On a curve of the San Antonio River, one stage above the River Stroll, Bruce Auden displays beside a window desk.
Time strikes just like the early spring water beneath. Slowly. Reminiscences shift, particulars conflate. Has it been that lengthy?
In March 2000, Auden opened Biga on the Banks, an upscale development in San Antonio’s culinary evolution. An creative menu supplied gorgeous creations. Filo-wrapped sea bass on mustard-braised leeks dazzled palates. Sticky toffee pudding burst with British-inspired taste. Inside six months, Gourmand journal had ranked Biga the fifth greatest restaurant in Texas.
Auden was not a restaurateur enchanted with acclaim. Neither is he now. But right here he’s, essentially the most embellished chef in South Texas, a person thought to be the godfather of San Antonio superb eating. 1 / 4 century after opening Biga, he’s reluctant to embrace his standing.
“I don’t like labels,” Auden mentioned just lately, throughout the calm earlier than his eating room opened. “I simply really feel fortunate I received the chance.”
The chance to which he refers got here 40 years in the past. It elevated Auden’s profession and upended San Antonio’s fame as a pit cease for Tex-Mex and barbecue.
Lawyer and businesswoman Virginia Van Steenberg was creating the Fairmount Lodge. In March 1985, the three-story constructing was moved from East Commerce, present web site of the Rivercenter Mall, to its current location on South Alamo. The lodge wanted a chef for its new restaurant, Polo’s.
Van Steenberg and her daughter, marketer Dru Van Steenberg, drove to Houston to recruit Auden, a London-born chef who had launched New American delicacies to Charley’s 517, a vacation spot restaurant in H-City.
“We wished Polo’s to achieve success and the go-to vacation spot for superb eating,” Dru mentioned. “We knew by his fame that he was a beautiful chef. However I can actually say we didn’t actually understand the impression he would have on San Antonio’s eating scene for the subsequent 40 years.”
Within the mid-80s, few San Antonio kitchens registered in culinary America. Chez Ardid, on San Pedro Avenue, and La Louisiane, on Broadway, had been exceptions, that includes upscale delicacies that earned a measure of essential recognition. One other restaurant, the Crimson Carpet, served as a swanky gathering spot for energy brokers and celebrities.
Polo’s held loftier ambitions. Auden accepted a carte blanche provide and created a culinary spectacle. On opening evening, a Who’s Who of San Antonio converged inside a chic, peach-hued eating room lit by tall, sacramental votives. A wood-burning range baked black bean and goat cheese quesadillas. A pianist performed as visitors nibbled on beautifully-plated appetizers. Whereas recollections blur on the featured delicacies, Polo’s was touted for grilled blackbuck antelope, chili-revved rabbit enchiladas and squab with tamarindo, bourbon and pecan sauce.
The wine checklist included Merlot, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon from high-end California producers.
“It was a surrealistic evening,” recalled Mark Bliss, a roundsman then, a high chef at present. “Bruce had high-powered cooks there like Robert Del Grande and David Garrido. I didn’t know who they had been on the time. However they’d a wealth of things. It was like strolling right into a magic retailer. That first evening is once I realized that’s what I wished to do.”
The kitchen at opening included one future James Beard Award winner (Del Grande), a future James Beard nominee (Auden) and a future white tablecloth chef in Austin (Garrido). Bliss himself would emerge to guide an acclaimed Southtown hotspot that bears his identify.
Auden surrounded himself with distinctive expertise. The outcomes drew glowing opinions. One San Antonio reviewer wrote, “Chef Auden positively goals excessive along with his meals presentation, ranking an ideal ‘10.’ Each plate, from salad to entree, is a murals – not overly contrived, however with the aptitude of a Paul Klee portray.”
Flattering press accelerated. One yr after opening, Auden’s kitchen was featured in Esquire’s “Greatest New Bars and Eating places of 1987.” Impressed with the structure, atmosphere and menu, particularly the tea-smoked duck, a critic wrote, “Unquestionably, this is without doubt one of the most uncommon locations on this boomtown, and, to my thoughts, Polo’s is now among the finest eating places within the state and one of the crucial modern within the nation.”
Media enthusiasm crescendoed in 1988 when Meals & Wine named Auden to its inaugural checklist of America’s 12 Greatest New Cooks.
“Polo’s was already the go-to place in San Antonio,” Dru mentioned. “However as soon as Bruce received the Greatest New Chef accolades, it made the traces longer. We crammed up the banquet room with wedding ceremony receptions. Conventioneers would come to San Antonio and use the Fairmount. One particular person mentioned, ‘We need to have this lodge for the subsequent three years.’ And so they booked it and had all their events at Polo’s with Bruce doing the meals.”
San Antonio now had its first rock star chef, a 6-foot-1, exclamation point-thin culinarian whose artistry and talent packed the home. What would he cook dinner up subsequent? A brand new restaurant known as Biga, situated in a historic Tobin Hill residence.
In 1991, the yr it opened, Esquire named Biga to its checklist of Greatest Eating places and Bars. Constructive press and acclaim poured in over the subsequent 9 years.
“You get accolades,” Auden mentioned with a shrug, ”however what do they do? They don’t provide you with an additional time off.”
Awards don’t enlarge eating rooms, repair damaged fixtures or modernize a restaurant. They don’t all the time translate into enough revenue margins. So Auden moved Biga to the banks of a river, into a big area as soon as occupied by the San Antonio Library.
After settling into the Worldwide Constructing, Biga on the Banks turned a culinary hotspot. As much as 4 kitchens serve visitors in a predominant eating room with ground to ceiling home windows, an upstairs room for personal events and a 2,400-square foot wraparound terrace with a sweeping view of the town.
Biga swept up enterprise and Auden piled up awards. Seven framed certificates, all James Beard nominations for Greatest Chef: Southwest, cling like artwork on a wall close to the bar. No different native chef has acquired extra James Beard nominations.
Nobody appears extra shocked by the popularity than Auden. He grew up in North London, the least academically profitable of three siblings. With no culinary ambition, he labored in a small grocery store and material retailer earlier than transferring to the U.S. at 17. In Highland Park, Illinois, Auden took a job as a busboy on the Northmoor Nation Membership. He seen younger girls took a liking to cooks and set his sights on the kitchen.
“I used to be like, ‘Wow, that is nice, there’s a whole lot of waitresses right here,’” Auden recalled. “I feel I’ll simply keep on this enterprise.”
In time, he joined the kitchen at Crickets, a as soon as legendary institution in Chicago, and rose from cook dinner to sous chef. Later in Dallas and Houston, Auden refined his culinary chops working with founders of the Southwestern motion, which blended Mexican, Native American and Spanish elements and flavors.
From these influences, Auden launched a culinary revolution in San Antonio. The town doesn’t but rank with New York, Chicago or New Orleans as a nationwide meals vacation spot. San Antonio has however one Michelin star restaurant (Mixtli) and 0 James Beard award winners. But, the town’s culinary profile is increasing, and never by somewhat. San Antonio has extra acknowledged kitchens and cooks than ever.
The renaissance started with Auden. From his kitchens got here unique dishes and flavors and a litany of cooks who developed into main cooks. Mark Bliss is one in all them.
“Bruce was very modern,” Bliss mentioned. “He introduced in methods and concepts no one had ever seen earlier than. He helped set new requirements throughout the board. He made it potential for others to do issues, like myself and Mixtli’s. He opened the door for us to achieve success.”
Chef Steven McHugh gives a narrative. When he arrived in San Antonio 15 years in the past, Auden invited him to occasions. Introductions had been made, recommendation freely supplied and acquired. At Cured, McHugh discovered a candy spot, incomes six James Beard nominations for Greatest Chef: Southwest. He dined at Biga not sometimes.
“I really feel fortunate to have eaten at Biga on the Banks dozens of instances through the years,” McHugh mentioned. “I really like the colourful, international perspective of meals that’s mirrored on the menu. Bruce is mostly a man of the world and his meals is actually transportive.”
Auden doesn’t take reward effectively. Compliments, nevertheless measured, can elicit a twitch of discomfort. On the similar time, he understands that acclaim attracts enterprise, and with out prospects, what would he do? Auden likes to say he began cooking as a result of he wasn’t good at anything.
So right here comes a culinary paradox: On April 22, Biga will have a good time its twenty fifth anniversary with an occasion to learn the San Antonio Meals Financial institution and St. Philip’s School Culinary and Hospitality College. Auden doesn’t need a huge deal product of his legacy however he does need individuals to purchase tickets (beginning at $175 for people) to help two of his favourite causes. He can’t have one with out the opposite.
The occasion will function eight chef stations helmed by Biga alumni, together with Bliss, and college students from St. Philip’s culinary college. The menu has not been set however guarantees to excite.
Seated beside a ground to ceiling window at Biga, Auden reveals a faint smile. The River Stroll beneath hums with recent vitality. The Tower Life Constructing throughout the road rises with dated splendor. Biga manifests the perfect of each, reflecting a treasured previous, embracing what’s to return.
The Auden smile is one in all gratitude. He invited various former staff to have a good time the anniversary, they usually fortunately accepted. The planning continues and so does the demand of enterprise. The kitchen calls. It’s time to cook dinner up a brand new creation.
