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Sorry Munerider, can’t let it go until I post this.
Wolfe’s Inn was opened in 1915 by a man named Worthy W. Wolfe, but was commonly called W. W. Wolfe. It appears the location may not have even had an official street address at the time of its opening. In fact, in those early days, even the name was in flux: some called it Wolfe’s Inn, Others W.W. Wolfe’s Inn, and still a few referred to it as Wolfe Estate. Not much is known about Worthy before he opened Wolfe’s Inn, one account I read said he may have been from a prominent clan of Wolfe’s from Kansas. The earliest records I can find simply list him as “Landowner”. How he made his money, either through business or through inheritance, I don’t think we’ll ever know. The land he owned, obviously, was on Nine Mile Hill, which was actually 10 miles outside the SA city limits at the time. Imagine for a moment what the area looked like at the time: it was mostly farm estates of the very wealthy from San Antonio. Down the road, Albert Fredrick, the owner of the Buckhorn Bar and Museum, lived in Algo Diferente, what is now Elm Creek. Across the street was the Wurzbach estate, down the street, where Colonies North is was the Wurzbach farm. Across from that was the Igo farm. Behind the Wolfe’s Inn, the DeZavala’s and Locke’s had their homes and prosperous farmlands, and mini-rivalries. Opening a fancy restaurant focused on fine service seems odd in such a rural environment. You would think he would have opened it closer to the urban center. Of course, this was the days before market analysts and business consultants would tell you how bad an idea this was. One thing you have to remember, though, is that these places I mentioned were all farms. And farms had workers. And workers, too, need a place to eat.
Regardless, Wolfe’s Inn specialized in skillet-fried chicken, large juicy steaks and impeccably friendly service. Worthy himself would greet customers, visit tables, and watch over the kitchen like a hawk. People came to the Wolfe’s Inn to see Worthy in action as much as they came for the food. He knew many customers by name and always made them feel like they were his personal guests and he was serving them in his own home. It was service like no other, “nice food for nice people”. The Eckert, Wurzbach, Huebner, Vance, Taylor, Jackson, Igo, Fredreick, DeZavala, and Locke families were all served here on a regular basis. Like Algo Diferente, they also had a room or rooms where the occasional overnight traveler could stay. Wolfe’s Inn was most famous for their skillet fried chicken and would be from the day they opened and to the day they closed, they made it from a secret Wolfe recipe. I found it odd that some place renowned for its elegance and service would specialize in Fried Chicken. Of course, this was long before fried foods where known to be bad (remember, Fred Flintstone sold cigarettes!) and long before Fried Chicken was labeled with the social stigma we ascribe to it today. There was no such thing as fast food in 1915. Even in my own lifetime, I remember when foods like Salmon, Balsamic Vinaigrette, and crumbled Blue Cheese were considered "fancy", now I can get them at any 3rd rate TGI Friday’s (sorry Primo, they DO have good quesadilla’s, though). What’s interesting, though, is that Wolfe’s Inn didn’t remain the haunt of Northwest-side farm workers and their wealthy employers, but began to grow a very strong following with the people of San Antonio 10 miles away, who would travel to the restaurant on dirt roads, riding horses and buggies, or the family Model Ts, to pass under the Wolfe’s Inn sign arching above and the century plants framing its entrance. Within 10 years it became known as the finest restaurant and a most favored place to eat in San Antonio, even though it wasn’t even in the city. Wolfe’s Inn had a famous outdoor garden that was only open in the spring and summer for people to eat in. The annual opening of the Wolfe’s Inn Garden was an eagerly anticipated city event, celebrated yearly in the local newspapers, announced not as an advertisement, but as news! It was as important to the city calendar as Fiesta is today. If the weather was bad and the garden remained closed for an extra week, the local papers would report this as almost tragedy to the local community.
In 1934 the city started to build the Fredericksburg Highway. Yes, they actually called Fredericksburg road a highway at the time. It had two designations, Highway Number 27 and Highway 290. They began to tear up the well-worn trail that lead to Wolfe’s Inn, making it unsafe for travelers to travel out to Nine Mile Hill. Construction was suppose to only last 3 months, but as proof that nothing really changes in SA, construction took a year and the road was not opened until August of the following year. During construction, city patrons had no safe passage to Wolfe’s Inn and in July of 1934 Wolfe’s Inn closed its doors….
And reopened in one of the last remaining log cabins in San Antonio, at 230 Fredericksburg Road within the city. It was between San Pedro and Five Point’s Road. (Was this the latter the site of a Whopper Burger discussed in the previous threads???). Once Fredericksburg was reopened, Worthy Wolfe returned to his beloved restaurant and opened its doors. This, too, was celebrated by the local newspapers, and people from the city again began to travel out in droves to the relaxing country setting and famous Garden dining spot of the original Wolfe’s Inn. This brought enough influx of cash that Worthy was able to expand the dining room and make other improvements to the facility. This time the Wolfe's Inn even had an official address: 8538 Fredericksburg Road. He left the second restaurant in the log cabin open for his children to run. There is some evidence that there might have even been a third Wolfe’s Inn in (then) San Antonio proper somewhere south of San Pedro, but I can confirm that later.
I don’t know whatever happened to the Log Cabin Wolfe’s Inn, but just a few short years after the triumphant reopening of the Wolfe’s Inn, Worthy Wolfe died in May 1940. He was 56 years old. Coincidentally, I think my father was roughly the same age (58) when he died.
Wolfe’s Inn was then sold to a man named Tony Grieve at or before 1947. Tony only owned the restaurant for a few years when he sold it to a man named Theo Harris in 1950. Very quickly ownership changed from Theo to Jimmie Harris. I don’t know if Jimmie was his son, or what, really, the familial relationship was between Jimmie and Theo Harris. The post card I have is from this time period, it lists Jimmie Harris as the owner. Jimmie only had ownership for 6 years. As with Worthy, Jimmie brought back a flare for personal service and grew to be as much a gracious and famous a host as Worthy himself. Four years after assuming ownership, Jimmie sold a portion of the restaurant to a Mr. and Mrs. Gus Katsikas. Gus Katsika’s, I found out later, owned a famous restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale Florida called “The Egg and You” and was the brother of Jimmie Harris’ wife.
By 1956, the Katsikas family had taken over full control of Wolfe’s Inn. They began to expand the menu at Wolfe’s Inn to include Greek and Mediterranean fare. In the tradition of Worthy Wolfe, Gus, too, became a gracious host and major magnet for Wolfe’s Inn patrons. Around or before 1959, Wolfe’s Inn changed hands again, this time to a man named George Karagnis. Again, George also continued as a popular and gracious host that would have made Worthy proud that his creation endured and each successive caretaker displayed the same sense of service and treatment that he himself made famous.
By 1966, George had passed on, and the Wolfe’s Inn came into possession of another owner, this time an old friend of the Inn: Jimmie Harris’s wife. Perhaps she had always had some part-ownership in the business while the Katsikas and Karagnis had owned and operated the establishment, but I can find no solid proof of this. I can also find no obituary for Jimmie Harris, so I don’t know if his wife was a widow at the time she reacquired full ownership to the Wolfe’s Inn.
By this time, people expected more out of a fancy restaurant than skillet fried chicken and juicy steak, so Mrs. Jimmie Harris expanded their already existing seafood selection and introduced a few more modern, upscale dishes to the menu.
I can find no record of another owner after 1968. I can find no record of the Wolfe’s Inn at all after 1968. I only remember going there, as a kid, sometime in the late 1970’s.
I can only remember eating there one time.
And something about that place resonated with me and has stuck in my mind all this time. That one time, I could FEEL a history speaking to me. It wasn’t ghosts, it was a Sense of Place dying. As a teenager, I used to fantasize about opening my own restaurant. I used to imagine the menu. It wasn’t until I started doing all this research into the Wolfe’s Inn that I realized the layout of the menu, the font, the entrées, and the look and feel of the restaurant I used to imagine….. that was all from the Wolfe’s Inn.
All I do know, is that by the very early 1980’s, the Wolfe’s inn was closed. Wolfe’s Inn itself was torn down, the land was turned into a Diamond Shamrock, a Grandy’s, and a two-story office building. The Diamond Shamrock closed down, became some kind of used car dealership for a short time, then a loan shark’s office and is currently abandoned. Later, the Grandy’s was torn down and now a Hooter’s occupies that spot.
And only a faint trace of the original Wolfe’s Inn entrance gate remains today, a slim stone wall….residue of an almost forgotten past, still stands at the intersection of Fredericksburg and Wurzbach, in front of an abandoned Diamond Shamrock once used for payday loans.
Last edited by GWhopper; 12-22-2007 at 04:20 AM..
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It's coming up on a year since I started it...Saturday will be one year...Happy Anniversary and thanks to all that have contributed to it!!
Thanks for the nice words, irnag..I am surprised this thread is still going too over a year later!! It just goes to show that many of us former and current San Antonians still love our hometown and remember it fondly! 
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