Casa Hernán Cantina. The name fits an expanding realm. The two-story framework on East Cevallos Road stands as casa y cantina. Muy grande. The culinarian that as soon as called it home has actually changed the room right into a time-traveling bar.
Step inside Casa Hernán Cantina and you obtain an eyeful of Old Mexico. Equipale home furnishings. Calaveras over an entranceway. Looming papier-mâché numbers. Artefacts from Oaxaca and Guadalajara. Whatever from the shade and decoration to wood floor covering has a south-of-the-border feeling.
” I wished to produce one of the most Mexican room in San Antonio,” claimed Johnny Hernandez, cook, food caterer and famous business owner. “That was my objective. To take you to Mexico. To all the important things I enjoy regarding Mexico: the structures, the illumination, the accents, the shade, the creativity. I do not believe there’s anything such as this in America.”
The house/bar is distinct. It lugs the very first 6 letters of the proprietor’s surname and broadens a vision years in the making.
Beginning with La Gloria at Pearl in 2010, Hernandez has actually instilled the feeling and tastes of Mexico right into the society of San Antonio with a mix of Mexican-themed principles and service endeavors.
The Hernandez realm consists of facilities from Southtown to the San Antonio International Airport terminal; an once a week occasion called “Market Days at La Villita,” food and drink agreements with the San Antonio Philharmonic and the San Antonio Spurs; and a company, Real Flavors Event catering, that offers company customers and the Henry B. González Convention Facility.
There’s much more. Hernandez started Kitchen area University, a not-for-profit that attaches young people to cooking chances. He likewise organizes 2 yearly Paella Difficulties, one for united state and Mexican cooks, the various other for neighborhood secondary school groups.
Hernandez on Thursday flew the leading 3 groups from this year’s obstacle to his university, the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York City, where they appreciated supper at CIA. The trainees were to explore the school on Friday, go to workshops and consult with admissions therapists.
The paella tests advantage Kitchen area University, which Hernandez makes use of to establish cooks and share his love for all points Mexico. Diana Barrios-Trevino, a long time buddy and Vice Head of state of Los Barrios Household Restaurants, recognizes what drives the cook’s enthusiasm.
” They claim San Antonio is the northern most city of Mexico,” Barrios Trevino claimed, ” and Johnny is making certain that never ever disappears.”
Hernandez reclines in a hand-crafted equipale chair, lights lower, the cantina shut, and mirrors. It’s Tuesday early morning. He is using his hallmark cook’s layer. He remembers journeys with Mexico, his dark eyes loaded with light.
Memories from his young people show up, evoking a cozy smile.
The tastes of Mexico triggered a business spirit virtually half a century earlier. As a kid, Hernandez took morning meal tacos from his daddy’s Westside dining establishment, “Johnny’s Snack bar and Event catering,” and offered or traded them at college. He revealed an ability in the kitchen area, food preparation usually with his daddy at the lunchroom.
Johnny Hernandez, Sr., a single Mexican migrant employee with a second-grade education and learning, acknowledged a present and opportunities. He urged his child, a San Antonio indigenous, to go to cooking college.
Hernandez finished a partner’s level at CIA on the East Shore, however he had not been shown regarding the food triggering his passion. ” Since I was educated under French cooks and European cooks,” he claimed, “I really did not understand Mexican food.”
After cooking college, Hernandez operated at a Las Las vega casino site and a high-end resort chain in Santa Barbara, The Golden State. He went back to San Antonio as a business cook at The Old San Francisco Steakhouse and introduced his food catering service in 1994.
Later on, he accompanied his mom on journeys to Mexico, where she did objective job, which started years of traveling with the nation’s inside. Hernandez went to pueblos, researched the society, checked out food and gathered artefacts. He transformed one substantial item he gathered a years earlier, a tree trunk from Tonalá Jalisco, right into bench at Casa Hernán Cantina.
” Initially, that was mosting likely to be a cook’s table,” Hernandez claimed. “That was mosting likely to enter into my botanero. Yet it’s as well huge. So it beinged in my storehouse for 8 to one decade till I lastly claimed, ‘It fits completely right here.'”
Casa Hernán functioned as a hacienda-style home for 8 years in the Lone Celebrity Area. Hernandez functioned and lived upstairs. Breakfasts, events and receptions were held downstairs. The COVID-19 pandemic, nevertheless, maimed service, leading him to reimagine the room.
Casa Hernán Cantina opened up in March 2023 with agave spirits, handmade mixed drinks and botanas (flautas de pollo, queso fundido, volcanes de asada). Engaging social networks blog posts attracted groups. One customer summed up the cantina with a formula: “Agave + Botanas = Day Evening Excellence.”
To include the brand-new principle, Hernandez relocated his Grupo La Gloria workplace to South Alamo. At the exact same time, he worked with increasing the impact of his business, Host True Flavors, which currently consists of 3 of his brand names at the airport terminal: La Gloria, The Fruteria and Super Bien Mex Cocina.
Common council authorized brand-new principles in November for Terminal A: Cook Johnny’s Mercado, Southerleigh Penalty Food & & Brewery, Tre Trattoria, Pharm Table, Products Fried Poultry and Panda Express. In Might, council authorized 4 principles for Incurable B: 2M Smokehouse, Popeye’s, Pastry shop Lorraine and The Sampling Area.
” This is mosting likely to alter the vacationers’ experience,” Hernandez informed the San Antonio Record after the council ballot. “When La Gloria opened up at the airport terminal 12 years earlier, individuals claimed, ‘Allow’s arrive very early to have morning meal.’ Or ‘Allow’s arrive very early to have lunch.’ That was never ever the objective to start with. It was ‘Rush and reach eviction.’ Today, I believe that’s a concept we are mosting likely to improve and advertise with the brand-new principles.”
The vision broadens.
Blink and Mexico-themed hamburger area Burgerteca disappears and re-emerges as Blue Moon in Southtown. The brand-new joint endeavor with Blue Moon Mexican Dining establishment proprietors Alejandra and Silvano Garcia includes the most effective of the initial Blue Moon (menudo disadvantage , cheese enchiladas) and the most effective of Burgerteca (al priest hamburgers, bacon-wrapped hotdogs) under one roofing system.
Blink once again and Hernandez is preparing to introduce “Cook Johnny’s Mercado” at the College of the Incarnate Word. He currently has school eating, The Restaurant, at the College of Texas at San Antonio’s College of Information Scientific Research.
Blink once again and he’s wrapping up strategies to introduce Southtown Food Hall, a 15,000-square-foot space at 1725 S. Alamo St. including The Fruteria, Burgerteca, Southtown Coffee, Margarita Yard, a bakeshop and a butcher store.
” I understand it’s a great deal of points,” Hernandez claimed. “A lot to ensure that also I neglect what I’m doing sometimes.”
Life is a speedy. Hernandez teams up, handles tasks, hosts occasions, tosses events and strategies brand-new endeavors. He handles a realm without appearing to perspire.
” It’s astonishing,” claimed Louis Barrios, head of state of Los Barrios Household Restaurants, that includes Viola’s Ventanas and La Farmhouse de los Barrios. “Johnny is an extremely excellent person. He’s a business owner. He’s a cook. He’s really gregarious and cherished. And he’s obtained numerous devices at his disposal. He can elevate cash for his undertakings. Individuals rely on him. He’s wonderful at developing principles. He’s an outstanding cook. He’s obtained a fantastic tale. He’s incredibly appealing and everyone enjoys him.
” I suggest, he’s a sensation.”
Mexico drives Hernandez. Innovative expressions sustain the objective. 9 years earlier on Cinco de Mayo, he prepared for Head of state Barack Obama in the White Residence Rose Yard. The food selection consisted of chiles en nogada, hen tinga in tomato-chipotle sauce, fruit gazpacho and tres leches cake. In 2019, he contended versus star chef Bobby Flay on the Food Network, preparing a shrimp taco with a crunchy rice flour batter and chipotle mayo. Flay won.
” What I enjoy regarding Johnny is he maintains that background active,” claimed Barrios-Trevino, that prepared puffy tacos for Obama in 2010. “He educates the whole neighborhood regarding the custom, the active ingredients, the food preparation strategies, the tastes and the friendliness that is our Mexican heritage.”
San Antonio rests 150 miles from the Mexico boundary. Hernandez connects the range with innovative principles. Seated in a hand-crafted chair of natural leather, he appreciates his environments: Timber makings. Handmade art. A food selection of spirits and botanas.
It remains in that room that whatever seems like Old Mexico and motivates a vision for even more.
