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A Night in Old San Antonio, or NIOSA, officially kicks off Tuesday night at La Villita. The beloved four-night festival is celebrating its 78th anniversary this year as part of San Antonio’s largest party with a purpose.
From chicken on a stick, to kebabs, po’boys and tacos, the delectable NIOSA fare delights thousands of locals and visitors alike who flock to NIOSA for nights filled with food and community.
TPR recently hosted a "Great SA: Puro San Antonio" panel to deep-dive into all things NIOSA.
The history of the festival dates back to 1936 when people first sold food as part of a harvest festival on the grounds of Mission San Jose. It was later taken over by the Conservation Society of San Antonio and officially became known as “A Night in Old San Antonio” in 1948.
Patti Zaiontz is a former NIOSA chair and a 52-year member of the San Antonio Conservation Society.
“They sold their chili and their stew and their tamales, and they made corn tortillas, homemade,” said Zaiontz. “That's how we got started and we've been there ever since.”
NIOSA at La Villita has since grown to 14 cultural areas that celebrate the city’s diverse cultural legacy with dozens of food offerings. This includes popular areas like Frontier Town, Froggy Bottom, Mexican Market, and others.
One of the food offerings is Bongo-K-Bobs: a popular booth named after “Bongo Joe Coleman” — a San Antonio man who was known to play makeshift oil drums along Commerce St. An average of around 11,500 kebabs are typically sold during NIOSA.
Bongo-K-Bobs chairman Patricia Salinas said it takes a village to make thousands of meat and veggie skewers.
”I'm up to 480 volunteers in order for me to make those 10 to 12,000 [skewers],” she said. “I have two shifts and everyone gets to their station and starts making and cutting.”
April Smith has been the chair of Frontier Town for decades. She spoke about a vegetarian fan favorite, Shypoke Eggs.
“People think it's an egg sometimes, but it's a chalupa shell,” she said. “We put a slice of white American cheese at the base, a sliced marinated jalapeño … then another slice of yellow American cheese. It’s all cut in rounds so it looks like an egg.”
Alliison Schmidt got her start in NIOSA as a young girl after her parents first took over a Chile con Queso booth. The booth now offers a popular item called “Cowboy Klopse” — a meatball fried in a batter filled cheese and jalapenos. “Klopse” is the German word for meatball.
Schmidt said the NIOSA booth is part of her family legacy.
“I was old enough and I took over. And then I got married, and my husband and I did it,” she said. “So, I really just inherited the booth from my parents, and now my daughter, who's 27 is our co-chair.”
But NIOSA is about more than just food.
All proceeds from NIOSA benefit San Antonio’s Conservation Society — one of the oldest and most active community preservation groups in the U.S.
The Conservation Society’s Patti Zaiontz says you can’t throw a stone in downtown San Antonio without hitting a building that the Conservation Society has had its hands on.
“The money that you pay to come in our gate and have a beer or eat a kebab, that money is going to come back into the city through scholarships, through our community grants program, through the heritage education tours we create for children,” Zaiontz said.
April Smith from Frontier Town says NIOSA’s mission is a unifier for those who participate in the yearly event and for those who visit.
“Coming back to it every year, we are connected as a group, and we do have a purpose that drives us to do what we're doing,” Smith said. “One of the things that's really fun is to meet people that are here visiting in San Antonio, and they see us setting up. It's a great opportunity to be able to share with them what we are doing.”
One thing to keep in mind this year: Zaiontz said popular cultural areas like Sauerkraut Bend, Irish Flats, and the Mexican Market are in different locations after a developer purchased La Villita’s Assembly Building.
“Things are moving around. But you know what it's like (at) HEB when they change shelving and all everything. That means you have to go look for it is where it is, and you'll buy four or five things on the way.”
You have until this Friday to get all the NIOSA offerings and maybe even try something new.
Click here to buy tickets.
