Casa Hernán Cantina. The name fits a growing empire. The two-story structure on East Cevallos Street stands as casa y cantina. Muy grande. The culinarian who once called it home has transformed the space into a time-traveling bar.
Step inside Casa Hernán Cantina and you get an eyeful of Old Mexico. Equipale furnishings. Calaveras above an entryway. Towering papier-mâché figures. Artifacts from Oaxaca and Guadalajara. Everything from the color and decor to wooden flooring has a south-of-the-border feel.
“I wanted to create the most Mexican space in San Antonio,” said Johnny Hernandez, chef, caterer and legendary entrepreneur. “That was my goal. To take you to Mexico. To all the things I love about Mexico: the textures, the lighting, the accents, the color, the artistry. I don’t think there’s anything like this in America.”
The house/bar is unique. It carries the first six letters of the owner’s last name and expands a vision decades in the making.
Starting with La Gloria at Pearl in 2010, Hernandez has infused the feel and flavors of Mexico into the culture of San Antonio with a mix of Mexican-themed concepts and business ventures.
The Hernandez empire includes establishments from Southtown to the San Antonio International Airport; a weekly event called “Market Days at La Villita,” food and beverage contracts with the San Antonio Philharmonic and the San Antonio Spurs; and a business, True Flavors Catering, that serves corporate clients and the Henry B. González Convention Center.
There’s more. Hernandez founded Kitchen Campus, a nonprofit that connects youth to culinary opportunities. He also hosts two annual Paella Challenges, one for U.S. and Mexican chefs, the other for local high school teams.
Hernandez on Thursday flew the top three teams from this year’s challenge to his alma mater, the Culinary Institute of America, in Hyde Park, New York, where they enjoyed dinner at CIA. The students were to tour the campus on Friday, attend workshops and meet with admissions counselors.
The paella challenges benefit Kitchen Campus, which Hernandez uses to develop chefs and share his love for all things Mexico. Diana Barrios-Trevino, a longtime friend and Vice President of Los Barrios Family Restaurants, understands what drives the chef’s passion.
“They say San Antonio is the northernmost city of Mexico,” Barrios Trevino said, “and Johnny is making sure that never goes away.”
Hernandez reclines in a handmade equipale chair, lights dim, the cantina closed, and reflects. It’s Tuesday morning. He is wearing his trademark chef’s coat. He recalls travels through Mexico, his dark eyes filling with light.
Memories from his youth appear, eliciting a warm smile.
The flavors of Mexico sparked an entrepreneurial spirit nearly 50 years ago. As a boy, Hernandez took breakfast tacos from his father’s Westside restaurant, “Johnny’s Cafeteria and Catering,” and sold or traded them at school. He showed an aptitude in the kitchen, cooking often with his father at the cafeteria.
Johnny Hernandez, Sr., a one-time Mexican migrant worker with a second-grade education, recognized a gift and possibilities. He encouraged his son, a San Antonio native, to attend culinary school.
Hernandez completed an associate’s degree at CIA on the East Coast, but he wasn’t taught about the cuisine sparking his passion. “Because I was trained under French chefs and European chefs,” he said, “I didn’t know Mexican food.”
After culinary school, Hernandez worked at a Las Vegas casino and a luxury hotel chain in Santa Barbara, California. He returned to San Antonio as a corporate chef at The Old San Francisco Steakhouse and launched his catering business in 1994.
Later, he accompanied his mother on trips to Mexico, where she did mission work, and that began years of travel through the country’s interior. Hernandez visited pueblos, studied the culture, explored cuisine and collected artifacts. He turned one enormous piece he collected a decade ago, a tree trunk from Tonalá Jalisco, into the bar at Casa Hernán Cantina.
“Originally, that was going to be a chef’s table,” Hernandez said. “That was going to go into my botanero. But it’s too big. So it sat in my warehouse for eight to 10 years until I finally said, ‘It fits perfectly here.’”
Casa Hernán served as a hacienda-style residence for eight years in the Lone Star District. Hernandez worked and lived upstairs. Brunches, parties and banquets were held downstairs. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, crippled business, leading him to reimagine the space.
Casa Hernán Cantina opened in March 2023 with agave spirits, handcrafted cocktails and botanas (flautas de pollo, queso fundido, volcanes de asada). Compelling social media posts drew crowds. One reviewer summarized the cantina with an equation: “Agave + Botanas = Date Night Perfection.”
To make room for the new concept, Hernandez moved his Grupo La Gloria office to South Alamo. At the same time, he worked on expanding the footprint of his company, Host True Flavors, which already includes three of his brands at the airport: La Gloria, The Fruteria and Super Bien Mex Cocina.
City Council approved new concepts in November for Terminal A: Chef Johnny’s Mercado, Southerleigh Fine Food & Brewery, Tre Trattoria, Pharm Table, Freight Fried Chicken and Panda Express. In May, council approved four concepts for Terminal B: 2M Smokehouse, Popeye’s, Bakery Lorraine and The Tasting Room.
“This is going to change the travelers’ experience,” Hernandez told the San Antonio Report after the council vote. “When La Gloria opened at the airport 12 years ago, people said, ‘Let’s get there early to have breakfast.’ Or ‘Let’s get there early to have lunch.’ That was never the goal to begin with. It was ‘Hurry up and get to the gate.’ But now, I think that’s an idea we are going to build on and promote with the new concepts.”
The vision expands.
Blink and Mexico-themed burger spot Burgerteca vanishes and reappears as Blue Moon in Southtown. The new joint venture with Blue Moon Mexican Restaurant owners Alejandra and Silvano Garcia features the best of the original Blue Moon (menudo con pata, cheese enchiladas) and the best of Burgerteca (al pastor burgers, bacon-wrapped hotdogs) under one roof.
Blink again and Hernandez is preparing to launch “Chef Johnny’s Mercado” at the University of the Incarnate Word. He already has campus dining, The Eatery, at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s School of Data Science.
Blink once more and he’s finalizing plans to launch Southtown Food Hall, a 15,000-square-foot space at 1725 S. Alamo St. featuring The Fruteria, Burgerteca, Southtown Coffee, Margarita Garden, a bakery and a butcher shop.
“I know it’s a lot of things,” Hernandez said. “So much so that even I forget what I’m doing at times.”
Life is a whirlwind. Hernandez collaborates, juggles projects, hosts events, throws parties and plans new ventures. He manages an empire without seeming to break a sweat.
“It’s mind-blowing,” said Louis Barrios, president of Los Barrios Family Restaurants, which includes Viola’s Ventanas and La Hacienda de los Barrios. “Johnny is a very impressive individual. He’s an entrepreneur. He’s a chef. He’s very gregarious and beloved. And he’s got so many tools at his disposal. He can raise money for his endeavors. People believe in him. He’s great at creating concepts. He’s an awesome chef. He’s got a wonderful story. He’s super engaging and everybody loves him.
“I mean, he’s a phenomenon.”
Mexico drives Hernandez. Creative expressions fuel the mission. Nine years ago on Cinco de Mayo, he cooked for President Barack Obama in the White House Rose Garden. The menu included chiles en nogada, chicken tinga in tomato-chipotle sauce, fruit gazpacho and tres leches cake. In 2019, he competed against celebrity chef Bobby Flay on the Food Network, cooking a shrimp taco with a crispy rice flour batter and chipotle mayonnaise. Flay won.
“What I love about Johnny is he keeps that history alive,” said Barrios-Trevino, who cooked puffy tacos for Obama in 2010. “He teaches the entire community about the tradition, the ingredients, the cooking techniques, the flavors and the hospitality that is our Mexican heritage.”
San Antonio sits 150 miles from the Mexico border. Hernandez bridges the distance with creative concepts. Seated in a handmade chair of leather, he admires his surroundings: Wood carvings. Handcrafted art. A menu of spirits and botanas.
It’s in that space that everything feels like Old Mexico and inspires a vision for more.
