I have three bits of good news, one related to birds and two dealing with food.

First, the food news. I have stumbled across two area restaurants which meet my stringent, exacting criteria for approval – they are relatively inexpensive and have good eats. An added plus is that I have never encountered anyone yakking on a cell phone in either place.

A bit distant is Kloesel’s Steakhouse and Bar, at 101 Moore Street in Moulton, not far from either Gonzales or Shiner, to help you get your geographic orientation. It’s in a big, old yellow house and on my two luncheon visits, I’ve had the fried chicken and the chicken and dumplings. Both were $5.99 and came with veggie and salad sides, plus a bowl of banana pudding which was served before the main entrée. They’re quirky like that, but service was sterling and the food excellent.

They offer half-price on bottles of wine every Thursday and have a wide array of steaks, including filets, ribeyes and strips, plus such delicacies as fried pickles and tortilla soup. Desserts range from the aforementioned pudding to crème brule. This is a surprisingly sophisticated restaurant for a town under one thousand population. It’s been around since 1970, so they must be doing something right.

My second find is a bit closer to home – Friesenhaus Restaurant and Bakery, 148 S. Castell Avenue in New Braunfels – www.friesenhausnb.com. This place offers – surprise – lots of German dishes, including sausages, sauerbraten, rouladen and schweinebraten. For $7.99, I had the jagerschnitzel lunch special, which came with spicy German fried potatoes and red cabbage. It was very good.

The Spaten bock beer on tap cost $3.49 for a small glass and was watery, flat and foamless. At least it was cold. And to my cost-conscious consternation, they charged $2.50 for an extra saucer of bread slices. So all was not perfection.

All their German beers – about 15 in all – are on draft and hopefully some are livelier than mine. For $18.99, you can have a “boot” of beer and play the game wherein you pass the boot-shaped pitcher around and the last person who passes the boot before it is drained, picks up the beer tab. Be careful of sloshing.

So much for the latest on endorsed eateries. My good news about birds is that Hans Mueller of Wimberley had another successful year as a purple martin landlord.

I saw press reports this summer about fewer purple martins in our area and how heat can be a problem for the birds. But Mueller, who has three houses, each with eight compartments, had 18 nests this year. Only six compartments went vacant. His birds arrived on February 19 and left in mid-July. Like a good landlord, he has since cleaned out the houses and lowered them to half-mast for the winter. He’ll clean them out and get ready for new birds on Valentine’s Day.

“We had a normal year,” said Mueller, who has been hosting purple martins since 1986.

Considering it was one of the hottest summers on record, that’s mighty good news.



Banana pudding is served before the main dish at Kloesel's Steakhouse in Moulton.