I feel like I\u2019ve stepped back in San Antonio restaurant time, to the days of Andrew Weissman\u2019s Le R\u00eave, a long-gone theater of European technique with Weissman center stage. I missed the 2009 end of Le R\u00eave\u2019s 11-year run on the River Walk by a full seven years, picking up parables from the book of Weissman wherever I could: at Il Sogno, at Moshe\u2019s Golden Falafel, at The Luxury, at Signature, until all that was left was the burger drive-thru Mr. Juicy that started this list at No. 50.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where the story of Max\u2019s Sister begins, with the decision to sell chicken-fried steak at Mr. Juicy. Because a restless chef couldn\u2019t help himself, and it almost destroyed his little burger stand. That\u2019s it: No more CFS. Until he decided to build a whole restaurant around it. Something casual enough for wings and a burger and breakfast, but nice enough for chicken-fried steak with peppercorn au poivre sauce instead of cream gravy. <\/p>\n
And so he moved into the former Hayden space out Northwest, naming it Max\u2019s Sister for his daughter, by way of his son. And that chicken-fried steak moved immediately to the No. 1 spot on our Top 10 CFS countdown. It worked. Until Weissman changed his mind again. Not just about the gravy and the steak, but the whole thing. Time to be a white-coat Chef with a capital \u201cC\u201d again. No more breakfast, no more lunch. Dinner on white tablecloths, with waiters in formal matchy-match and citrus layered like brigand armor just for the water service. Lobster risotto, crispy sweetbreads, cheese boards, skate wing with Champagne velout\u00e9, venison. Even a chef\u2019s tasting menu modeled after Le R\u00eave\u2019s dusty pages. <\/p>\n
And it works. Not just because the Chef with a capital \u201cC\u201d is back on the line. The Weissman faithful formed up around him, most notably his wife, Maureen, becoming the face and voice of the dining room. And serial Weissman waiter Ruben Garcia, and manager Roberto Martinez. And finally, the customers who never forgot Le R\u00eave. We\u2019re in the middle of another Andrew Weissman moment. Until we\u2019re not. And instead of reminiscing about it 10 years from now, I\u2019m making a reservation<\/a> and showing up now. Right now, for San Antonio\u2019s new No. 1 restaurant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I feel like I\u2019ve stepped back in San Antonio restaurant time, to the days of Andrew Weissman\u2019s Le…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-410976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","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\/410976","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=410976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}