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Plan

Cool Eats

Finding a refreshing snack, with a local flavor, in downtown San Antonio is easy. You just have to know what to look for along the streets and in the plazas and markets.

Here are some recommendations:

RASPAS: Summer in San Antonio is not complete without a raspa, also known as a snow cone, from a sidewalk vendor. Keep your eyes open, and your mouth ready, for the snow-cone carts dispensing relief. They have shaved ice and jugs of fluorescent-colored flavors such as lime and tamarindo.

PALETTAS: Equally enticing are palettas— popsickle/ice cream bars—also sold from carts in flavors such as coconut, mango with chile, pecan and even pickle.

FRUIT CUPS: Or try a refreshing fruit cup, chockfull of cut fruits—and often cucumber—and dusted with chile and drizzled with lime juice. They’re sold all over town from shops with windows open to the street, but a downtown source is Angie’s in the Farmer’s Market Food Court at Market Square. Aguas frescas, blends of water and fruits such as watermelon and cantaloupe, along with flavors such as cinnamon-spiked horchata, are also found here.

ICE CREAMS: Ice creams from more mainline sources include the legendary mango ice cream, favorite of presidents, served at the Menger Hotel’s Colonial Room.

margaritas Just up the street, in the Rivercenter Food Court, true Texans will plight their troth to Dairy Queen (there are more in the Lone Star State than anywhere else), though some might furtively make for the Marble Slab Creamery or the homemade ice cream, sorbets, gelatos, yogurts and sherbets at Justin’s Ice Cream on the River Walk.

ROOT BEERS: Cool drinks are another summer heat-chaser, and though San Antonio was once a beer-making Mecca (think Lone Star and Pearl), that mantle is now taken up by microbreweries such as Blue Star Brewing in the similarly named arts complex. But a long-time soft drink fixture remains: the house-made root beer at Schilo’s Delicatessen; it’s perfect with a coolly classic deli sandwich.

MARGARITAS: OK, we don’t actually make tequila in San Antonio (it has to be made in a specific region in Mexico in order to use the name), but we drink enough margaritas to make you think so.

From frozen concoctions swirled with prickly pear purée at places such as Boudro’s on the River Walk, to the hand-crafted, on-the-rocks models served at Mi Tierra’s Margarita Bar and La Hacienda de los Barrios’ patio, the marg (that’s how familiar we are) is a San Antonio staple—and not just in summer. Not just with nachos, either.

S.A.V.E.

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