In the shade of an oak down by the River, Tanne and I camped at Blanco in the Texas Hill Country. That was April 2011 and our trip, originally dubbed the Blue Bonnet tour, had been renamed the Brisket Tour because of the extreme drought - no Blue Bonnets in 2011. We met lot's of nice people in the shade of the oak, Folks from Lafayette Louisiana told us about a real good hamburger restaurant out in the middle of nowhere south of the highway from Blanco to Fredericksburg and north of Comfort. Folks from Houston confirmed it as the Alamo Springs Cafe on Old San Antonio Road. Texas Monthly magazine had recently done a special on Texas Hamburgers and dubbed it "the third best burger in Texas".
We enlisted the aid of our GPS and headed out in the Tacoma on Road 1623 to Road 1888 and turned left on Grapetown Road. Just past Luckenbach we turned left on Old San Antonio Road and passed the Frederick Hohenburger Farmstead historic site. It is privately owned and not open to the public but photo opportunities abound from the roadside.
Hohenburger Home
Hohenburger Outbuilding
The Alamo Springs Cafe is located at 107 Alamo Road, Fredericksburg, TX 78624 less than a hundred yards east of the middle of nowhere, and in sight of Old San Antonio Road in an old ranch house and they were slammed. We walked up on the porch just as a party of two was getting up and we slipped into their seats and bussed our own table. We were sitting next to a guy and two gals from Llano that had made the 60 mile trip down just for the burgers and fries and they adopted us and showed us the ropes. The place was full of happy people; with larger parties, including one wedding party, waiting outside to be seated.
Their Facebook page describes them as:
"Inconveniently located in the middle of nowhere" between Fredericksburg and Comfort. Laid-back atmosphere, serious food, and ice cold beer. We were on the Cover of Texas Monthly "Best Burgers in Texas " issue (August 2009)".
We got our table cleared and beered and visited with our new friends, the guy and gals from Llano, while we waited - an enjoyable wait. They were having the Firemans #4 Blonde Ale from Real Ale Brewery in Blanco. We had the Real Brewhouse Brown Ale. We were already familiar with the excellent Real Ales. Our friends filled us in on Texas BBQ in Llano and we went up there later in the trip and hiked Enchanted Rock and ate at Coopers Old Time BBQ and enjoyed the Llano downtown. Llano got their name in the paper later that summer when both the river and the municipal well ran dry.
The full menu was wonderful but why would you not order The Burger? We ordered the burger with the homemade chips and it came in way up over our expectations. I was reminded that I had once heard a Texan say "too much of a good thing ain't enough", thanks to Aerosmith and Tom Petty, and that I often thought it should be the State Motto of Texas. It definitely could be the byline for the Alamo Springs Cafe. The food arrived and conversation waned. All was prepared to perfection with enough lettuce, onion and tomato to constitute a side salad. It was, and is, the best burger I ever had.
In February 2012 we were passing back through the Texas Hill Country on the way to the Big Bend and we dropped in for a reprise - it was at least as good if not better. In February 2013, the Alamo Springs Cafe was named the best burger joint in Texas by Texas Country Reporter in "Texas Best - Burger". The next time we pass through that part of the world, we will go out of our way to have another - and I would like to hang around long enough to try the Chicken Fried Steak.
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If you would like to see my collection of Carolina Lowcountry memories—"Magnolia Elegy: Place In the Edisto Fork," you can view the book trailer here, and see the book page here on the publisher's website. The book is also available from Amazon, B&N, and your independent local bookseller.
