The Eatery, a new on-campus dining location, opened in the new San Pedro I building downtown. 

The location joins a couple of other eating locations offered to students at the Downtown Campus, including Subway, Pizza Hut and Java City. 

The Eatery is a part of True Flavors Catering, a San Antonio-based company founded by chef Johnny Hernandez, his brother, entrepreneur Mark Hernandez, and their sister Leticia Hernandez. Denise Hernandez, Mark’s wife, joined the family business around 13 years ago when they expanded into the restaurant business. Eventually, Denise and Mark returned to the catering business and opened The Eatery. 

The Eatery and True Flavors aim to offer local flavors in a corporate setting, a goal reflected in their menu. 

“What we wanted to do was [replicate] what we do at street level and bring it to the employees of organizations such as the San Antonio Water System,” Hernandez said. 

The San Antonio Water System was the company’s first location. Since then, they have opened two more locations — one at the San Antonio Independent School District headquarters and one at UTSA’s San Pedro I building. 

Furthermore, Hernandez explained that they want to incorporate their catering service’s customizable and changing menu into The Eatery to highlight different cultures.

The Eatery at San Pedro I also offers some UTSA-themed items on its menu, something Hernandez describes as “exciting.”

“I really wanted to highlight the fact that we want to partner with organizations like UTSA and Aramark, and we wanted to have a complete buy-in from the people that we serve and just being creative [with] little things that correlate to the university and the school’s spirit,” Hernandez said. “We don’t want separation of [The Eatery]. We are part of Aramark and UTSA, and it’s important that we represent those brands well.”

The partnership with Aramark to open their third location at UTSA began when the latter reached out to True Flavors.

“Immediately, I jumped on that because I can appreciate these larger companies who’ve been in business for so many years,” Hernandez said. “They’re so big in comparison to what we do, and so an opportunity to partner with them, to learn from them and [teach them a couple of things] on the community basis. I think it was a great [chance] to be able to come together.”

According to Hernandez, work on the partnership has been ongoing for at least 18 months.

“We’ve got this tripod of higher education [and] us as a local family-owned business, and then you look at the university and all the great things that the university is doing for our city. So to be a part of that was really exciting,” Hernandez said.

The Eatery at San Pedro I is open to students and the public. For more information about True Flavors and the Eatery, visit https://www.trueflavors.com/.