Winery on the Gruene…and lunch!
One day, we took a bit of a drive north and east of San Antonio
to a small historic town of Gruene (pronounced “green”). German farmers arrived here in the mid-1840’s. They originally reached the established town of
New Braunfels, but land was scarce, so they moved down the river a bit and
settled in Gruene. The town prospered
until about 1920, when the development stopped and Gruene started a downward
slide. This continued until the mid-1970’s,
when the estate was sold, and new purchasers arrived. New businesses were established and Gruene
was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
We started our visit with a stop at the winery in town, Winery on the Gruene. They had both dry and sweet wines, so it seems just about anything for everyone’s taste! We did pick up a bottle of their Chardonnay to enjoy later on our patio by the campsite!
The historic part of town can easily be identified by looking up and finding the old water tower in town! The full name of the historic district seems to be “Gruene Historic District at the Water Tower”, so clearly the water tower is an important feature. We walked by the water tower on our way to…
… the Gristmill River Restaurant and Bar, where we had a substantial lunch (peppered filet for me!)! The décor and surroundings were quite rustic, as you can see in the above photo, and the Guadalupe River was next to it. I did snap a photo of it after lunch as we drove out of town!
Enjoy!!
