Phoenix Saloon

Gebhardt's chili powder answered a seasonal problem. Born in Germany in 1875, he came to New Braunfels with his parents in 1885 and opened his café behind the saloon in 1892. Chili was popular, but fresh peppers were not always available, so he began drying and grinding them into a powder that kept for months, and he imported ancho peppers by the wagonload from San Luis Potosí. In 1898 he opened a factory on West Commerce Street in San Antonio, backed by his brother-in-law Albert Kronkosky, and in 1908 his company published a cookbook, Mexican Cooking.

What the plaque says

Phoenix Saloon Built in 1871, the original Phoenix Saloon building was a two-story brick, rock, and stucco building built by John Sippel located on the corner of west San Antonio Street and Castell Avenue. A saloon operated on the first floor under various names before it finally became the Phoenix Saloon in 1895. The building not only housed a popular saloon but also a back room café where proprietor William Gebhardt served a stew spiced with tampico dust, his own special concoction of herbs and dried chili peppers. His tampico dust is often regarded as the first chili powder. In 1896 Gebhardt moved to San Antonio to manufacture his eagle brand chili powder. Another attraction of the saloon was the beer garden facing San Antonio Ctreet between the saloon and the old Comal County Courthouse. Unusual for the times, ladies were welcome here. John Sippel built a small pool with a fountain that contained fish and alligators. Some legends about the saloon claim it held badger fights and featured a parrot inside the front door that was taught to say, "Have you paid your bill?" in German. The lively nature of the phoenix saloon was temporarily closed down when prohibition was instituted in 1918, even though Comal County voted 100% against prohibition. In 1922 Albert Ludwig owned the building and expanded it by adding the third floor for the local masonic lodge. In 1927 Jacob Schmidt bought the building and changed the name displayed near the top of the front façade from Ludwig to Schmidt. The Schmidts operated a clothing store in the building from 1935-1995. In 2010 the first floor was once again operating as the phoenix saloon. (2015)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sophienburg Museum and Archives — 0.3 mi
  The hilltop where Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels raised the Adelsverein's headquarters in 1845, now the museum and archive of the German colony that became New Braunfels.
• Gruene Historic District — 2.8 mi
  A cotton town on the Guadalupe that the boll weevil emptied, rescued in the 1970s by a kayaking architecture student, with a dance hall that says it has never closed.
• Natural Bridge Caverns — 13 mi
  The largest known cavern in Texas, found in 1960 by four college cavers under a ranch family's land, entered beneath a 60-foot limestone bridge and still growing.
• Spring Lake and the Meadows Center — 18 mi
  The headsprings of the San Marcos River, among the longest-inhabited places in North America, once an amusement park with a swimming pig and now seen from glass-bottom boats.

More markers nearby

• The New Braunfels Herald — steps away
• Comal County, C.S.A. — steps away
• International & Great Northern Railroad in New Braunfels — steps away
• New Braunfels: County Seat of Comal County — steps away