For years the shorthand on Bulverde went something like this: quiet, wooded, a good place to raise horses, drive south for anything with a wait list. That shorthand is out of date. Look at what has opened, reopened, or added a Saturday night to its schedule between the last freeze in March and this week, and a different pattern shows up. The town has stitched together a weekly calendar that finally holds its own against the drive down 281.
This is not a roundup of new places. It is one argument with receipts: the reason you find yourself staying north for the weekend is that the institutions residents already love have spent the last year upgrading themselves, and a few new ones have slotted in to fill the last gaps.
The weekly anchors, in one place
Most of what makes a Bulverde summer worth talking about repeats every seven days. If you have moved here recently or you have simply never sat down to map it, here is the spine of the week.
| Day | Anchor | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday | Lamplighter Songwriter Night with David Lee | Screaming Goat Yard & Tap | 7–9 p.m. |
| Saturday | Saturday Night Rodeo | Tejas Rodeo Grounds, 401 Obst Rd | 7:30 p.m. |
| Sat & Sun | Honey Creek guided walk | Rust House, Guadalupe River State Park | Reservation required |
Those three are the load-bearing walls. Tejas Rodeo Company runs its Saturday Night Rodeo from March through November under a covered arena just north of San Antonio in Bulverde, which means the season is live right now and continues through the last cool weekends of fall. The Wednesday songwriter night at the Goat is a working-musician tradition that a lot of new residents miss entirely because it is not on the big event calendars.
What actually changed at Specht's
The single most meaningful hospitality update in Bulverde this year is not a new opening. It is Specht's Texas, the place your neighbor with the older kids has been going to for a decade, deciding to invest in itself.
Specht's Texas, the 136-year-old bar-and-grill near Bulverde, marked a new era in April 2026 with a refreshed menu, an expanded bar, and a climate-controlled back patio designed to pull in summer crowds without losing its honky-tonk feel, capped by a ribbon-cutting the owners used to welcome first-timers alongside longtime regulars. That climate-controlled patio is the part worth flagging in July. Anyone who has tried to sit outside in Comal County after 4 p.m. in summer knows what a conditioned porch is worth.
The menu shift is real, not cosmetic. Owner Aaron Selinkoff, who took over about 16 months ago, told MySA the overhaul is focused on tightening the kitchen and leaning harder into fresh Hill Country ingredients, with new dishes rolling out that include a pork chop, a king ranch chicken, and a chocolate chip coconut pie, plus rotating pies of the day. The playground got a walled enclosure, and the tap list was widened so more beers can be served on draft. If you wrote Specht's off as a stop for out-of-town visitors, this is the summer to give it another look.
The history has not gone anywhere. Specht's roots trace back to an 1890 general store, and preserved touches such as "The Gin" event space remain central to the venue's identity. That is the tension worth naming: the building is older than the state of Oklahoma, and the kitchen is younger than most of the trucks in the parking lot.
The new arrivals worth knowing by address
Two openings this year matter because of where they landed, not because of what they are.
The first is at Bulverde Crossing. Pepperoni's Pizza, a Houston-based chain, is opening its first San Antonio-area location at 18010 Bulverde Rd #107 in the Bulverde Crossing shopping center in early 2026. The relevant detail for residents is the ingredient standard rather than the delivery radius. The chain runs on the same delivery-and-pick-up model as Domino's and Pizza Hut but is known for higher-quality ingredients, including never-bleached flour and premium DiNapoli-brand tomatoes. Bulverde Crossing already houses the Chamber offices at 121 Bulverde Crossing #115, so the center is becoming less of a strip and more of a civic corner.
The second worth watching is Screaming Goat Yard & Tap. It shows up on nearly every current best-of-Bulverde list, and the Wednesday songwriter series has become the town's most reliable weeknight music slot. The Grammy-nominated and multi-award-winning songwriter David Lee hosts his Lamplighter Songwriter Night at the Goat every Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m. If you have been driving into San Antonio for a listening-room evening, you are burning gas you do not need to burn.
Other names locals already have on rotation:
- Hatch Bakery and Cafe for weekend brunch and a case of pastries you did not plan to eat
- The Branch Neighborhood Grill for the after-practice family dinner
- Verde Bistro and Tejas Steakhouse & Saloon for the sit-down evenings
- Mariscos El Paisa for the seafood run
- The Desert Spoon and Vine in the Village when someone from out of town wants "somewhere nice"
Honey Creek, in a summer where you finally have time
The single most under-visited asset within a ten-minute drive of most Bulverde front doors is Honey Creek State Natural Area. It is under-visited on purpose.
Honey Creek is a protected piece of Hill Country nurtured by a 1.5-mile spring-fed creek, and access is only by guided tour. Texas Parks and Wildlife leads two-mile tours at least once a week, and the walks cover the history, geology, plants, and animals of the preserve. The trail runs about two miles and is moderate in difficulty, mostly flat with some rocky areas, slopes, and two steep but short hills, and the walks typically run around two and a half hours because the guides stop often.
Two developments make this summer the right one to book a slot. First, the preserve is bigger than it was. Honey Creek has grown by 515 acres due to a recent land purchase, though the new tract does not yet have an opening date. Second, there is a public meeting on the table that any Bulverde resident with an opinion on that acreage should know about.
Mark your calendar. Texas Parks and Wildlife is holding a public meeting on the public use plan for Honey Creek State Natural Area on Wednesday, July 22, 2026, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Bulverde/Spring Branch Activity Center, 30280 Cougar Bend.
If you have lived here long enough to have an opinion about how the new 515 acres should be managed, that Wednesday evening is the venue for it. Tours themselves start at the Rust House inside Guadalupe River State Park, which is where you will pay the state park day-use fee.
The civic thread most residents miss
Alongside the eating and hiking, there is a quieter thing happening in June and July that residents can either take part in or watch pass. The Best of Bulverde Spring Branch 2026 awards opened nominations on June 1, each business can be nominated in up to two categories, voting runs June 15 to July 15, 2026, and the awards are presented on August 11, 2026, at Knibbe Ranch. If you have a favorite that has kept your family fed on Tuesday nights or a service that quietly saved your bacon during last year's ice event, this is the ballot. It closes before most people realize it opened.
The other civic anchor is the Mammen Family Public Library, which programs the kind of summer morning that pulls kids off screens without asking parents to plan anything. As one example on the calendar, the library is hosting a Foam Party with Big Time Bubbles on Wednesday, June 24, from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m., featuring music, beach balls, and mounds of hypoallergenic, non-staining foam that is safe for kids, pets, and the environment. Free, walkable if you are close enough, and the kind of thing you tell a neighbor about at pickup.
One practical note if your Memorial Day plans included splash-pad time: the Bulverde Splash Pad was closed for maintenance, with the city noting that staff had identified the problem and ordered the parts needed for repairs. Check status before you load the towels.
Why this matters for people who live here
The through-line in all of this is not that Bulverde is turning into somewhere else. It is that the town has enough weekly programming, refreshed venues, and civic touchpoints in one summer that residents can build a full month without leaving the 78163 zip code. Wednesday at the Goat, Thursday at Hatch, Friday on Specht's new patio, Saturday under the arena lights at Tejas, Sunday on the trail at Honey Creek. Rinse.
That density is what a real neighborhood feels like. And it is the reason the people who have owned here for a decade are quieter about the market than they used to be. Land here has always traded on privacy and oaks. It is starting to trade on the calendar, too.
If you are thinking about a move within the Hill Country, or you are ready to have a discreet conversation about the value of an estate that sits inside this radius, Strait Luxury is glad to sit down. Schedule a Private Consultation with Tamara and we will walk it with you, on the ground and on the map.
