since 2013 and I think he was looking for a little bit of a change, and he trusts me to keep the vision and the culture and everything we\u2019ve worked on going forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At the time Hill reopened the Esquire, there were few places that offered cocktails, where bartenders knew how to make those kinds of drinks, Mendez said. \u201cThat was something that called to me [and] I kind of fell in love with it from the moment I walked through the front door.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2021, Hill opened The Canopy by Hilton<\/a>, a cantilevered structure next door to the Esquire, at 123 N. St. Mary\u2019s St.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Just west of the Esquire, he also renovated the circa-1866 Witte building at 135 E. Commerce, converting it for residential and commercial uses, including the bars, Hugman\u2019s Oasis and Toyko Cowboy.<\/p>\n

The Esquire, located at 133 E. Commerce St., features the original century-old and hand-worn wooden bar top from its start 93 years ago, a restored River-level lounge and patio, and a full menu of pub fare, beer, spirits, wine and cocktails.<\/p>\n

Popular on the menu this summer has been the bar\u2019s Hoover Maneuver, said Mendez, who described it as a refreshing, boozy and effervescent beverage for hot summer days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a new boss in town where the ice-cold beer began flowing from taps for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[130959,56273,130960,31262,130961,82,84,83,20943,130962,130963,92,3028,3219],"class_list":["post-369630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-bartenders","tag-chris-hill","tag-esquire-tavern","tag-james-beard","tag-river-walk-bar","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-san-antonio-river-walk","tag-stephen-mendez","tag-the-canopy-by-hilton","tag-top-story","tag-typedaily","tag-wc-less-than-500"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369630","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=369630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}