If necessity is the mother of invention, then the Pearl’s Pullman Market — the largest culinary market in the Southwest — was born from a desire to feed the community straight from the source.
Housed in the former Samuels Glass Co. building at the Pearl, the 40,000-square-foot passion project from Emmer & Rye Hospitality was a dream years in the making, said chefs Kevin Fink and Tavel Bristol-Joseph.
Both Emmer & Rye Hospitality partners spoke to the Current about the Pullman’s one-year anniversary, April 23, and what they want to accomplish with the market’s second year.
“We named it the Pullman as an homage to the Pullman train routes,” Fink said. “The history of trains, transportations and food are incredibly intertwined — there were the Pullman train routes between North and South in the 19th century, when travel was not accessible at all times, so you introduced new food to people on their journey between places through the train. We really wanted to pay respect to the aspect that food is this great meeting place to get to know people from other cultures and other spaces.”
Fink and Bristol-Joseph recounted surveying the Samuels Glass Co. building as far back as 2019, amid their pre-opening plans for the Pearl’s Ladino, Emmer & Rye’s first San Antonio restaurant.
The COVID-19 pandemic further emphasized a need for efficient food delivery, the chefs added.
“There was so much unknown at the time about where how we were going to deliver food to people, and what happened to the local farmers and ranchers, because one of their main ways of delivering food to people was through restaurants,” Fink explained.
Both chefs dreamed of a space where they could work with Texas farmers and ranchers directly to create a market specializing in high-quality, farm-to-table foods — and in a way that helped Texans on both ends of the process.
To that end, Fink said the Pullman’s meat and seafood selections are pillars of what the market does right.
“We know the ranchers. We know what the animals have grazed on. We know the breed of the animal, we know the sex of the animal, we know exactly how long they’ve been hung for, essentially we know the journey of the meat from the farm to the Pullman,” Fink said.
The birth of the Pullman in April 2024 took a village. Local farmers and ranchers helped provide a solid foundation for the market, but the teams behind each of its restaurants and grab-and-go concepts provided its heart.
Matt Levere moved his family down from Washington D.C. to oversee the Pullman’s butcher and fishmonger department. Director of merchandising Danielle Kress took charge of the market’s extensive locally sourced retail section while also overseeing the Pullman’s show-stopping floral section, a display that’s nigh-on impossible to miss from all corners of the space. Mezquite and Mezcaleria mainstay Ricardo Ruiz serves as bar manager and guide for all things mezcal at the market’s Sonoran-inspired Mexican restaurant and adjacent bar.
They’re just a few names out of many that keep the Pullman operating smoothly seven days a week.
“When you have something that you want to bring out into the world, you’re going to be able to find people that are like-minded, that also want to dedicate their lives to creating spaces for present and future generations,” Fink said. “Our Pullman Market team formed itself.”
Having racked up enough culinary awards respectively to fill a trophy cabinet, Fink and Bristol-Joseph stay laser-focused on their mission: community.
“Awards are fulfilling if you use them for the greater good,” said Bristol-Joseph, who was named Esquire’s 2024 Pastry Chef of the Year. The first-ever Texas Michelin Guide also put his innovative Pullman dessert bar Nicosi on its recommended list.
Nestled quietly in between Isidore, the Pullman’s elevated steakhouse concept, and Mezquite, Nicosi’s intimate eight-course, dessert-only tasting experience challenges guests to put their phones away so their senses can be fully immersed in the experience.
Rounding out the roster of the Pullman’s sit-down restaurants is Fife & Farro — an Italian eatery offering scratch-made pastas, pizzas, and a wide assortment of wines to pair by the glass or bottle.
The former glass company’s exposed brick walls serve as a cohesive design theme throughout each restaurant space. Sunlight filters in from the building’s windows at peak moments of the day — a natural design touch that enhances the team’s mission to celebrate the bounty of the Lone Star State.
With a year of successful operation behind them, Fink and Bristol-Joseph know exactly what they want from year two.
“I want the Pullman to be more of a community and hospitality space. We’re going to really focus on how we’re constantly doing even more events that invite people to interact and make it their own,” Fink said.
“We’ll have food symposiums, different festivals and classes. Year one was really about us internally — figuring out what we can do,” he added. “Year two will be really about continuing to invite the community into collaborating, so the space can truly belong to San Antonio. That’s what this whole thing is about, right? We want the Pullman to be a place that matters for the community — a place where in 10 years people will celebrate, bring their kids, say that they’ve gone there for amazing steak, it’s changed the way that they eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or ceviche or a burger, because everything is straight from Texas.”
Bristol-Joseph said the newness of the market gives it plenty of room for growth.
“The beauty of the Pullman Market is that it’s a baby, right? It’s going to continue to grow and develop, and, you know, the bones are going to get stronger,” he said. “We really want to continue focusing on locality and seasonality, highlighting local vendors, playing with the layout of the store — we want to make it clear that the Pullman is a social space.”
“The real reward,” Bristol-Joseph adds, “is the goodwill of the community.”
“I think that creating a space where the community feels safe, that inspires our community to be proud of where they live and see what they have to offer — that is a great accomplishment. A lot of times we think about that aspect of how many people we make proud because they live in San Antonio and they can say, ‘This is ours.’”
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This article appears in Apr 16-29, 2025.