For years the stretch of Highway 46 and Bulverde Road worked as a place you drove through. You picked up dinner on the way home from 281, or you saved the Hill Country places for a Saturday when out-of-town family came in. The weekend was the point.
That is not quite the shape of things anymore. Between a 136-year-old bar reopening its kitchen, a wine and cigar lounge built around a family concept, a Houston pizza chain making its first Alamo City move, and a downtown tapas room that has been quietly refining a made-from-scratch menu for eight years, the corridor now has enough weekday programming to change the way residents actually plan their week. Here is what has shifted, and where the local calendar is worth paying attention to.
The Specht's reset
Specht's Texas, the 136-year-old bar-and-grill north of San Antonio near Bulverde, is stepping into a new era with a refreshed menu, an expanded bar and a climate-controlled back patio designed to pull in summer crowds while keeping its honky-tonk spirit firmly intact. The ribbon-cutting ran through the Bulverde Spring Branch Chamber calendar in early April, and the change reads as more than cosmetic.
Owner Aaron Selinkoff, who took over about sixteen months before the relaunch, has told local press the overhaul centers on tightening the kitchen and pulling more from Hill Country ingredients. New dishes rolling out include a pork chop, a king ranch chicken and a chocolate chip coconut pie, along with rotating "pies of the day". The team also built an enclosure around a new playground to make the space more family-friendly and widened the tap list. For anyone who has driven past for years assuming it was a weekend live-music stop, the practical read is that Specht's is now built for a Tuesday dinner with kids, not just a Friday show.
What Twine actually is
The other headline change on Bulverde Road is Twine, at 2471 Bulverde Rd. It gets shorthanded as a wine bar and cigar lounge, which undersells the concept. Owner Kristina Zinna came up with the idea when her son was little. With few options in the area for a drink or a quick nibble, she would have to haul her family to the JW Marriott San Antonio Hotel & Spa. The former Rackspace employee soon came up with a concept that would combine sophisticated fare for adults and a family-friendly play space.
The building sits on a vintage Bulverde home on a sprawling property shaded by old-growth oaks, which is doing a lot of work in the atmosphere. And Twine is only phase one. Zinna is already working on Vincenzo's, which will offer higher-end Italian cuisine. The restaurant will include a private dining room and a members-only lounge with wine and cigar lockers. That is a considerably more ambitious build than the corridor has typically absorbed, and it is worth watching how the second phase lands.
A weekday you can actually plan
The most useful thing to know about this stretch right now is that several of the operators have committed to weeknight programming, not just Friday and Saturday. That reshuffles the calendar for anyone who lives out here.
| Night | Where | What is happening |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday | Screaming Goat Yard & Tap, Spring Branch | Tipsy Goat Trivia at 7 p.m. with live trivia, drink specials, and biergarten games |
| Wednesday | Screaming Goat Yard & Tap | Lamplighter Songwriter Night hosted by Grammy-nominated songwriter David Lee, 7 to 9 p.m. |
| Thursday | Screaming Goat Yard & Tap | All-you-can-eat catfish for $20 starting at 2 p.m., with live music |
| Tuesday through Thursday | Verde Bistro, downtown Bulverde | Happy hour, tapas menu, 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. |
| Saturday | Screaming Goat Yard & Tap | Crawfish Saturdays starting at noon until sold out |
| Sunday | Screaming Goat Yard & Tap | Brunch buffet at 10 a.m., Bingo Brunch at noon with live music from Mario Vera and Zach Bradley |
The Screaming Goat sits at 4 Sun Valley Road in Spring Branch, just east of Bulverde off Highway 46. It bills itself as Spring Branch's premier Hill Country live music venue, offering 33 beers on tap, custom crafted cocktails and Southern Louisiana cuisine. If you have been treating it as a weekend-only place, the mid-week programming is genuinely the point.
The Pepperoni's question
The other move worth flagging is the arrival of a chain. Pepperoni's Pizza will open its first Alamo City outpost in the Bulverde Crossing shopping center at 18010 Bulverde Rd #107 in early 2026. Alan Williams of the San Antonio Restaurants Facebook group first spotted the new sign popping up on the North Side. A rep at the corporate office confirmed Pepperoni's upcoming debut, but did not have a firm opening date.
The build has slipped. Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation paperwork filed in 2024 initially targeted completion in December 2025. While that estimate was missed, the opening appears to be days away, with job postings appearing on sites like ZipRecruiter.
Whether a Houston delivery-and-pickup chain moves the needle depends on what you compare it to. The chain has the same delivery and pick-up model as national giants like Domino's and Pizza Hut, but it is known for its higher quality ingredients, using never-bleached flour and premium DiNapoli brand tomatoes. Set against the two national chains it will sit next to on delivery apps, that is a real distinction. Set against Verde Bistro's artisan pies four minutes down the road, it is a different category entirely. Both can be true.
The anchor that has been here the whole time
Which brings the last piece into focus. Verde Bistro at 2355 Bulverde Rd, Suite 3 has been operating in downtown Bulverde Village since 2018. Mari and her husband Oscar opened Verde Bistro Tapas and Martini Bar in March 2018. Mari created a made-from-scratch menu using mostly natural and organic ingredients for their patrons to enjoy, accompanied by a relaxing atmosphere, and hand-crafted cocktails, wine, and spirits. Verde Bistro's Latin fusion cuisine consists of tapas and entrees inspired by various places in Europe and Latin America, such as empanadas from Argentina, street tacos from Mexico, lamb meatballs from Greece, gambas al ajillo from Spain and artisan pizzas from Italy, as well as filet mignon, various salmon or shrimp entrees, ahi tuna crisps, and locally-famous grass-fed sliders.
Situated right in the middle of "Downtown" Bulverde is the last thing you would expect: a high-end restaurant that goes by the name Verde Bistro.
That quote is from a Texas food writer's visit in the fall of 2025, and it captures the reason Verde has become the reference point locals use when someone asks where to take a visiting parent or celebrate a promotion without driving into Stone Oak. The current hours run Tuesday through Thursday 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday 4 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Reservations are worth making on weekends. The back deck is the seat you want if it is available.
What the shape of this actually means
If you live in Bulverde, Spring Branch, or the ranches out toward Smithson Valley, the corridor is beginning to function the way a small downtown functions elsewhere. There is a Tuesday trivia option. There is a Wednesday songwriter night hosted by someone with real credentials. There is a Thursday catfish tradition, a Saturday crawfish tradition, a Sunday brunch with live jazz, a downtown tapas room for the night that needs a little more polish, and a couple of higher-ambition builds still in progress along Bulverde Road.
The old habit of driving into 1604 for a real weeknight dinner is not gone. It is just no longer the only option, and residents who still default to it are missing the small shift that has been happening in their own zip code.
Let's Connect
If you are exploring what daily life looks like in Bulverde or the surrounding Hill Country and want a steady, low-pressure guide to the neighborhood, Roxane Cook has spent more than twenty-five years helping clients find the right fit here. Whether you are already at home in Bulverde or comparing it against Boerne, New Braunfels, or Canyon Lake, reach out when it feels like the right time to talk.
