Hotel Emma

Hotel Emma occupies the 1894 brewhouse of the former Pearl Brewing Company on San Antonio's Pearl campus, converted by Silver Ventures into a 146-room luxury hotel that opened in October 2015. Roman and Williams built the interiors around salvaged brewery fixtures, and the hotel has since become one of the most decorated independent hotels in Texas.

The place

Hotel Emma sits at 136 E. Grayson Street on the Pearl campus, a former brewery complex on the San Antonio River just north of downtown. The Pearl has been redeveloped by Silver Ventures into a mixed-use district of restaurants, a farmers market, shops and a satellite campus of the Culinary Institute of America, with the River Walk's northern extension running along its edge — placing the hotel at the center of San Antonio's most concentrated food-and-drink district rather than in the traditional downtown hotel core.

The concept

The hotel occupies the 1894 brewhouse of the former Pearl Brewing Company (originally the J.B. Behloradsky Brewery, founded 1881), designed by Chicago architect August Maritzen in the Second Empire style and once the largest brewery in Texas before closing in 2001. Silver Ventures bought the site in 2002 and converted the brewhouse into a 146-room hotel that opened in October 2015, with interiors by New York firm Roman and Williams built around salvaged brewery fixtures — fermentation tanks, pipework, brick and steel — alongside rich woods and leather. The hotel is named for Emma Koehler, who ran the brewery through Prohibition after her husband Otto Koehler's murder in 1914; several suites are named after historical figures from the brewery's history (Dielmann, Billmeier, Maritzen, Otto Koehler, Emma Koehler). It has since become a fixture on national best-hotel lists and carries Forbes Travel Guide and AAA Five Diamond recognition.

Dining & wellness

The hotel's dining program centers on Supper, its main restaurant, alongside Larder, a gourmet market and café, and Sternewirth, a bar set in the brewhouse's former engine room. Hiatus Spa operates an on-site day spa, and the property includes a library, club room and event spaces built into the original industrial architecture.