Boerne is better than you remember and closer than you think.
By Janis Turk
One of San Antonio’s favorite local restaurants isn’t even in the city limits.
Peggy’s on the Green, named for chef and owner Mark Bohanan’s late mother, is a fine-dining American restaurant in Boerne, the once quaint Hill Country town now practically knocking at San Antonio’s side door. Growth along I-10 outside Loop 1604 now links town and country, making our old northwestern neighbor the city’s newest, closest friend.
It also makes going to Boerne for a weekend lunch, Sunday brunch, or special evening dinner a doable treat — you can be back home in bed by 10 p.m. That is unless you want to make a mini vacation of it and spend a night at The Kendall, the handsome boutique hotel home to Peggy’s on the Green.
Just 31 miles from downtown, Boerne is more than a booming bedroom community today: It’s a dynamic destination all its own. Boerne has exploded in popularity along its historic Main Street, which features German-style limestone buildings from the mid-1800s filled with shops, restaurants, art galleries, and a cute little bakery or two.
So has Peggy’s on the Green.
Quietly hidden toward the back of the town’s Main Plaza with its white postcard-pretty gazebo in the center of the green, Peggy’s is the cornerstone restaurant of The Kendall. With modern accommodations set in an 1859 stagecoach stop along Cibolo Creek, the former Ye Kendall Inn is now a desirable destination hotel following a million-plus-dollar renovation.
Peggy’s on the Green, a Hill Country-casual American restaurant and steakhouse, offers a menu Bohanan calls “contemporary interpretations of Southern heritage foods and classic American dishes highlighting Hill Country ingredients.” Featuring Southern favorites like shrimp and grits, cornmeal-dusted soft-shell crab, fried green tomatoes with lump crabmeat, and chicken-fried quail with johnnycakes drizzled in cayenne maple syrup, the dinner menu also offers all the classics. Enjoy Bohanan’s signature French onion soup, plump crab cakes, the day’s fresh catch, and USDA Prime aged center-cut Allen Brother’s steaks. Leave room for Texas beer-battered onion rings, lobster mac-and-cheese, Mexican street corn, bourbon brussels sprouts, unique salads, and divine desserts.
Growing up in Jourdanton, Bohanan learned a lot about food while watching his mother and grandmother cook from scratch and his grandfather grill meat. Today, in another small Texas town, he honors their legacy.
“Peggy’s menu is based on what my mother served: the freshest, local ingredients available,” says Chef Bohanan. When he can’t be in Peggy’s kitchen, his right-hand San Antonio woman, chef de cuisine Heather Nuñez, ensures that guests enjoy the same fine dining experience expected at any Bohanan-owned restaurant.
On a Friday afternoon, my husband and I checked into The Kendall, a building we hadn’t been to in decades. Back then, the Limestone Grill occupied about half of the ground floor, and the inn’s rooms seemed as small and musty as a grandma’s closet.
Today, The Kendall stands fully renovated and restored with 34 clean, well-appointed rooms and suites, including a few log cabins in the back and a little white chapel, creating a charming cottage suite. The back courtyard, with glowing strings of white lights, is an enchanting place to sit by an outdoor fire. In front, a sunny porch runs the length of the building upstairs and down. The Kendall was a surprise, old-fashioned on the outside but fresh, luxurious, and new inside. Hardwood floors, leather chairs, soft textiles, and chic décor were more than we expected. We were delighted to stay upstairs in the spacious Victoria Suite with its separate sitting room featuring back-to-back fireplaces.
We took the outdoor staircase to the ground floor to peek into the bar with its bright, happening vibe in a dark, attractive space. In the restaurant, a spacious dining room stands surrounded by windows. It has the feel of an inviting country inn with wooden floors and tables; chairs backed with leather straps, and a row of banquettes with an unfussy wallpaper pattern behind them. There was something solidly Texan about the restaurant without any tired Hill Country clichés. Peggy’s is classic, tasteful, and straightforward. But when Chef Nuñez came out to say hello and suggested everything tastes better loaded with crabmeat, we suddenly felt like we were back in the big city at Bohanan’s Prime Steaks and Seafood.
If Boerne seems too far to drive for fine dining, it’s not. Peggy’s on the Green is closer than you imagined, and Boerne is better than you remember. These modern Hill Country landmarks are well worth the little jaunt up I-10.
Janis Turk is a longtime contributor and former managing editor of San Antonio Woman magazine. She’s also a widely published travel writer and guidebook author, with titles like Frommer’s San Antonio and Austin Day by Day and Frommer’s TEXAS to her name.
