Bugs in Brenham

Would you go on a picnic to anywhere with the word Ant in it?

          How about dinner?

          We did.

          In downtown Brenham, the seat of government in Washington County, there is a street named Ant Street. The genesis of the name escapes me, but on Ant Street you will find the Ant Street Inn. I guess the owners could not pass up an opportunity to cash in on such a bizarre name for their establishment.

          Brenham, and Washington County in particular, is the “Birthplace of Texas”. It was here that in 1836, a group of “Texans” met to declare their independence from Mexico in a little ferry-crossing town down the road from Brenham by the name of Washington-on-the-Brazos.

          Brenham is one of those towns that, through the decades, has been progressive-thinking and fortunate enough to move forward in time while embracing its past. The downtown Historic District of Brenham sparkles with period architecture while inside these buildings there are a proliferation of unique enough businesses to give  Brenham a coveted spot in local destinations.

Galleries, breweries, restaurants, inns, and retail shops are on practically every street in the District. Around Washington County you will find very nice lakes and parks and this region has some fine vineyards to add to its attraction. Just west of here, in the Hill Country, is where most of Texas’s wineries are located, but the spillover into this area gives a wine lover some nice choices to visit.

          The homes in the surrounding area are typical Southwest. Sometimes you feel like you are in a third-world country and then you go around the bend and there in front of you is a ranch that makes Southfork on Dallas look like an ordinary development house.

          JR would not be happy.

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But right down the road and actually on the other side of the tracks……

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           And it seems that the western tradition of having some kind of gateway or signage over the driveway to proclaim the entrance to even just a regular home has been kept intact. Some of the ranches have quite the elaborate entranceway to their spreads. Cattle and oil, the Texas standards, are the money drivers around here. No surprise there!

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But Brenham has at least one VERY IMPORTANT corporation that makes its home here.

          Blue Bell Ice Cream!

          Blue Bell Ice Cream is the third best selling brand in the USA and it is only available in 22 states. The Company started in Brenham in 1907. It is a premium ice cream, meaning high milkfats and low overrun (or air). Remember Tom Carvel on his commercials yelling in his raspy voice, “We use no air pumps!”. Well, that was his way of letting us know that his ice cream did not have any air pumped into it to increase yield. Overrun is an accepted ice cream manufacturing practice, but the more that is used, the less quality is the product and the manufacturers are regulated as to how they label their products, i.e. Premium, Super-Premium, and Ultra-Premium. Any of the regular store brand ice creams are generally about 50% air, which, obviously , is not premium.

          Enough of Ice Cream 101!

          Blue Bell been owned by the Kruse family for over a hundred years and back in the day, when they made their Cookies and Cream flavor, line workers would open up regular bags of Oreos , crush them, and then mix them into the process! A dedication to quality that lasts to this day. (But I am sure that they buy Oreos in bulk now!)

          A visit to the creamery and the requisite sampling are must-dos for any visitor to the area. You can have as many samples as you would like (if you are willing to stand on line for a while 😊)

          Back to Ant Street we go.

          The Ant Street Inn is a Bed and Breakfast with 15 unique and (some haunted!) rooms. Stained glass and period antiques abound in this two-story 1899 building. It was originally built by the Schmid Brothers as the premier mercantile building in downtown Brenham. Now it is home to a business that sports the overnight rooms, a ballroom that can seat 250 guests, and a wonderful restaurant, The Brenham Grill. That is where we had dinner. The menu is somewhat eclectic, from Mom’s Meatloaf and several Italian dishes to Carne Asada and other Southwestern tidbits.

All served in a Dining Room that has an authentic Old West style bar and incredible mid-room light source that defies the use of the word chandelier. We had a delightful evening and a very nice dinner. As you can see, the Ant Street Inn is just one of many reasons to visit Brenham and the surrounding area.

          As I am a card-carrying arachnophobe, I do not know what we would have done had it been located on Spider Street!