The culinary journey of 2024 James Beard Award finalist Christopher Cullum began inauspiciously, towing a beat-up vintage Airstream down the highway from Houston to San Antonio.
That Airstream would be outfitted with a working kitchen and in 2012 became the first version of Cullum’s Attaboy, the casual brunch restaurant that has since earned accolades and loyal customers at its brick-and-mortar location in Tobin Hill.
In November, Attaboy became a Bib Gourmand-designated restaurant in the Michelin Guide, which highlighted great food at moderate prices.
Cullum sat down with Bob Rivard for episode 83 of Rivard’s bigcitysmalltown podcast to talk about his deep ties to San Antonio’s food and entertainment culture, recent challenges faced by small businesses and carrying on the musical traditions of his famous father, Jim Cullum.
Cullum told Rivard he first fell in love with the restaurant business while working as a dishwasher at The Landing Jazz Club, his father’s River Walk fixture.
At age 15, Cullum said he sat down with his father and told him, ”Hey, Dad, I know what I want to do. I want to open up a hamburger stand,” in part because of the staple American food’s egalitarian appeal.
Jim Cullum chose the name Attaboy, finally realized as Cullum’s Attaboy during the COVID-19 pandemic, just around the corner from Cullum’s Attagirl beer and fried chicken restaurant.
As Rivard pointed out, Cullum’s revered musician father has a presence at Attaboy, in its logo and in the dining room soundtrack, culled from his “Live from the Landing” program that ran on National Public Radio from 1989 to 2015.
“So you’re living with the presence and spirit of your father every day at the restaurant,” Rivard said.
The two also discuss problems caused by seemingly endless construction on the North St. Mary’s Strip to the area’s many small businesses, growing up in the River Road neighborhood, and Miss Salazar’s special tarama pâté recipe that has become one of Cullum’s signature menu items.
