History

In celebration of National Tourism Week, The Palm San Antonio will host the Centro San Antonio Amigos for lunch in appreciation of their dedication to making downtown a friendly destination for guests from near and far. While the Amigos are invited to dine al fresco, they will be looked over by not only The Palm’s attentive staff but the smiling “faces” of San Antonio’s leading businessmen, politicians and celebrities whose caricatures line the restaurant’s famed walls. Often called “the face of San Antonio,” themselves, the workforce of more than 65 Amigos provide a host of services that improve downtown through the Ambassador, Streetscaping, and Maintenance programs.

For at least 30 years, San Antonio has been vexed by a frustrating problem: The river that runs through the heart of the city has flourished with development, much of it aimed at tourists, while efforts to attract retail spaces, housing and offices to the street level have largely failed.