Inside Beau’s Tiny Diner: Big Flavor, Little Space

By Sara Branstetter | April 23, 2025

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The Carpenter restaurant group has done it again with the opening of their brand new all-day diner concept, Beau’s Tiny Diner. And tiny it most certainly is, taking over the previous space of Little Em’s Oyster Bar (which is now across the street in what was formerly UpScale). With room for just a few tables and a small dining counter, Beau’s is making the most of its diminutive space by throwing all its muscle into its food.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sara Branstetter has called San Antonio, TX home for the last 20 years. She’s a wife of a veteran, mom of four, and a cuddler of the world's best dog. The army brought her family to San Antonio years ago, and the city, its culture, and its food have kept her here.

Beau's Tiny Diner

Design

Those who spent some time dining at Little Em’s will most definitely recognize Beau’s design scheme which is essentially the same as its previous owner, but instead of accents of blush pink, you will find lots of accents of light blue.

This gives Beau’s and Little Em’s a bit of a his/hers feeling, but which totally works within the Carpenter restaurant ecosystem. (Be sure to look for the tiny portrait of Little Em’s hanging to the left when you walk into the restaurant - an homage to the eatery that started it all.)

Food

Food-wise, Beau’s offers a fairly classic diner menu with all day breakfast selections, sandwiches, and appropriately named “not-breakfast” options such as meatloaf, chicken fried steak, and crispy tacos. Everything is served all day (7am-10pm) á la a traditional diner menu.

During our visit, we sampled the shareable nachos (tasted like my childhood), the chicken and waffles (fantastic fried chicken and vanilla flavored waffles), and the club sandwich (which required an extra large mouth to take a bite from).

While you can’t exactly call any of those dishes fresh or really exciting, they were all done very well and were exactly what most people are looking for when visiting a diner - except that they were miles better than most conventional diner food.

Parking

Beau’s Tiny Diner is a great option for Southtown guests who are looking for something brand new (psst, here are all of our favorite new restaurants!), unpretentious, and really tasty.

The only real problem with Beau’s is a problem faced by nearly every eatery in Southtown, and that’s the parking. There is no dedicated parking for Beau’s so you are relegated to street parking on the very busy S. Alamo St., or along a side street in the King William district. My recommendation is that you park one block over on Madison St. It is an easy walk to the diner and takes you by some of the most gorgeous, historic residences in King William.

WEBSITE | 1001 St. Alamo St., San Antonio, TX 78210