But forget the game. Until the 7:30 p.m. tipoff, there was a great, big, wide, wonderful day. Not that I did much with it. Other than eat at Josephine Street Bar & Grill. We had lunch there, and it was stupendous. Just a great place.
Atmospheric. Inexpensive. Great food.
Josephine Street Bar & Grill sits virtually under Highway 281. We parked literally under the freeway. The place has a great old fashioned-bar, a slanted wood floor and a real tree, with a huge trunk, growing right through the middle of the dining room.
The menus is written on chalkboards on the wall, though you get a traditional menu, too. I ordered the beef tenderloin salad for $11.95, and it's fantastic. I've had it before, and it was as good as ever. Lettuce, tomatoes and avocado, with a generous portion of beef tenderloin, all in a good Italian dressing. Just great.
We ordered a sausage/onion queso, which doesn't sound good at all. But the sausage was sliced thin, with grilled onions. Place them on some chips, dip them into the cheese, and it's the best nachos you've ever tasted.
Josephine Street also offers good desserts. Not fancy desserts. Good desserts. Not cheesecake or tiramisu or some kind of chocolate mousse. Real desserts. Like pecan pie or peach cobbler with ice cream. I have a rule. Any place that's decent enough to offer cobble, I have to be decent enough to order it. So we shared a big peach cobbler with ice cream.
Josephine Street is proud of its steaks, and I need to order one sometime, though I'm not much of a steak eater. But anything Josephine Street does, it does well.
We had started the day by driving over to the arena for Thunder shootaround. The media horde — probably a gang of 30 or so — chatted with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Billy Donovan. We requested Durant; I don't know who requested Westbrook, but nobody much asked him a question. The Thunder's Nick Gallo asked two questions, and ESPN's Royce Young asked a question about uniforms, and that was about it. Westbrook was agitated that he wasted his time, and though it didn't cost him three minutes, I don't blame him. If someone wants to talk to him, talk to him. If not, don't request him.
After lunch, we went back to the hotel room, and I crashed. Dozed on and off with the TV on, then it was back to the arena.
The AT&T Center is a thoroughly modern building. A lot more eclectic architecture than Oklahoma City's Chesapeake Arena. And a little more abstractly constructed on the interior. Different levels — box seats in the middle — and less uniformity. Fewer entries onto the court, too. Whereas OKC has tunnels in all four corners, the AT&T Center has tunnels only on the two ends. So you have more congestion entering and exiting, but you've got more fans circling the court.
The fans certainly are into the game in San Antonio. Loud and energetic. Steven Adams later would say that the noise level impacted the Thunder's ability to communicate on defense. The Spurs have 20 years of sustained excellence, but their fans, at least for big games, still bring it every night.
Much like Oklahoma City's "Let's Go Thunder!", you see "Go Spurs Go" all over town. Signs. Billboards. Lights on buildings. It's a one-franchise town. The major differences between OKC and San Antonio are that the Thunder has a state presence that San Antonio can't match, for obvious reasons, but San Antonio also doesn't have the influence of college sports that OKC has. There are college fans all over San Antone, of course, but it's not as passionate as the Bedlam influences in Oklahoma City.
The Spurs fans had plenty to cheer about Saturday night. And it won't be easy for the Thunder to steal a win in San Antonio, regardless of how OKC plays. In seven playoff games in San Antonio, the Thunder has been outscored an average of 17.1 points a game. And that's with really good teams.
About the only advice I can give the Thunder is to get back on defense and go eat dinner at the Josephine Street Bar & Grill.
Source: San Antonio travelblog: Good eats at the Josephine Street Bar & Grill
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