Food

Food Truck Journey

Chef Ryan Rhys is all about change in his personal and culinary life

BY NINA RANGEL

It’s no exaggeration to say San Antonio Chef Ryan Rhys is in the middle of two of the most transformational journeys of his life.

The trangender chef-owner of the Satisfried food truck and ghost kitchen began his journey in the business venture with a diff erent name and gender identity but recently embraced ones more suited to his soul.

At the same time, Rhys and his wife Paige are expanding their business with several concepts inside the new Lombrano Foodhall in San Antonio’s Five Points neighborhood — all while continuing to operate the Satisfried mini-empire and Enzo’s Culinary Events catering outfi t.

We caught up with Rhys to chat about what’s next on these journeys.

What inspired the idea for Satisfried’s menu, which you refer to as “healthy-ish fat kid food?”

It’s big-kid food, you know, just a li le bit be er now. As kids, we all like tacos, sliders and mac and cheese, but when we grow up and eat them, it’s often subpar, mediocre. We really do try to strive for the best quality that we can, and we make everything from scratch and it’s all made to order. Nothing on the truck comes in frozen. And we like to be fun and funny. I’ve worked in fi ne dining the majority of my professional life. So, when we were diving into the truck, I decided that I want this to be like the most fun parts of me without being too much.

Between you and your wife and business partner Paige, is there one that’s more creative and one that’s more business-minded? Or do you fi nd those roles kind of interchange between the two of you?

We go back and forth on creativity and organization. My wife is defi nitely more blackand-white organization, in the sense of, like, spreadsheets, diagrams, schedules, calendars, HR, billing. That’s all her. And then I always make sure that the truck is functional, we have everything ordered, you know, the food side of everything. The presentation of our business, like our social media and website, that’s all my wife. She creates all of that content.

What is the next couple of years looking like for Satisfried? Is an expansion in the

Nina Rangel

works?

I would say we’re actually in our expansion process right now. We’ve been an anchor truck over at StreetFare since October of this last year, and it’s been great. [The summer] has been a li le rough, you know, when it’s so hot, not as many people want to come hang out with us and eat our delicious food. So, there are those struggles. But I have opened a commercial kitchen as well over at Lombrano Foodhall. So, we do all of our catering out of there, and we’re launching multiple food concepts out of that kitchen. There’s a lot going on. The last month or so has been a crazy roller coaster. It’s like we just decided to do everything all at one time.

Everything was kind of on hold for two years, so that makes total sense.

Satisfried has been in business now since April of 2021. And then the previous months, I was doing meal prep and planning, and that was what kind of got me started and what got my business out there. So, we had focused all of our energy on the truck, but now we have the kitchen, too. So, we run Satisfried the truck, Satisfried the kitchen and Enzo’s Culinary Events all under our umbrella.

It sounds like you two probably don’t get any down time at all. How do you relax together?

Yeah, we don’t really. People say that, but we have a 15-year-old as well, so whatever downtime we have, he occupies. I guess we do try to go out to eat, but I’d be lying if I said we have a weekly date night every Tuesday. I would say Sunday, from around 11:30 at night to about 1 o’clock in the morning — that’s our quality time when we watch our trashy TV or whatever we’re binging. And if that’s the case, then Bob and Timmy’s food truck is oftentimes our dinner.

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In preparing for this interview, I came across an Express-News piece on you from December of last year and noticed that the name of the Satisfried chef in that article was diff erent from yours.

Yeah, that was our fi rst big piece. I was super proud of that. And that’s when I started coming out, actually, right after that article. I told my wife, “I go a stop the shenanigans. You know, this Superman-Clark Kent, sort of double-life situation is confusing.” And I was fi nally ge ing confi dent enough and comfortable enough in my own skin to say, you know, “This is me.” That’s still a very new process for me, so this is probably going to be like my coming out piece, essentially. I’ve been out and all these things. I changed my name on social media, and I always introduce myself as Ryan. But I haven’t had that oneon-one with a lot of other people that are in my outside life, if that makes sense. I always joked that I’m a bad homo because I was the straightest lesbian you’d ever meet. Because I wanted a wife and a kid and a dog and a house with a picket fence, and in my mind, that was always heteronormative. This last year, my wife and I sat down and talked about all the feelings that I was having and why they weren’t making sense. I credit her with a lot of where we are now, both personally and professionally.

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Ron Bechtol

Night and Day

South Presa Street’s three new bar additions off er diff ering takes on light and shade

MThe proprietor of South Presa Street’s Hands Down tends bar with a smile in front of the establishment’s colorful mural.

BY RON BECHTOL

It’s just 50 purposeful steps down South Presa Street, give or take, from recently opened bar Hands Down to Near Dark, another newish addition to the south-of-downtown drinking scene. Between the two, you’ll also encounter Bar Ludivine, which opened late last year.

My original notion was to pitch my visit to this trio of newish establishments as the city’s shortest pub crawl. But during my visit, timed around sundown, a diff erent kind of movement emerged — a transition between day and night. A buy-in to either metaphor is optional, by the way.

Here’s what I mean: when it comes to décor, my stroll took me from the shadowy into the light. Near Dark is the newest of these three tippler’s havens, having opened exactly a month from the day I visited. The two proper-looking bartenders also turned out to be the owners, their practiced and precise shaking techniques speaking of much more time behind the bar.

For my money, Near Dark’s quasi-goth, What We Do in the Shadows theme doesn’t add much to the drink off erings, but it’s fun enough. It could be taken further, though, with the addition of more ghoulish portraits and bleached skulls, not to mention closing the black draperies against the vampire-vanquishing late afternoon sun and the mood-killing streetscape outside. With those changes, the name of the spot’s Not Today Satan cocktail might seem even more appropriate. During my visit, my drink choices were driven more by ingredients than amusing names, though. Among the house cocktails, I went with the Southtown Beat Down ($12), a stirred blending of bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth and Benedictine served over a single large ice cube. At fi rst, I found it a tad unbalanced in the direction of the sweet vermouth and Benedictine, but with time it all came together. Switching to a gin base, my next nod went to the Army Navy ($12), one of the menu’s classic cocktails. Because of its almond-based orgeat, you might think of this drink as a baby tiki minus the orchids or umbrellas. Yes, the almond comes on strong, but this too mellows out after the fi rst sip or two. Bar Ludivine occupied the middle ground my South Presa odyssey — in

Near Dark every possible way. Where Near Dark’s walls are a deep plum color, Ludivine 1024 S. Presa St. sports a bright, French blue. A mural (210) 600-4009 inside tells a tale of two towers: San neardarkbar.com Antonio’s Tower of the Americas and Paris’ Eiff el. The artwork proclaims the bar is “Your destination for craft cocktails and wine,” but it’s unlikely that wine lovers will beat a path to the door for that alone. Even so, credit is due for listing lesser-known whites such as picpoul de pinet. The cocktail list looked more impressive at fi rst glance. The Emerald Dagger ($14) stood out from the

Bar Ludivine 1014 S. Presa St. (210) 908-9209 barludivine.com

menu’s seasonal list, but alas, it was not to be. “We’re out of green Chartreuse,” confessed the lone server, and though it’s not listed as an ingredient, this potent liqueur would have contributed both the emerald aspect and a powerful jolt of herbal fl avor. The switch to a “Blanco” Negroni ($12) yielded a well-made, mezcal-forward stirred drink with Suze and Lillet Blanc.

Emboldened by this positive experience, I moved on to the Café No Se ($12), a heady blend of Jamaican rum, Suze, coff ee liqueur, demerara gomme syrup, pineapple and lime. The drink ended up being more like Café No Hay, since the bartender had used the last of the Suze in my Negroni. Undeterred, I suggested subbing Cynar, a favorite amaro, expecting that it would play well with others in the lengthy ingredient list. Shaken and served with fl oating coff ee beans, it did indeed.

The moral here? Come to Ludivine prepared to be fl exible, perhaps when there’s a musical act on stage to distract you.

Early evening, when it’s still bright outside, probably wasn’t the ideal time to visit either Ludivine or Near Dark, but it was perfect for Hands Down. The light — fi ltered by screens at the sidewalk’s edge — brings the space to life, illuminating the colorful mural, the wall of thoughtfully curated bo les of wine and the back bar loaded with impressive amari and aperitivi.

In the appealing se ing, I was inspired to order two cocktails I usually disdain. One was a gin-based frozen drink, while the other was billed as an “improved” Long Island Iced Tea, a concoction that normally includes a kitchen sink’s worth of boozy ingredients designed to infl ict maximum pain. It didn’t hurt — until later, anyway — that both were $5 happy hour specials. If you want to actually taste any frozen drink, its fl avors must be exaggerated, and Hands Down’s blend of gin, juniper tonic and salted lemon-lime cordial pulled it off perfectly. After the initial sinus freeze, the fl avors softened as the drink slumped into submission. A bowl of curried pecans proved an amiable companion. I was initially less impressed by the bar’s take on a Long Island Iced Tea, despite a pedigreed list of ingredients such as Bonal, Cocchi Ameri-

Hands Down cano and Fernet — the la er being a bully that 1012 S. Presa St. often dominates, as it (210) 462-1430 did here. I might be handsdownbar.com tempted to add more orange liqueur to balance Fernet’s bi erness, but this drink also relaxed into a libation worth contemplation as the sun set. Lest you sink more quickly into a state of heightened inebriation, I don’t really suggest you hit all three places on the same night. The crawl I mentioned earlier was just another metaphor.

qBar Ludivine, another South Presa newcomer, bills itself as a destination for both cocktails and lesser-known wines.

OPENINGS

Dance club Cream is now open in the Beacon Hill space that used to house Babio’s. A latenight kitchen also is in the works. 527 W. Hildebrand Ave., instagram.com/cream_satx.

The Pearl’s new WonderSlice pizza spot is now serving up slices, full pies, homemade subs, salads and soft serve. 312 Pearl Pkwy., Building 6, wonderslicepizza.com.

Crocke Tavern, the new concept from chef Justin Ward, is now open inside the historic Crocke Hotel, bringing locals and tourists alike “an authentic Texas dining and an immersive Alamo experience.” 320 Bonham Street, crocke tavern. com.

Catering outfi t 375° Social Kitchen has opened a brick-and-mortar location in the Northeast San Antonio space that previously housed The South Chicken and Waffl es. 8124 Agora Parkway, Suite 200, threeseventyfi ve.com.

Mexican restaurant Rosario’s is eyeing an August opening for its new, larger Southtown location. 722 S. St. Mary’s St., rosariossa.com.

Fried-chicken chain Zaxby’s will expand its Texas footprint with a new West San Antonio location later this year. 11903 Alamo Ranch Parkway, zaxbys.com.

Atlanta-based Chicken Salad Chick will open its fi rst San Antonio location in Stone Oak later this year. 22831 North U.S. Highway 281, Suite 116, chickensaladchick.com.

Southtown coff ee spot Gold has teased a new “food and beverage idea” called Lil Treasures in the space that formerly housed Bandit BBQ. 1913 S. South Flores St., instagram.com/lil_treasures_sa.

The owners of the El Remedio food trucks will open their fi rst brick-and-mortar restaurant this summer less than a mile from USAA’s headquarters. 5018 Research Drive, facebook.com/ElRemedioSA.

NEWS

San Antonio’s El Camino food truck park is home to two new mobile kitchens. The Pita Chick serves Mediterranean fare, while the Masshole Food Truck specializes in New England lobster rolls. 1009 Avenue B, elcaminosa.com.

Japanese restaurant Yuko will make its debut at San Antonio’s Eilan Hotel Resort next year. 18603 La Cantera Terrace, eilanhotel.com.

Dog-friendly Hops & Hounds will open a second location along the Museum Reach of the River Walk, complete with a dog park and a coff ee shop.

The days of rushing through an alcoholic drink before your group begins to board its fl ight will soon be over, at least in the Alamo City. San Antonio International Airport will now allow alcoholic beverages inside the terminals.