As a journalist, I’ve written about crime for newspapers, business deals for magazines, cruise ship ports for online travel publications and industry trends for websites. My focus now is exclusively on travel. 
Luxury hotels often impress with sleek design and impeccable service. But the moment I walked into Hotel Emma, I realized this hotel at the north end of San Antonio’s River Walk offers something rarer: a sense of place embodied by an extraordinary library.
The bones of the 19th-century Pearl Brewery still hum beneath the surface, giving San Antonio’s only Michelin Two-Key hotel a rustic texture and authenticity that new-build luxury hotels can’t replicate.
A cathedral-like brick tower beckons visitors inside, where steel beams frame soaring ceilings. Chandeliers fashioned from old bottling machinery hang above soft leather sofas. Guests sip cocktails in candle-lit former beer tanks.
Yet the real surprise for me was the library.
More than 3,700 books collected by San Antonio author and historian Sherry Kafka Wagner fill floor-to-ceiling shelves. Texas history, art books, children’s classics, contemporary fiction, and old beer-making manuals reside in the old fermentation room. The glass-enclosed space feels more like the living room of a gracious South Texas ranch house than a hotel amenity.
To learn more about Hotel Emma, please read my story in the July issue of Luxe Beat Magazine.
