Pamela Price

This story originally appeared in the January 2011 issue of the Leon Springs Community News . If you want to contact The Point Park & Eats, please contact them over there. I am not affiliated with them in any way. I am a journalist.

Story by Pamela Price

For entrepreneur Denise Aguirre, the anticipated spring launch of The Point Park & Eats across from Los Encinos on Boerne Stage Road represents the convergence of several personal interests.

“I’m just a foodie at heart. My partner, Noel Cisneros, and I are both bankers by trade. But we love to eat, and I know where I like to go-places where my family and friends like to hang out,” said Aguirre. “Our goal is to create that type of environment in Leon Springs.”

The Point Park & Eats will be the community’s first “food truck trailer park,” and only the second in metro San Antonio. As such, it can host up to four to five food trucks at any given time.  Popular in urban areas along the West Coast and a red-hot trend up in Austin, food trucks are a fun means of introducing great cooks and up-and-coming chefs to a wider audience in a casual atmosphere. Think of it as “guerilla gourmet.” (The Food Network even had a reality show last fall pitting food trucks in a mouth-watering, cross-country race.) Continue reading →

Story  by Pamela Price for the Leon Springs Community News (December 2010)

(Photographs were courtesy)

Perched as it is on the border of rural Central Texas and suburban San Antonio, Leon Springs is not known for greeting the New Year in high style.  And yet, mere minutes away, is one of the area’s most exclusive hotels, the sort of place where grown-up memories are made and celebrated year ‘round.

In fact, for this year’s New Year’s Eve, one of the restaurants at The Westin La Cantera Resort (www.westinlacantera.com) is taking a cue from the art world, drawing inspiration from one of the most legendary artists in American history. Essentially, if you’ve got a sitter and a hearty appetite, the resort is willing to amuse your palette, er, palate.

“Francesca’s at Sunset will be offering an imaginatively themed New Year Evening menu inspired by the work of art of Andy Warhol,” said Philippe Wilhelm, the resort’s director of food and beverage. He noted that the restaurant’s menu is designed to pair with an exclusive collection of vibrant, Warhol-inspired Champagne bottles, released earlier this year by the prestigious Dom Pérignon brand.

According to Wilhelm, the evening’s theme is “Famous for: 15,” a reference to one of Warhol’s memorable 1968 quips: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” For the meal, chef de cuisine Ernie Estrada will prepare what’s billed as a “Luxury Pop Art” menu featuring menu items reminiscent of Warhol’s iconic artwork such as Campbell’s Chicken Noodle (house-made pasta noodles with natural chicken) and Cow with Diamond Dust Shoes (Wagyu beef and rock candy). Continue reading →

Story and photograph by Pamela Price for the Leon Springs Community News (December 2010)

Brittany Springer assembles pork tamales (Image copyright Pamela Price 2010)

As the restaurant’s very name suggests, the Mi Casa Tamales restaurant crew is known for their homemade tamales, especially those filled with well-seasoned, shredded pork. The shop’s tamales are ample and moist. Wrapped in their cornhusks and served warm, they are markedly different from the tiny, dry, shrink-wrapped tamales found at the grocery store.

“Our tamales are larger than our competitors, they are about 3 times the size and weigh about 3 lbs. per dozen,” said Mi Casa owner Shirley Keresztury. ”Everything is fresh. All spices are freshly ground, there are no preservatives.”

In San Antonio during the stretch from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, fresh, handmade tamales are just as welcome served as a meal alongside creamy queso, rice and beans-all available from the freezer case located just inside the Mi Casa’s front door-as they are mixed in with traditional holiday foods like turkey and dressing on a dining room buffet table.

The shop’s tamales are so well respected locally that Mi Casa was one of a select few invited to participate in the inaugural ¡Tamales! at Pearl festival held earlier this month in central San Antonio.

According to Keresztury, Mi Casa’s tamales are made on-site in a cluster of quirky buildings off of IH-10–and in the spirit of the holiday season. “We love tamale season! It’s a family tradition. We are super busy this time of year.  All workers come together to pull off the high demand. It’s a fun, positive time of year for us. San Antonio loves tamales, and the tamale season represents family time, happy times, joy and laughter. ” Continue reading →

This story appeared in the December 2010 issue of the Leon Springs Community News.

Story  by Pamela Price

(Photos coming later today.)

It’s a bright, brisk and breezy Sunday morning in Central Texas. On the south side of Boerne Stage Road, near where the historic roadway intersects with Baywater Stage, stands a man bundled and gloved against the chill.  Frank Muegge waves at passersby, greeting them all as beloved friends with a warm “God bless you.”

A vehicle turns quickly into a nearby driveway. Muegge moves to greet the driver, who climbs out of the car and rushes toward him, a plastic gift card tucked in her hand. She tells him the card is for him. Words are exchanged between them as cars zip past. He’s clearly moved by her generosity.

“I see him out here every Sunday. I go to a different church, but I see him and he moves me, every Sunday,” says Jeaneen Klem, who has traveled Boerne Stage Road regularly for four years. “He’s wonderful. He smiles and greets you, whatever the weather. He always makes eye contact. It touches my heart. It’s Christmas, so I got him something, hoping maybe he could go buy a cup of coffee later.”

When asked the value of Muegge’s Sunday morning roadside ministry to her personally, she responds, “It’s just a God thing. We need people like [Muegge] here. Pure and simple.”

It’ll be five years this February that Muegge started to greet travelers in front of his Leon Springs Baptist Church, where he and his wife Rebecca are members.

“It all began when Frank started working with me as a greeter, helping people make their way from the parking lot to the church. Carrying car seats and the like for families with kids. And then he started going out to the road. He doesn’t just wave and greet people. He prays for all of them. And people know it. We hear that all the time, that they know he is praying for them. It’s hard to believe it’s been four years now,” says Rebecca. “I know [he's a local fixture]. We meet people all the time who recognize him. Some people think that he’s the minister, but he’s not. He’s a deacon now, though.” Continue reading →

This story is slated to appear in the December 2010 issue of the Leon Springs Community News.

Story and photograph by Pamela Price

Dr. Dalys Gomez demonstrates an allergy exam with Laura Thompson. (Image copyright Pamela Price, 2010)

Runny nose. Coughing. Fatigue. This time of year in Central Texas, those symptoms may mark not the onset of a cold but the arrival of what locals call “cedar fever.”

“There’s not usually a fever present, unless of course the patient has developed an infection,” said Dr. Dalys Gomez of Leon Springs Allergy & Asthma in Leon Springs. “Cedar fever symptoms present initially almost the same as a cold-except with the allergy the symptoms persist.”

Gomez said that the worst cedar allergy sufferers experience “red, itchy eyes with tearing and eye rubbing. And then there’s the itchy ears and throat, which are not common to the cold. There may even be a loss of taste.” In addition to fatigue, there may be a general feeling of being unwell.

“I’ve had patients come here after going to a psychologist first, because they felt depressed,” said Gomez. “Often, it was an allergy that was really causing their problems.”

The culprit is the ordinary Ashe juniper, aka Juniperus ashei, but commonly referred to locally as a cedar. Found in Texas and surrounding states, the scrappy, drought-tolerant Ashe juniper’s heaviest concentration is in the Austin-San Antonio area, making Leon Springs part of the “cedar fever capital.” The annual release of juniper pollen is responsible not only for the itching and sneezing but also for that blue-tinged haze on hillsides on cold winter mornings.

“I tell patients that they can expect symptoms from Thanksgiving through to Valentine’s Day,” said Gomez. Depending upon weather conditions and rainfall, the season can run from early November up through March or April. “It usually peaks around New Year’s. That’s when I see the most patients, around a freeze. The cold air makes the plant release the pollen inside those blue berries in a puff.” Continue reading →

Story by Pamela Price
Note: This story originally appeared in the November 2010 edition of Leon Springs Community News.

Pete "Doc" Allegretti and Suzanne O'Neal take stock of a vintage race car.

For Kermit O’Neal, who spent many formative years hanging around his father’s Corpus Christi classic car shop, there were early signs that he too would build a life around cars.

“Yes, my father’s business and his racing definitely influenced my career path. I think my mother hoped for a doctor or lawyer, but my passion ever since I was little was racing. I started reading ‘Sports Car’ magazine in the third grade, and I went with my father to the races. He allowed me to drive interesting sports cars from a very early age,” Kermit noted. “It is no surprise to me looking back that I followed this path. I realized early that I would not have a career as a race driver, but this did not diminish my passion for the cars themselves or my enjoyment in being around them.”

After a globetrotting stint in sales, Kermit purchased the Alamo Sports Cars dealership, as it was then known, thirty years ago. That was just before the ’80s-era savings and loan mess, back when affluent San Antonio residents made their way down to Broadway in Alamo Heights to select a Triumph, Alfa Romeo or Fiat. The business also made repairs to higher-end European models such as Ferrari and Maserati. Continue reading →