Travel

This San Antonio Market Is a Food Lover’s Journey Through Texas

Butcher? Check. Taqueria? Check. Fishmonger? Check. Almost a year after opening, Pullman Market is a community hub and travel-worthy culinary destination

An exterior image of a market on a brick road

Photo: casey dunn

One of the entrances to Pullman Market, where the green paint nods to a color in the original warehouse.

The action at San Antonio’s Pullman Market swirls around a novelty bar, a towering work of art inspired by Oaxacan black pottery from Mexico, studded with bottles of mezcal, and crowned with trailing plants. In the expansive, natural light–filled space that surrounds it, visitors can buy natural wines made in Texas, eat at fine-dining establishment Isidore, stop for a quick taco or pizza, meet a friend for coffee or ice cream, drink a cocktail—plus hit the grocery section, which stocks over a hundred and fifty Texas-based suppliers from within a hundred miles of the market’s entrance (think cuts of beef, fresh-caught Gulf fish, and dairy made in Blanco). 

Bermuda shoreline
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The market opened last spring in the city’s Pearl neighborhood inside a 1948-built former glass factory with original exterior clay tiles.“They were durable materials then and they’re durable materials now,” says Paul Clayton, a partner at Clayton Korte, the architecture firm behind the project. “They have such a great character because they’ve been modified over the years and have texture and layers of paint that tell the story of the building.” 

To inform the interior design, Joel Mozersky’s team took an inspirational trip to Mexico City and Guadalajara. “We saw what community hubs the markets were for people there,” he says. As a result, nods to San Antonio’s Hispanic heritage pop up all over the market—in oilcloth tables for eating tacos, outdoor furniture sourced from Guadalajara, and of course, the centerpiece Oaxaca-inspired bar. 

In terms of what the market would actually hold, Kevin Fink of Texas-based Emmer & Rye Hospitality wanted to do things a little differently and let consumers browse the locally sourced, high-quality products and ingredients used in the restaurants—Isidore, Mexican eatery and mezcalería Mesquite, pizza and pasta stop Fife and Farro, and dessert bar Nicosi. “We source whole animals, we buy from local farms, we bake our own bread from heritage grains,” he says. “I want a traditional consumer to have the same access to quality fish, meat, and produce—largely from Texas—that the restaurants do.” The model feeds itself: Freshly caught Gulf fish spend one day in the case, and if they aren’t bought, they’re made into ceviche at the taqueria. If a loaf of bread doesn’t sell on day one, it becomes sliced sandwich bread on day two, or salad croutons on day three. 

Today, the market is buzzing, just as its creators hoped. Below, see five photos of the stunning space—and if you happen to be in town, says Fink, don’t miss the carne asada tacos at the taqueria. 

An outdoor courtyard with plants and an industrial beam ceiling

Photo: casey dunn

An outdoor patio space recalls market courtyards in Mexico.


Inside a warehouse market with produce in wood bins

Photo: casey dunn

Custom-built displays in the grocery area showcase Texas-grown produce.


Photo: casey dunn

The wine cave holds some three hundred bottles, with a section dedicated to Texas-produced wines.

 


Inside a taco shop with yellow floral tables and woven lamps

Photo: casey dunn

The taqueria and cevichería offer a quick bite at oilcloth tables.


A bar with a living plant room and tall wood stools

Photo: casey dunn

The bar, which the design team nicknamed the “Oaxacan spaceship,” is made of burnished plaster recalling the black clay of Oaxaca. It’s complemented by a bartop of mesquite wood and custom stools by Austin’s Seer Studio.


Inside a restaurant with washed cream walls, textured tassel chandeliers, and woven seats with dark wood tables

Photo: casey dunn

Chandeliers and plants fill the vertical space inside the restaurant Mesquite, which offers a take on Sonoran cuisine from Mexico. “The really magical thing about this space is that although it’s indoors, those windows at the top make you feel like you’re outside because the light just pours in,” Mozersky says.


Lindsey Liles joined Garden & Gun in 2020 after completing a master’s in literature in Scotland and a Fulbright grant in Brazil. The Arkansas native is G&G’s digital reporter, covering all aspects of the South, and she especially enjoys putting her biology background to use by writing about wildlife and conservation. She lives on Johns Island, South Carolina, with her husband, Giedrius, and their cat, Oyster.