Emigrant Experience

Note: My original intent with this post was to simply provide a hotel review, but I got carried away and it turned into something of a travelogue. I hope it’s less boring than my vacation slides, but no promises.

Debbie and I recently spent a weekend in Fredericksburg (TX), a destination which alert Gazette readers will recall is one of our favorite Hill Country destinations. This visit will be etched in our memories as our first experience with the [relatively] new Emigrant Boutique Hotel (EBH).

The term boutique hotel may raise a red flag for you. It does sound a bit pretentious but it’s now pervasive enough to have its own Wikipedia page. And according to the generally accepted criteria for such an appellation, the Emigrant definitely qualifies. It’s one of a kind (not a chain), comprised of only five suites, and possesses distinctive and high-end architecture and furnishings. As you would expect, it’s not inexpensive — our room bill was slightly more than $500/night, and some options (more about those later) added significantly to that total.

Was the experience worth the money? For us, the answer is a qualified “yes.” I’ll explain that cryptic answer, but first, a little background.

A brief history…

The Emigrant is one of several prominent businesses in Fredericksburg owned and operated by the Mariposa Hospitality Group (MHG), including Crossroads Saloon & Steakhouse and Altdorf Biergarten. MHG is operated by Gary and Maggie Scripps-Klenzing, and if you think the Scripps name sounds familiar, then you’re absolutely correct. The Scripps family has been a long-time and prominent philanthropic and business influence in Fredericksburg (but also nationally; the extended family’s influence is historic, vast, and well beyond the scope of this article; feel free to research it if you’re interested), and the Emigrant is, in my opinion, its crowning business achievement in the city.

The hotel was years in the making. I can’t find when the actual groundbreaking occurred, but the interior finish-out of the building shell began in 2020. It was completed in 2024 and ribbon-cutting occurred in March, 2025. The relative newness of the property is quite evident. Construction was delayed because of a change in contractors (an interesting story in and of itself), and a supply chain issue related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Our experience…

The Emigrant is located at the corner of US Highway 290 (aka Main Street) and US Highway 87 (aka Washington Street). This is one of busier intersections in the town, and since all the suites face street side, you can guess what one of the downsides will be. More about that in a minute.

As I said at the beginning, this was our first stay at the EBH, and we didn’t know what to expect…beginning with the check-in experience. Unlike most hotels, there’s not a clearly marked lobby with dedicated short-term parking. There’s no street parking, so we circled in front on Main Street, then made a right turn onto Washington Street and noticed what looked like an entrance to what we hoped was a parking lot for the hotel. It was, but each of the six or seven spaces had signage showing that it was reserved for a specific suite (or other use).

There were a couple of empty spaces so we took a chance and parked in one, hoping we could get checked in before the actual “owner” arrived. However, there was no signage directing us to the lobby, so we wandered up a sidewalk and ignored the “Employees Only” sign on a gate to enter the back of the hotel. Another short jaunt down a hallway brought us to the well-appointed lobby and front desk.

Besides the front desk, the lobby also contained the hotel’s bar. It was sparsely populated when we arrived around 3:00 p.m. but that would quickly change.

We were assigned to suite #1, which turned out to be the most interesting location as it’s a corner room with lots of windows and views of both streets. A couple of windows look out across the street at the National Museum of the Pacific War, one of the foremost attractions of Fredericksburg.

Upon learning that we had suite #1, I explained that someone else was already parked in that room’s reserved spot, and that we had to park in the adjacent spot. The clerk said that it wasn’t a big deal and that seemed to be the case throughout our stay…with one exception. Again, you’ll have to read on for that detail.

The clerk (there is not a bell staff at the hotel) accompanied us to the second floor via the elevator to make sure our card keys worked, and then left us to our own devices (i.e. get our luggage from the parking lot to the room). That took a couple of trips and we got settled in to the tastefully decorated room.

Following is a series of photos that I took with my phone; please excuse the weird angles on some as I attempted to stay out of the mirrors.

The sink faucets are single control models, where you turn the handle to get the desired temperature. But you can’t control the flow of water except at the very beginning, meaning that if you want a trickle of hot water (e.g. for shaving), you’re out of luck…full blast is all you can have. Also, you don’t so much turn off the water as you watch it slowly fizzle out; we both found that very amusing, and, yes, we’re easily amused and not from the Big City.

After we got unpacked (it’s worth noting that the closet, while small, had plenty of coat hangers — including a few padded ones to accommodate our evening gowns and tuxedos, which we conveniently forgot to pack), we went downstairs to check out the bar. It was around 4:00 p.m., meaning that it was five o’clock somewhere somewhat close, and the lobby was quite busy. We got a table for two next to the bar and ordered a couple of gin gimlets, which turned out to be overly-sweet (to my taste; Debbie thought hers was OK) and underly-cold, and only later — at check out — did we discover they were also $20 each. At least they were small. Drinker beware.

Saturday night

After dinner (we ate outside on the patio at Hondo’s On Main and listened to some great music from the Chuck Wimer Band), we returned to the hotel and headed downstairs into Maggie’s (apparently named after the hotel’s co-owner), the Emigrant’s “speakeasy.” I should note that you’ll be hard-pressed to find the word speakeasy used on the Emigrant’s website. It’s mostly used on third-party references, and I began to wonder if it was a legitimate reference until I found this on the hotel’s Instagram account. So, speakeasy it is.

You can’t swing a dead cat — not that anyone would try; work with me here — without hitting a speakeasy nowadays. Wikipedia has a very interesting history of the phenomenon, which dates back to the 19th century. The term and concept died out in the US following the end of Prohibition, but it’s come back into vogue even as it’s lost its original meaning. Pretty much any bar, and especially one located in a basement, can be labeled as a speakeasy if it wants to appeal to a certain demographic. No judgment intended here; just an observation.

Maggie’s is indeed in the hotel’s basement. I can remember when construction began on the corner where the hotel sat, and most of us wondered what was being built. For a while, I assumed the giant hole they were excavating might turn into a parking garage. Anyway, access to Maggie’s is via a stairway for non-guests, but for hotel guests, the hotel elevator opens directly into the venue. The return trip via elevator requires a hotel card key.

On Saturday night, the place was jumping. I can’t find an official seating capacity but I’d guess it’s around a hundred or so, and before the night was over, more than that many people made their way in and out. Live music was provided by the Keelan Donovan Band. Donovan is a gifted singer/songwriter from Austin, via Portland, Maine and Nashville, and who is definitely not a traditional country artist (but his country covers are what packed the dance floor, which was a pleasantly nice sized area.

The service was attentive and personable, and the crowd friendly, except for an older couple seated in front of us who kept turning around to give a death-stare at a group of folks who they apparently deemed to be having too much fun; they seemed to have mistaken Maggie’s for Carnegie Hall. Needless to say, the rambunctious folk were impervious to the couple’s attempts at mind-control.

A young couple — both in their mid-twenties — seated next to us engaged us in conversation during a break in the music; I think I had broken the ice earlier when I questioned the young lady about who had originally recorded a song that the band covered and to which she had sung every lyric, and by doing so I reinforced the obvious fact that I was old, uncool, and out of touch, but possibly also grandfatherly and approachable (little did they know). They were eager to tell us that they’d gotten engaged that afternoon. They were so excited, and we shared their enthusiasm.

I don’t recall how we got into it, but the young man asked us if we had any tips for a long and happy marriage (I think they were kind of impressed by our dancing, aged as we are). We had the usual platitudes — make sure your spouse is your best friend; commit to a lifetime together, not just a “let’s try it and see if it works out” thing, etc.) and then I said something like, it was also key for us to have God at the center of our marriage…a shared faith is everything. I wasn’t sure how that would be accepted, and I certainly didn’t anticipate the immediate response: “do you happen to be Baptists?” 🤣 As it turns out, they were also Christians, albeit attendees at a non-denominational church and so we did our best to act non-judgmental. OK, OK…just kidding.

We stayed for a couple of hours, then got into the members-only elevator and returned to our room. One interesting thing about Maggie’s: you can’t charge whatever you spend there to your room, the reason for which was not explained clearly to us. Not a big deal, but somewhat puzzling.

We may have left the music, but it didn’t leave us. And therein is the rub. Street noise from the intersection of two state highways, and music/crowd noise coming up from both the lobby and the speakeasy below us were more than the heavy curtains and thick walls of the room could handle. It wasn’t like the walls and floor were thumping, but the noise was a definite intrusion; we are accustomed to dead silence at night (we live in a very peaceful neighborhood). The hotel does provide a bedside sound machine, but noise to cover noise has just never worked for us. Thankfully, things quieted down — indoor sounds, anyway — a short time later; the 18-wheelers, Harleys, and jacked-up F-250s continued sporadically through the night. If you’re an extremely light sleeper, the Emigrant might present a challenge on that front.

Sunday…

We left the hotel and had breakfast at the Sunset Grill, a terrific breakfast/brunch/lunch spot we first experienced during my radiation treatments in 2025. The hotel was practically deserted when we returned; it was Mother’s Day and apparently not a lot of folks stayed over on Sunday.

We had lunch at the hotel’s Bistro, a small room off the lobby where breakfast and lunch are served six days a week. We then spent part of the afternoon on the balcony where a nice breeze offset the upper-80s temperature. The traffic noise was persistent but not obnoxious. Debbie went on a shopping excursion — I was conveniently fighting a cold and stayed at the room — and she returned with cold drinks and cookies.

Dinner was at Crossroads Saloon and Steakhouse, as I mentioned above, another Mariposa joint (to borrow Spike Lee’s trademark, albeit with a more literal application). Food and service is always top-notch, and we headed into the bar area afterward, where John Arthur Martinez and his band were performing. (Alert Gazette readers will recall that jAm and friends are frequent performers in Horseshoe Bay, and we rarely miss a show.) Unfortunately, a combination of fast approaching bad weather, coupled with my being under the weather, medically-speaking, led to an early return to the hotel. The storm arrived a short time after us, bringing heavy rain and wind, but no hail, for which we were quite thankful as the hotel parking is not covered.

Incidentally, Maggie’s is closed on Sunday nights, so the noise level — both internal and external — was significantly reduced compared to the previous night.

Monday morning…

We planned to eat breakfast at the Bistro, but found that it’s closed on Mondays, so we drove back to the Sunset Grill. We had originally planned to stay in Fredericksburg through lunch, but I was still feeling puny so we checked out and headed home. Despite the minor health issues, it was a very good weekend.

In summary…

We’ve never found the perfect hotel, but we’ve stayed in perfectly acceptable hotels costing a fraction of the price of the EBH (the Holiday Inn Express in Taylor, Texas, comes to mind), and some costing more than twice as much (e.g. the Hotel Emma in San Antonio, and the Andaz Resort on Maui). I think it all comes down to one’s expectations, and from that perspective, we were pleased overall with the Emigrant, and will almost certainly stay there again.

If you decide to add the Emigrant to your itinerary, I hope this little travelogue proves to be helpful in managing your expectations, and so you’ll find it perfectly acceptable, at the very least.