Steaks and Whiskey - Texas Style

San Antonio abounds with steakhouses.  There are high end chains like Ruth's Chris and Morton's, and there are more elbows on the table type chains - Saltgrass, Texas Land & Cattle, and Texas Roadhouse, just to name a few.  There are also a wide variety of local spots, running a similar atmospheric gambit.  Among these is the Josephine St. Cafe.

Located close to downtown, right next to Liberty Bar - another San Antonio landmark - Josephine St. is a slightly ramshackle little place where the tables are packed in tight - both inside the restaurant and on the small patio.  Make no mistake, unlike the Kentucky-based Texas Roadhouse, the vibe here is the real thing.  The decor includes neon signs in the windows advertising steaks & whiskey, a nice wooden bar with a few artfully displayed bumper stickers declaring themes like "Too many Americans, not enough Texans", and a giant tree.  Yep, a tree.  The floor and ceiling actually go around the tree.  Don't tell me Texans aren't into conservation.

The menu is small, with asterisks denoting specialties of the house.  We tried the beef tenderloin anticuchos as an appetizer.  This turned out to be sort of like a kebob with jalapeño-marinated beef skewered with red bell pepper and onion.  The two skewers were served on a bed of tortilla chips with a really wonderful spicy dipping sauce.  Yum.  For dinner, naturally, we got steaks.  I tried the bacon-wrapped tenderloin and Josh got the sirloin.  The steaks come with one side each, but Josh and I took the option of ordering more.  Between us, we had mashed potatoes with gravy, green beans, broccolli, corn on the cob, and sautéed mushrooms.  The food was hearty and very tasty.  I won't claim that this was the best steak I've ever had - although it might have helped if my medium rare steak hadn't actually been cooked to medium - but I did thoroughly enjoy the meal.  Add in the fact that the steaks at Josephine St. cost less than even the elbows on the table chains, and you can see why this place has been going strong for 30 years.

http://josephinestcafe.com/