When Ross Wilkinson decided to get out of his career in the marketing world in Houston and back into the kitchen, he and his wife, Cristina, started looking for places they enjoyed while dating.
It so happened that an unassuming house that had been converted into The River House Tearoom—tucked in a quiet corner of Gruene—was up for sale. In August 2015, they purchased the restaurant from Carol Irwin, owner of the Buttermilk Cafe in New Braunfels, and began the work of opening it up as a different concept.
“We wanted to keep the cuisine very approachable. And Southern cuisine seemed like the easiest transition. The idea was to take the menu as a Southern scratch kitchen, kind of take those old familiar things that we all have grown up with and come to love as people in the South, but put a chef’s twist on them and make more of a restaurant-type dish,” Wilkinson said.
After a year and a half of pandemic-related struggles, things are getting back to normal, Wilkinson said. One common theme that was put on hiatus has made a return—Sunday fried chicken dinners. It is a three-course meal and the only thing served on Sundays from 5-8 p.m. The Wilkinsons hope to bring back live evening music in the near future to go along with it.
