HISTORIC NEW BRAUNFELS

New Braunfels Culinary Scene

2Tarts’ Sweet Treats

turns up the heat with chef-inspired fare

Founded in 1845 by a German Prince, New Braunfels has no shortage of fascinating history along with several different local or regional cuisines that share many traditions.

Home to award-winning culinary artists, craft beers, and one of the largest selections of Texas wines, New Braunfels’ gastronomic experiences are turning heads and filling tables. In 2021, Texas Bistro Chef Antonio Ruiz was featured on Gordan Ramsey’s Hell’s Kitchen Young Guns. The quaint neighborhood bistro’s menu focuses on elevated Texas cuisine with variations on favorites like chicken fried steak. In 2019, 2Tarts’ Ashley Landerman won the Food Network “Christmas Cookie Challenge.” Guests will salivate at the gallery of sweet treats at this groovy downtown bakery. They focus on producing quality baked goods made completely from scratch.

Texas Bistro Epicurean Delights

Buttermilk Café Executive Chef Carol Irwin honed the titles “San Antonio and Texas Chef of the Year.” Market fresh comfort food lines the menu. Open for breakfast and lunch, finding a table on Saturday or Sunday may require patience, but it’s worth the wait. Good food prepared by loving hands promotes healthy conversation as you gather round the table.

All the restaurants continue to offer curbside service and several have outdoor dining, staying current with precautions to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

Libation-al fortitude

The Grapevine in Gruene has one of the largest selections of Texas wines, hosting the annual Gruene Wine & Music Festival every October. They offer a wine list curated to please everyone from the casual drinker to the serious wine nerd or craft beer connoisseur.

Located in Gruene Historic District, whether you are dressed up for date night or sun-kissed straight off the river, come as you are. Everyone is welcome, always and in all ways.

Chef Carol Irwin San Antonio and Texas Chef of the Year

Garden Nights at the Grapevine in Gruene

Huisache Grill and Wine Bar in downtown New Braunfels is a favorite for fun gatherings in an intimate and casual setting. The menu draws from the diverse cultural and culinary influences of the Texas Hill Country for a fresh, new dining experience. Enjoy its regionallyinspired meals, beer, and wine.

Cool places, new twists

Steps from the Comal River is Muck & Fuss, a chef-inspired eatery serving up an array of loaded fry combinations and delectable twists on the American burger. They cook with creative, fresh ingredients that result in dishes that everyone can enjoy.

Their team traveled across Texas so you can pair your meal with one of the 26 craft beers curated specifically for Huisachi Grill & Wine Bar Muck & Fuss taps from both local and national breweries. Located in downtown New Braunfels’ original 1915 post office, McAdoo’s Seafood Co. and Oyster Bar offers upscale, Cajun-inspired cuisine. It’s the perfect place for special events. The Postmaster’s Office seats up to 40 guests and the New Orleans style courtyard will accommodate over 80 guests.

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A few blocks over is a European bistro & cafe in downtown historic New Braunfels. Le Citron - European Café & Bistro specializes in traditional crepes, grilled panini, french butter croissants, stuffed breakfast croissants, house made pastries & European wine & beer. House made pesto with local sourced ingredients is also a feature and so much more.

Baker’s Bar & Grill

McAdoo’s Seafood Co. & Oyster Bar

Naturally Cafè is the healthy and delicious choice for lunch in New Braunfels and Gruene. The food is nutritious, delicious, and healthy. Cold press juices, fresh fruit smoothies and vegetarian specialties can be found at Naturally in Gruene Lake Village.

“These restaurants and haunts are just the tip of the iceberg. The creativity and talent from all of our business owners and chefs give visitors and residents alike a beautiful variety of food and experiences to explore,” said New Braunfels Convention & Visitors Bureau Vice President Mallory Hines.

Naturally Cafe Le Citron - European Café & Bistro

Naturally Cafe

You’ll find it worth your while to visit

1. New Braunfels www.playinnewbraunfels.com/dine/ 2. Texas Bistro www.txbistro.com/food 3. 2tarts www.2tarts.com/ 4. Buttermilk Cafe www.thebuttermilkcafe.com/ 5. Grapevine in Gruene www.grapevineingruene.com/ 6. Huisachi Grill & Wine Bar www.huisachigrill.com/ 7. McAdoo’s Seafood Co. & Oyster Bar www.mcadoos.com/ 8. Muck & Fuss www.muckandfuss.com/ 9. La Citron European Café & Bistro www.lecitroncafe.com/ 10. Naturally www.naturallynb.com/

New Braunfels craft breweries tap old world styles, fine ingredients for award winning beers

Beer is a beloved piece of New Braunfels’ German heritage, with several breweries and biergartens that draw inspiration from Old World brewing traditions.

New Braunfels’ growing reputation within the Texas craft beer scene brings beer lovers from across the state and country to savor and sip their way through the quaint, Texas town.

Check out these highlights of the New Braunfels craft beer scene:

Faust Brewing Co.

This hometown brewery produces classic German and English styles. Their beer is available throughout New Braunfels, including the brewpub within the Faust Hotel. Several varieties honor local heroes, from Walter’s Ghostly Pale Ale (a tribute to Walter Faust, the hotel founder, whose ghost reportedly haunts the hotel) and Alex Meixner Polka Pils, a nod to the Grammy-nominated musician and nationally recognized advocate of polka music.

Faust Brewery faustbrewing.com

Guadalupe Brewing Co.

Off the beaten path is Guadalupe Brewing. They won a bronze for their Scotch Ale at the U.S. Beer Open Championship in 2013 and continue to conjure up incredible beers.

This brewery serves inventive beer brewed on site, with a menu that includes classics that remain on the menu year-round and a rotating selection of experimental beers, from German Chocolate Stout to Banana Cream Pie Hefeweizen.

With two beer halls, an open-air beer garden, a Detroit-style pizza kitchen, and plenty of live music performances, this brewery has become a local mecca for beer lovers.

New Braunfels Brewing Co.

This small, family-owned and operated brewery is in the city’s historic district. The brewery specializes in mixed cultures and barrel-aging and is known for an extensive selection of sour beers, along with other inventive brews (the spicy pickle beer is a local legend). A newly expanded beer garden and seating area makes it a refreshing stop when exploring downtown New Braunfels.

Each beer crafted has a story to tell and a unique voice to tell it with. They are dry, balanced and thoughtfully produced in such a way as to give you a distinctive and interesting experience. It’s time to drink outside the lines.

Otsego Resort - Tribute Course

Guadalupe Brewing Co. Guadalupebrew.com

New Braunfels Brewing Co. new-braunfels-brewing-company.mybigcommerce.com

5 Stones Artisian Brewery 5stonesbrewery.com

OffRhodes Craft Beer Station drinkoffrhodes.com

5 Stones Artisan Brewery

Just minutes from downtown New Braunfels, 5 Stones serves up creatively brewed beer with seasonal ingredients and German influences. Guests can savor their beer in the spacious, secluded oak-shaded beer garden or in one of the indoor spaces. The brewery recently added a coffee bar and its own Slinger Bakery and Bistro, serving pizzas and other pub fare.

OffRhodes Craft Beer Station

OffRhodes is a craft beer tap room, beer garden and bottle shop, serving locally brewed craft beers from all over the Texas Hill Country, along with a selection of ciders, mead and wine. Their goal is to offer the best and widest craft beer selection in New Braunfels, whether to enjoy on site or take home. With frequently changing taps, OffRhodes keeps customers coming back to try new beers and to source hard-to-find locally brewed craft beer.

Krause’s

In 1959, Kermit Krause bought “Gene’s Place” from his dad and Krause’s Cafe was born. Serving only a noon meal, Krause’s was frequented as a saloon and became known for their beer, dominos and card games. A New Braunfels staple, it serves as a gathering place for family and friends.

The lively Bierhalle houses the largest tap wall in New Braunfels, offering a wide selection of local craft brews and hometown favorites, while paying homage to the history of New Braunfels. Grab a brew with your crew and dance a polka or wind down for the day with any choice on tap at Krause’s Cafe.

Phoenix Saloon

Originally established in 1871, The Phoenix Saloon was the first bar in Texas to serve women. It had a beer garden with a bell in a tree for service… as it would besmirch a lady’s reputation to enter the bar.

At one time there was an alligator pit,

Phoenix Saloon

Krause’s krausescafe.com

The Phoenix Saloon thephoenixsaloon.com

badger fights and a parrot that asked “Have you paid your bill.” Luckily the history of live music lives on.

After renovation in 2010, the Phoenix Saloon rose again as an historic Texas bar, chili parlor and live music venue. Their motto is they don’t serve fast food... they serve fresh food as fast as they can!.

Hill Country Craft Beer Festival

New to the craft beer festival scene, this annual event every April is bringing in some big crowds and unique Hill Country breweries. Over 35 breweries serving 150 varieties of beers descend upon Rockin’ R along the Guadalupe River in Gruene for a day of hops, music and food to the delight of fans of Texas craft beer, live music and sunshine.

The event, which is held by the Rotary Club of New Braunfels, serves as their big annual fundraiser for nonprofits and charities. It is a

day filled with good beer and good music for a good cause.

New this year to the festival was a cashless system with RFID technology. Guests connected their credit card to their wristband for easy purchase of additional beers, food truck items, or event T-shirts and other souvenirs.

The festival shines a spotlight on New Braunfels’ craft beer scene.

AWARD WINNING MAGAZINE

WINNER

OF THE STPGA MEDIA AWARD

DAVID OGRIN GOLF ACADEMY

9:00 AM – 9:00 PM 7 Days a Week Open to Public

1357 Wald Road New Braunfels, TX 78132

Phone: 830-660-3998 Email: ogringolf@gmail.com

DAVID OGRIN Director of Everything and Lead Coach & 1996 Valero Texas Open Champion

By Steve Habel, Contributing Writer Inn of the Mountain Gods

New Mexico has a little bit of everything you’d want in golf and gaming

While golf and gaming are available in every state that borders Texas, only one – New Mexico – also adds mountains, and the prospect of skiing, to the agenda as well.

Whether it’s the outskirts of Ruidoso in the south-central part of the state, on the Sandia Mountains just east of Albuquerque, or in mountain valleys of Santa Fe, snow can be found about four months of the year in the Land of Enchantment – making for a potential combination of skiing in the morning, golf in the afternoon and gaming until you drop when the sun goes down.

Near the Texas-New Mexico border about an hour from Midland and Lubbock is Hobbs, which is the home of the Black Gold Casino and the smashing good Rockwind Community Links, a benchmark course designed by Andy Staples as a model for a municipal use of parkland and great golf.

The Inn of the Mountain Gods, in Mescalero south of Ruidoso, is an excellent casino-resort with a fine Ted

Robinson-designed golf course. Robinson’s parkland design, opened in 1975 as one of the first tribal-owned courses in North America, has an alpine feel to it, mainly because of the towering Ponderosa pines, pinions, cottonwoods, and aspens along the fairways. Looming nearby is Sierra Blanca, an 11,973-foot peak that seems so close you can almost touch it.

Another great public course in the area is the Links at Sierra Blanca, a Jeffrey Brauer-Jim Colbert design on the site of an old airport in the center of town. It has a varied routing, with rolling hills and Scottish style golf on the front nine and holes that carve through the pines on the back nine. The Links is not far from Ruidoso Downs, the area’s venerable horseracing track and slots casino.

Moving north about two hours to the Albuquerque area there are casinos-resorts aplenty. The Isleta Golf Club, an amenity of burgeoning Isleta Resort-Casino across the street, has three nine-hole courses named after their primary topographic feature – Lakes, Arroyo, and Mesa. Each has a different character.

There’s nothing small about the Sandia Resort & Casino just north of Albuquerque, whether it’s the huge hotel and gaming area that looms over the neighboring golf course, the expansive clubhouse or the setting that stretches from the end of the horizon to the base of Sandia Peak. The course was routed by golf architect Scott Miller through a high-desert landscape. Carded at 7,772 yards from the tips, it’s one of the longest courses in New Mexico. But it doesn’t play that way thanks to a number of elevated tees and rolling fairways with the amenable knack of pushing wayward shots back into play.

Sandia Resort & Casino

No lack of golf and gaming options in Mississippi

By Steve Habel, Contributing Writer

Golf and gaming in Mississippi features casinos from the northwest corner of the state in Tunica and the rolling north-central plains of Philadelphia to the Gulf Coast at the opulent Beau Rivage.

Tunica, set about 45 minutes south of Memphis hard on the Mississippi River, has six casinos – including members of the Hollywood, Horseshoe and Sam’s Town families of resorts, the Gold Strike, and the Fitz Casino.

Golf offerings here include Tunica National Golf & Tennis Club, a Mark McCumber-fashioned track that’s the alpha course in the region, and River Bend Links, a rough-and-tumble Clyde Johnston routing with Big Muddy a constant presence.

Tunica National Golf & Tennis Club

Heading southeast toward Jackson, take a hard left off I-55 at Canton on Hwy. 16 and drive east to the Pearl River Resort, an expansive casino-resort near Philadelphia and the home of Dancing Rabbit Golf Club.

Dancing Rabbit GC may be one of the South’s unsung jewels, with two Tom Fazio/Jerry Pate designed courses nestled quietly among ancient pines and hardwoods. The two tracks –Azaleas and Oaks – embrace the gently rolling hills and valleys indigenous to this part of the world while still retaining the character and grandeur of the great Southern woodlands from which they were carved.

Once you hit the Gulf Coast in Biloxi, there are more casinos and golf courses than you could ever play on one trip (so make a few). The most lauded is Fallen Oak, owned by MGM Resorts International and available exclusively to guests of the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino. The Fazio-designed gem has consistently ranked as the best course in Mississippi by Golf Digest and Golfweek.

The Preserve Golf Club in Biloxi is owned and operated by the Palace Casino Resort and was designed by Pate, the former U.S. Open champion. The course is routed over 245 acres of pristine land surrounded by an 1,800-acre nature preserve.

A third great option in Biloxi is the Windance Country Club, which is owned by Island View Casino Resort. Designed by McCumber, it is one of the top resort golf courses in the region and plays at just over 6,600 yards from the back tees, with tight fairways and average size greens with less undulation than most.

Other courses in the 18-track roster in the area are Grand Bear, designed by Jack Nicklaus; Shell Landing GC, by Davis Love III; and, on the way back to Texas if you are driving, The Club at Diamondhead between Biloxi and New Orleans, with 18-hole courses fashioned by Earl Stone and John LaFoy.

River Bend Links