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Escapes
BEER, WINE, CHEESE, NUMINOUS, AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
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TO T E X A S
MARBLE
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Photo by Victoria Billeaud, taken at Schaffer Bend Recreation Area.
HILL COUNTRY
Marble Falls
A TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE LITTLE CITY ON THE LAKE
By Jordan LaHaye Fontenot
“A
ll of my life was kind of leading up to this,” Marta Stafford shared from the well-worn leather couch in the Marta Stafford Fine Art Gallery in Marble Falls, after hours. We’d met Stafford only about hforty-five minutes before, when we’d strolled into her warmly-lit space on Main Street just as she was closing up shop. Bespectacled and tastefully scarved, she was sharing the story of her journey to becoming a gallery owner, which began at the foothills of her golden years a decade ago. “I think there were just breadcrumbs that led me here, to this gallery and to Marble Falls. I love the temperament of this place, how people step up. I love this,” she said, gesturing at my friend Victoria and me, sharing our hearts on her couch. This sort of thing happens here, Stafford said: “Art is so personal.” Her gallery space often doubles as a community living room, and she believes there’s something about being surrounded by so much art that invites vulnerability. “Sometimes I’m sitting on this couch, and I’m listening to things I had no idea I would hear, things they should be telling their spouse, or their mother.” Later, Victoria and I agreed that while the historic space of her gallery and the wide diversity of art within it certainly fostered a unique sense of welcome, it was Stafford herself who invited such a striking sense of human connection. It had something to do with the visible contentment that she carried, we surmised—something we’d observed in most everyone we’d met in Marble Falls, Texas thus far; a sense that they had found their destiny there in the Hill Country.
Save the World Brewing Co. Twenty -four hours before, Victoria and I had just spent the last six hours contemplating our own destinies in the sort of dialectic studies that only road trips allow for, the terrain undulating beneath us, rising from lush greens to feathery browns. By the time we arrived in Marble Falls, we were ready for a beer. Before we even checked into our hotel, we drove straight to Save the World Brewing 54
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Co., arriving on a Friday night just before closing time (at a shockingly early 7 pm). The place was bustling. People sat at picnic tables under the shaded porch or peddled at the various yard games—tether ball, cornhole—across the turfed greenspace. Up a small hill to the side of the building was a playground and rope swing under a sprawling old tree. Everything had an orange tint draped over it by the early evening sunset. There was a sense that most people knew each other, confirmed when the owner took came and introduced herself as soon as we sat down with our flights. Our billowy travel pants and Louisiana accents made it clear we weren’t local. As we sipped our tripels, Quynh Rathkamp called her husband Dave over, and the two shared the story of how they ended up opening America’s first 100% philanthropic production microbrewery. The two met in New Orleans, while completing their medical residencies at Tulane. After practicing in the Dallas area for fifteen years, they began to dream up a marriage of their two passions: beer and service. Today, both having retired from their practices, the Rathkamps have embraced Marble Falls—a location they selected because Dave grew up visiting Lake Travis, and the couple always thought it would be great to retire there—as their community in the age-old way of providing a beloved gathering place. On the left side of the taproom is the “True Beerliever Wall,” which holds hundreds of labeled glasses for regulars who participate in Save the World’s loyalty club. Hanging one patron’s glass back up as he headed out, the woman behind the counter asked about his family, and wished him a good weekend. Quynh told us that—while the project has been a lot of work—it has been an absolute dream. “We are exactly where we are meant to be,” she said. In the seven years it’s been open, Save the World Brewery has raised over $250,000 for nonprofit organizations that include Food for the Hungry, Meals on Wheels, and Highland Lakes Habitat for Humanity. And as for the beer: In 2021, Save the World Brewing won a gold medal at the Great American Beer Festival, and was named the Best Brewery in a Small Market at the Texas Travel Awards. The menu features dozens of options—all naturally carbonated,
