Restaurant wins Best Downtown Business in the less than 50,000 population category
(Seguin) — Being recognized as the Best Downtown Business in the state of Texas feels more like a touchdown at a local high school football game than earning accolades for the food on the menu.
That’s according to Ernest Servantes, one of the owners of downtown Seguin’s Burnt Bean, as he describes the experience of the restaurant’s most recent recognition of being named Best Downtown Business for the population less than 50,000 category by Texas Downtown (TXDT). During the statewide organization’s annual conference, Servantes along with co-owner Dave Kirkland joined Kyle Kramm, director of the Seguin Main Street Program for the honors.
Servantes says describing the experience as a football game was simply because the award was more than just about the restaurant. He says it felt more like a team effort — or a hometown versus a hometown competition.
“When we got invited to go to this thing, we weren’t rooting for ourselves. We were rooting for Seguin. Do you understand? There’s a difference. We weren’t rooting for ourselves because of the food. This is something so much bigger. It was about the city of Seguin and yes, we were the catalyst that made us get nominated but it was Seguin and Kyle and Mayor (Donna) Dodgen and (Steve) Parker (city manager) and all of the people that did so much work and they are working so hard and this is something to be proud of — not for Burnt Bean but for the city of Seguin to be noticed,” said Servantes.
Servantes says it was such a humbling experience especially when you consider all the other towns that were up for consideration.
“You know how cool it is when they had I think 143 nominees in the state of Texas –that’s cities and towns that are under 50,000 that get nominated for this thing. They take the finalists, and they go personally to each downtown and then we get Top 3 and we say the towns like I think it was Bastrop and all these other towns and we are like ‘wow, we see these towns.’ When you think of downtowns, you think of Fredericksburgs and New Braunfels and all those cute little places, well now Seguin got announced in those categories and to hear all of these towns that we are competing against and beat them, it was pretty awesome to hear that. I don’t know who was more excited Burnt Bean or was it Kyle (Kramm)? Kyle has done so much for this city so it was very humbling but yet it was such a special moment for the city of Seguin that we put ourselves out there and it was really cool,” said Servantes.
Kyle Kramm, the Seguin Main Street and CVB director, says the Burnt Bean Company was selected based on the positive impact that it is having in downtown Seguin. He says the restaurant has “truly had a significant positive impact on all of downtown Seguin.”
“Not only did they win the Judge’s Choice but they also won the People’s Choice Award for Best Downtown Business, so they were up against businesses from across the state for that. So, basically, they were getting recognized for one, their own success of operating a very successful business in our downtown but also the impact that they have had on all of downtown Seguin. They are bringing in hundreds and thousands of visitors to Seguin and then those people are coming to downtown Seguin. They are not always just stopping for lunch at the Burnt Bean, but also walking down to the other stores to do some shopping and exploring,” said Kramm.
Kramm says not only is Seguin proud to be the home of the Burnt Bean Company, but it is proud of the accolades and attention that it is bringing to the city.
“We like to say in our downtown Seguin world that ‘A Rise in Tide Lifts All Boats’ and so they kind of — Texas Downtown used that phrase and they said, ‘No Tide Has Raised Downtown Seguin Quite Like Burnt Bean,” said Kramm.
Since opening its doors, the Burnt Bean has been on a fast track to popularity picking up a number of state and national recognition awards along the way. Among the most noted is its No. 4 ranking for best BBB in Texas in Texas Monthly’s Top 50 list.
But for Servantes, he says it’s not always been about the food.
“Dave and I looked at each other and said, ‘mission accomplished.’ The whole goal was how could we make this place a destination place and really bring in people that would not normally come into Seguin to Seguin. That was our whole goal when we built our restaurant. We said we could bring a lot of really cool things to downtown that is not normally being noticed and it was mission accomplished. We wanted to show the world how awesome downtown Seguin is,” said Servantes.
Winners of the 2022 President’s Awards Program were announced in San Marcos in conjunction with the Texas Downtown Conference. For over 35 years the awards program, sponsored by Texas Downtown (TXDT), has recognized outstanding projects, places, and people of Texas downtowns.
Texas Downtown was established in 1985 to connect and serve communities that are committed to downtown vitality. The mission of the organization is to provide members with resources, advocacy, education, and connections. Texas Downtown represents cities of all sizes, economic development organizations, nonprofits including chambers of commerce and merchant groups, and small business owners.