H and H Coffee

Dedicated to the history of the Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. founded 1899 in San Antonio, Texas.

Central public square in San Antonio, fronting the Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero) on its east side. The primary commercial and civic gathering point of 19th-century San Antonio. Relevant to H&H through the Menger Hotel, William R. Hoffmann’s early career, and the city-formation events that made San Antonio a commercial center.

H&H-connected presence

George C. Sauer’s grocery on Alamo Plaza — William R. Hoffmann worked as a clerk at this grocery before launching his coffee business, per KB documentation of his early career. The plaza grocery trade positioned him in the wholesale/retail provisioning world before he set up his own roasting operation in the rear of the Spahn Bakery (1904).

Menger Hotel — The hotel anchors the south side of Alamo Plaza and is the physical link between the Menger family (hotel founders William L. Menger and Mary Menger) and the H&H Menger siblings who operated the coffee company from 1920. The hotel-era Mengers and the H&H Mengers are documented as distinct branches (the 1923 SA Light feature distinguishes “Gus R. Menger” of the hotel circle from “Gus P. Menger” of H&H), but the shared surname and plaza proximity make the family geography significant.

November 1860 secession debate — The public argument against Texas secession was held before the Menger Hotel on Alamo Plaza, documented in Tim and Nancy Draves’s Bexar County during the Civil War StoryMap (2021). This event predates H&H but establishes the Menger Hotel as a civic stage — the same building whose family would co-found H&H a generation later.

February 19, 1877 — first railway celebration — Governor Richard B. Hubbard and Mayor James H. French welcomed dignitaries at the Menger Hotel on Alamo Plaza for the arrival of the first San Antonio railroad. The railroad’s arrival is the direct commercial precondition for H&H’s green-coffee supply chain (see Southern Pacific Railroad and GH&SA Railroad).

Commercial development around the plaza

Per the Rail to Bexar StoryMap (Tim Draves, 2024): after the 1877 rail arrival, Alamo Plaza became a concentrated commercial zone — U.S. Post Office (1877), Maverick Bank Building (1885), Grand Opera House (1886), and Joske’s department store (1889) all within a decade. This rapid commercial densification is the context in which H&H’s founders were building their early customer base in San Antonio’s wholesale grocery and restaurant trade.

Open questions

  • Whether a documented Alamo Plaza address for the Sauer grocery exists (needed to precisely locate Hoffmann’s pre-H&H workplace)
  • The exact timeline of the hotel-side Mengers’ connection to the H&H Mengers — shared ancestor, cousins, or more distant?

See also

  • The Alamo — mission building; H&H Alamo Cook Book cover iconography
  • Menger Hotel — faces the plaza; Menger family landmark
  • William R. Hoffmann — worked at Sauer’s grocery on the plaza
  • Spahn Bakery — East Commerce Street; H&H founding location
  • GH&SA Railroad — 1877 arrival celebrated at the Menger Hotel