From Texas-sized steaks and Tex-Mex classics to oversized margaritas and birthday cheesecake, a handful of legacy restaurants show how San Antonio’s River Walk keeps family legacy — and tasty traditions going strong.
Casa Rio
If the San Antonio River Walk has a culinary birthplace, you’ll find it at the historic Commerce Street Bridge. Here, down on River Walk level, below the bustle of Commerce Street, Casa Rio opened its doors in 1946.
This year, the OG of River Walk dining celebrates 80 years and four generations of one family. It marked the milestone with a striking new outdoor mural — a bright contemporary tribute to the River Walk’s layered history called “The Flow of People, The Passage of Time.” It’s a fitting gesture for a restaurant that didn’t simply witness the River Walk’s rise, but helped invent it.
Casa Rio began as a leap of faith by Alfred Beyer, whose downtown appliance business was wiped out by the devastating 1921 flood. When changing retail trends later forced him to rethink his future, Beyer looked down — literally — excavating beneath his building to create a restaurant that opened directly onto the river itself. At the time, the River Walk was far from glamorous. Its reputation was so questionable that military personnel were discouraged from venturing there.
So, Beyer improvised. He persuaded base commanders to allow soldiers to descend the Commerce Street Bridge stairs directly to Casa Rio — no wandering required. He landscaped the bare riverbanks himself. He introduced canoes, gondolas and eventually dinner barges — decades before river cruises became a defining feature of the city.
And he served food that felt familiar and welcoming: classic Tex-Mex dishes inspired by Mexican cantinas — a menu that has remained largely intact for generations.
Today, Casa Rio is still family-owned and operated. Beyers; son-in law William Lyons Sr., then his son Bill Lyons. Today, Bill’s daughter, Elizabeth Lyons Houston, now owner and Vice President, manages the business.
Like the River Walk itself, the restaurant has evolved while staying recognizably itself — a place where longtime employees measure their tenure in decades, and where the past isn’t frozen behind glass, but lived every day, table by table.
Schilo’s: A Second Family
In 1980, Bill Lyons Jr. added an interesting twist to the tale of River Walk restaurant legacy when he purchased another historic family café. Schilo’s, just around the corner on Commerce Street level, had been run by three generations of the Schilo family for 63 years, since it opened in 1917. The transition kept Schilo’s firmly rooted in tradition while ensuring its survival in a downtown that was rapidly changing.
As part of the Lyons family for nearly 50 years, it still serves the same hearty German fare that made it famous — schnitzel, sausage, German potato salad, split pea soup and the famous “frosty mug” root beer remain beloved staples.
The food at Casa Rio and Schilo’s hasn’t chased trends. The rooms still hum with regulars who order without looking at the menu. And the experience — solid, unpretentious and generous — feels increasingly rare.
At an age when most people have long since retired, Lyons still shows up downtown regularly. He speaks of the River Walk with the reverence of someone who remembers when it wasn’t inevitable — when it had to be imagined, coaxed into being.
The Republic of Texas Restaurant:
Big, Bold and Still in the Family
The historic building where River Walk visionary Robert Hugman once worked now houses one of the river’s most exuberant dining rooms: The Republic of Texas Restaurant. Last year, the restaurant, named for independent Texas, celebrated 50 years of serving River Walk diners. Owner Rick Grinnan was there when it started, and his son Will carries on the family tradition today.
When Grinnan opened the restaurant in 1975, the River Walk was just beginning its transformation into a major destination. Grinnan already knew the territory well, having worked at the legendary Kangaroo Court while in college and later managing other popular River Walk establishments.
His vision for The Republic of Texas was unapologetically bold — and unmistakably local. “I drove all over the city to see what people loved,” Grinnan recalled. “It was burgers, Tex-Mex, barbecue. So, we leaned into that — and made everything bigger.”
That philosophy produced half-pound burgers, towering plates and famously oversized margaritas — 42 ounces of them — served in a restaurant that pulsed at night with disco energy and spectacle. Over time, as the River Walk itself became more family-oriented, the restaurant evolved along with it.
Today, the red, white and blue umbrellas shading the patio tables signal a space that welcomes everyone — from longtime locals to first-time visitors. Inside, artifacts from the days of the Republic of Texas share wall space with pieces referencing the Republic of Ireland, a nod to Grinnan’s fascination with parallel struggles for independence.
In recent years, the restaurant has entered its next chapter. Grinnan’s son, Will, returned to San Antonio to join the business as partner and manager, bringing fresh energy and a lighter culinary touch.
Menus have tightened. Portions have become more refined. Texas brews and spirits now dominate the bar program, including a house tequila from agave farms in Mexico that’s distilled in Dripping Springs exclusively for the restaurant — and is now its top-selling label.
Growing up on the River Walk, Will started young: washing dishes, bussing tables, hosting, even DJ-ing at night. “I always wanted to be like my father,” Will said. “Love of the River Walk must be in my blood.” His son, William Frederick Grinnan IV, is just 7 now, but he is already a River Walk regular. Who knows? Someday, he may continue the Grinnans’ Republic of Texas legacy.
Rick watches from a step back. “I got to mentor Will,” he said proudly. “Now he makes his own decisions.”
The River Walk changes. So does The Republic. But the family thread remains unbroken.
The Original Mexican Restaurant:
Growing Up on the River
When Bob Buchanan began his career as a River Walk restaurateur in the late 1960s, he wasn’t thinking about legacy. He was thinking about service, food and the pulse of a river that was still finding itself.
Decades later, at nearly 80, Buchanan — known affectionately as “Mr. B” — still loves hanging out at The Original Mexican Restaurant, one of several River Walk establishments he has helped shape over the years. The Original is the only one still open, and Buchanan has been there from its inception in 1986.
For his son, Larkin Buchanan, the River Walk wasn’t a destination — it was a childhood backdrop. He grew up darting between restaurants and shops, eventually working alongside his parents in his teenage years. His mom, Sally Buchanan, was a legend herself, as a longtime leader in the powerful San Antonio Conservation Society. “She was hands-on and meticulous with design, while dad was always checking the quality of the food and service,” Larkin recalled.
After college, Larkin fulfilled his love for travel, living and teaching in Prague and Korea. But the River Walk called him back. Today, his daughter, Lila, and son, Wyatt, are growing up much as he did, while he oversees the restaurant as the company’s vice president. “The kids love the River Walk, and my dad is in no way retired,” Larkin said. “Weekend nights, he’s still behind the bar washing glasses, and I almost have to push him out when midnight comes around.”
Running a River Walk restaurant, Larkin said, is never static. “It’s constant motion — organized chaos. But there’s poetry to it. And it fits our lives.”
So, the families — and the legacies — continue.
