SAN ANTONIO – After 26 years of hosting guests at Sunset Station, Blanca Aldaco is moving her restaurant across the highway at The Fairmont, making Aldaco's the second large restaurant to leave Sunset Station in a little over six months.
Ruth's Chris steakhouse closed its doors last summer to move into the Grand Hyatt.
"There's a whole lot of different things coming this way as well" said Aldaco at her restaurant packed with fans on Friday, the final day at the location. "We're just taking perfect timing to be able to jump to the other side of the highway to allow our little nest to become a really big nest for Sunset Station."
"It's kind of sad to see it go but it's been a great place here," added Gilbert Anzaldua, a longtime customer.
The RK group plans to expand its operations in Aldaco's space.
Aldaco doesn't see their departure as a negative.
"They have the University of Houston coming in (and) already renovating their space, they have the Alamo City Chamber of Commerce," she said. "We're just playing a little bit of musical chairs in the downtown area."
"It's endured, it's beautiful," said Richard Oliver, with the city's Covention and Visitor's Bureau. "The architecture is unlike a lot of places in San Antonio. It's a unique area."
With the Alamodome undergoing renovations for the 2018 Final Four, the expansion of the convention center and renovations at Hemisfair Park, Oliver believes Sunset Station is ripe for visitors and possibly development.
"If you're a developer, if you're a tourist, if you're a conventioneer, you're looking at San Antonio in an entirely different way when you have all those kinds of things happening," he said. "Sunset Station becomes even more of a focal point because folks will come from downtown, walking down Houston Street, take that right into Sunset Station and that's your corridor for the Alamodome."