Camino real hotel el paso11/20/2023 The group was named Golden Groove and led by saxophonist/composer, Daniel Rivera who was also director of the Sun City Symphony Orchestra. More instruments came out – a saxophone, classical guitar, and more. Suddenly it came alive with some original music that you couldn’t label. The trio was playing standard soft jazz when we arrived – guitar, bass and piano. The beer selection was carefully considered for each season. Turns out the Craft & Social was started by a local man who had lived in Belgian for a while and got a taste for Trappist ales, beer brewed in French monasteries. The furnishings were rustic and spare the menu was limited but good. We took seats at the bar, ordered food and beer and settled in. A beer nirvana Wall of Beer at Craft & Social The pizza pubs and bars nearby had respectable crowds from the university just blocks away. That surprised us because it was 8:30 pm on a Wednesday night. The band outnumbered the patrons until Shane and I walked in. A trio played in the front corner by the old plate glass windows. A tiled wall with beer taps and a big wooden bar took up most of the narrow back wall. A big band at a small placeĪ cold wind was blowing down off the Franklin Mountains so we slipped into an old storefront that housed a beer pub called Craft & Social. The hotel clerk offered to shuttle us around downtown, but we wanted to walk after hours on the plane. Nothing destroys a good feeling quicker than seeing yourself in a poorly lit bathroom mirror. ![]() A coffee-maker in our room, walking distance to funky and colorful bars and restaurants, free breakfast with lots of protein, and the very best part – soft vertical lighting down the sides of the bathroom mirror. No high expectations here, especially with the featureless, blocky exterior but it ultimately checked off all the boxes for the nuances that make a good hotel experience. Searching trusty TripAdvisor, we’d booked the Holiday Inn Express on the edge of downtown. ![]() We discovered that was not the case with another famous old El Paso romance. That relationship ended 30 days later, but at least Curtis had lived to tell the tale. Curtis made the move to El Paso for the “worst reason in the world” – a woman. He’d move to Texas to be closer to his son who had retired from the military in San Antonio. A transplanted Chicagoan, Curtis was watching the Cubs on TV at a nearby hotel lobby. Curtis the lovelorn Cubs fanĪt the El Paso airport, an Uber driver named Curtis arrived in minutes. Then we would catch the Sunset Limited going east to Alpine, the real jumping off point for our adventure. All we had planned for El Paso was this concert, a visit the next morning to Concordia Cemetery and some enchiladas at L&D Café. Why El Paso? Thee Oh Sees were playing that night at the Low Brow Palace next to University of Texas at El Paso. It was my son Shane’s 29 th birthday and we were catching a 5:30p flight out of Houston Hobby for El Paso to position ourselves to start our West Texas rail trip the next day. Old El Paso is less tourist-laden than San Antonio and packed full of riveting history as we unexpectedly discovered. If you think of El Paso only in terms of drug cartels or as the western bookend for Interstate-10 in Texas, you’re missing something special.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |