Pam's Patio Kitchen and Wine Bar — Restaurant in San Antonio

I've been going to Pam's since it opened. My daughter was 4 years old then, and she is about to turn 25, so that's how I always remember how long they've been there. The food has always been great, but this place has only gotten better with age. Everyone I am going to mention who works there is family, one way or another. David, the owner, can be found there pretty much every night of the week. His sons cook in the kitchen. He has definitely taught them well. Not only is great food the key, but consistency is just as important, and this is always evident at every visit. The menu is very diverse, and offers something for pretty much everyone. The lunch menu and dinner menu differ greatly. At lunchtime, there are many soups, salads and sandwiches, and dinner time offers a wide array of dishes. (Their soups are always an excellent choice, day or night). I've yet to have anything on the menu that I didn't fully enjoy. David is a very knowledgeable and personable owner, who obviously takes great pride in his establishment. He has taught his sons and his other employees very well. Sisters, Linda and Val, who can be found working there pretty much all the time, (Val during the day, and Linda mainly at night) not only wait on tables and take care of a myriad of other responsibilities, are also responsible for making the best cakes, cupcakes, and desserts I've ever had. (This is coming from someone who actually really does not like cake or cupcakes.) I'm not kidding. The cupcakes are so moist, often have fillings in them, and have the creamiest, not too sweet frosting I have ever had in my life! I truly challenge anyone to disagree with this. I have been told that a gal named Sky is now also helping out the girls with making some desserts. (By the way, if you do go to Pam's, you need to see Linda and Val side by side to realize that they are actually two different people!) Ric also wears many, many hats. He often greets people, he answers the telephone, he takes to go orders, he ensures that the to go orders are packed correctly, and he serves people who decide to sit at the bar or in the bar area. I happen to know that he interviews and hires much of the staff, just through random conversations we have had over time. I am definitely minimizing what he does because he does a great deal more than that. He manages the place, and does a great job at it! I'm certain there are people I haven't named, (because I am terrible with names) but I go there a lot for a reason: The food is consistently great, and more so, the customer service is incomparable. I have a friend from this industry who visits me occasionally, and even though we may be in the mood for a cocktail, she and I will agree that I'd prefer a good glass of wine, and she'd prefer a nice draught beer, because sitting at that little bar, and visiting with Ric, seeing the folks that work there and dedicate themselves so fully, and even making new friends with other customers, is far, far better than a cocktail I can easily go home and make later on, if I still want it. I've come to consider these people my friends. They are genuine, they are talented, and they are more and more unique in this day and age. This is a tough industry, particularly for individual owners. If you're on the fence about where to go on any given day or night, I recommend going here. Just be sure to check their hours and days...

Last night my husband and I finally went to Pam's Patio Kitchen. We were told it was a 30 minutes wait but waiting never bothers us. In fact, we ended up seeing my gym buddy and her family of four who arrived when we had. After a little less than the expected 30 minutes, my friend was seated with her family and us a minute later at the booth next to them. The waiter, a nice young man made some suggestions. I saw they had a menu for Culinaria week and ordered from there. My husband ordered from regular menu. We aren't difficult patrons never making substitutions and we don't drink. We got my starter salad within 10 minutes and then we waited, and waited, and waited. After an hour and 15 minutes my friend from the other booth came to say bye to me and asked me if we liked our food. I told her we had not been served. She was shocked. After she left my husband told me he noticed others getting their food to go and other tables being served who had arrived after us, especially a group being served by a chef directly. I stopped our waiter to ask about our food and he said kitchen was backed up. There was no line or large number of people waiting for a table. The restaurant was full but it is my expectation any good restaurant can handle their regular table count. My husband said we are done, asked for the check and said we were leaving. None of this was done rudely. All of a sudden after our waiter went to get our ticket some woman who seemed to have some authority came up to our table. She said your food is on the counter. Do you still want to leave? We said yes. She left and came back with a plate of food, waived it over our table and in a loud voice said you are just going to leave this here? I told her yes and that the situation would have been better had someone just checked in with us, told us what was happening. She began to get louder and said she told our waiter to do that. I told her not to blame him that she walked past our table all night and never said anything to us either. She yelled are you going somewhere else and waiting there? I said that was none of her business. She yelled that she had been working 15 hours and had no time for us and I was not allowed back at the restaurant. I laughed and thought to myself did she really think I would go back. We paid for what we had, tipped our waiter 20% as we always do, and left. I thought of all the things I wanted to say to her on my way out but, I was quiet. I can't even understand people sometimes. This woman blamed her staff, the restaurant week event, the amount of time she was there and us. Never once did she take any responsibility for anything as an "owner". It was sad to watch but then I saw how this restaurant can respond to negative comments. These people are just not nice. Being mean is a choice. They won't miss our patronage I am sure, but I do...

The area behind the counter looks like the walls of my workshop, where everything gets hung with no grand scheme: an organic space, where stuff just kind of grows on the wall. It works for me, and I guess it works for Pam's, but to the first-time visitor, it's a little confusing. Fortunately, eventually, your eye settles on the yellow printed menus in a dispenser, and you can figure out what's on offer, and start doing the math needed to determine the price of soup-and-sandwich or salad-and-sandwich combos.

As you go through the line at lunch -- at dinner, they have table service, so says the sign -- there's a plate of foccacia samples. I took one, and took one bite, and honestly started looking for a trash can to toss the rest into. It was SO incredibly salty I didn't want to finish it. I had ordered the Vietnamese Chicken sandwich; my friend ordered Claire's Turkey Avocado. Both were served with thick, long-cooked corn tortilla chips accompanied by a mango-avocado salsa that may have changed my entire attitude toward both mangoes (not worth the trouble) and avocadoes (fat easy to avoid). That salsa has me wondering if they sell it by the jar.

My sandwich was large and delicious, except that it's served on that same overly salty foccacia. A little sloppy, with more mayo than is strictly necessary, so the mint, cucumber, slaw and chicken keep trying to slide out. (No escape was successful.) The combination of textures and flavours was excellent; the excessive salty flavour distracted but didn't destroy. My friend's sandwich was less interesting. It was basically a big pile of turkey on plain ol' wheat bread, with a lot of lettuce (the menu says spinach, but I'm pretty sure it was lettuce) and some guacamole. There was supposed to be cream cheese in there but I didn't taste any; and my friend had already picked out all the tomato slices before I tried it. Did I say "less interesting"? After my Vietnamese Chicken, it was downright boring, but for all that still a good sandwich. The ambience is suburban-comfortable and quite amenable to the Cougar Crowd. Tucked away in the corner of a strip center, away from the busy roads at both ends, the patio is a pleasant venue for early-afternoon lingering. The interior tables seemed to need more attention; we ended up having to brush off the seats and wipe crumbs off the tabletop ourselves. The service is adequate, though I noticed what seemed an unusual number of things dropped in the busing stage, and my friend was upset with the cleanliness of the utensils she'd picked up from the station by the kitchen. Prices were high but not outrageous. THE CURMUDGEON’S RATINGS (explained, more or less, on the Curmudgeon-About-Town blog): FOOD: 3 chili peppers (out of 5) SERVICE: 2 chili peppers AMBIENCE: 3 1/2 chili peppers VALUE: 2...