The dining room inside San Antonio restaurant Isidore is a study in understatement—wooden tabletops, polished concrete flooring, branch-like chandeliers, rustic, natural decor. And yet it screams Texas, in a prairie-to-desert kind of way. The restaurant from hospitality group Emmer & Rye (which also operates Pullman Market, where Isidore is located) aims to pull as much from its home state’s surroundings as possible, featuring ingredients, cooking methods, materials, and even a wine program that puts Texas cuisine front and center.
You can feel the kitchen’s energy as soon as you’re seated—very few surfaces, like walls or countertops, separate the action of firing and plating from the rest of the room, meaning most tables have front-row seats to the kitchen arena. The live-fire hearth is the beating heart of the space and the items coming off of it make up much of the menu.
But first, there is a lineup of cold seafood plates to command your attention. Arriving on a bed of river rocks, raw oysters from Blackjack Point Oyster Co. might be served alongside a strawberry cocktail sauce while red snapper aguachile could be topped with preserved peach granita and peanuts. For snacks, the popcorn chicken gets a kick of crunch and salt from popped sorghum kernels while tomato pie gets a smother of pimento cheese. Small plates include roasted lion’s mane mushrooms served as lettuce wraps with an enriched mushroom broth (which look and eat almost like a meat-y main) and a silky wagyu tartare with tomato and chile gelée served with corn pizzelle. A mid-course mini loaf of dark-crusted sourdough is made with all-Texas grains while mains show off the allure of Texan proteins, like the dry-aged Berkshire pork rib chop. (The best part of ordering the heftier mains is that you’re presented with a knife roll full of hand-forged cutlery so that you can choose your own blade to go along with your main course.)
Whatever beverage journey you’re on, Isidore has a range of cocktails, including a few non-alcoholic options, but to learn a little extra about what’s in your glass, opt for the Texas-only wine pairings, which allows the sommeliers to share their extensive knowledge about the regional wine scene. The education continues with dessert, when Texas pecans are the star in butter pecan ice cream as well as in a miso butter, served with a dark chocolate sorbet.
While the restaurant has a fine-dining ethos and its food is spectacularly plated, the restaurant does feel like it’s made for building community—a social hour from 5 to 6:30 offers 25 percent off drinks from Tuesday to Thursday, and you’ll usually find a strong showing from the locals who live within the Pearl mixed-use development that surrounds the space.
