The Texas Chateau You Never Knew

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Welcome to the Building Texas show where we find the leaders behind the businesses and organizations driving progress in Texas.

In each episode we share the stories of innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders committed to evolving Texas into its next era. I'm your host Justin McKenzie, your guide to help you think about how to engage in the movement and support building Texas across the entire state.

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Welcome to a special edition of the Building Texas show. Today we're in Hondo, Texas and sitting at Chateau Claire, which is a bed and breakfast, a beautiful bed and breakfast here in Hondo, Texas. We're sitting with the owners and proprietors of Chateau Claire, Joe and Melissa, and you're relatively new to Hondo and you've come in and you've built this wonderful space. How did you discover Hondo, Texas?

So we had some background in knowing Hondo because when as a child we used to travel into the whole country and it was our stop before we made that trip. And so we knew Hondo from that and then as our kids were growing we also were taking them out to the Frio River but never thought we would actually be living in Hondo and being part of the community. And so we came across it one day looking for a home that we were trying to.

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downsize in San Antonio and this house pulled up and just the historical story of the home is really what drew us here in the community and just that small town feel. But that really was how we came across the property and then saw a vision of doing something different, unique, but that could also benefit locals and beyond.

the local community.

So if I can add something. Sure. So I was doing real estate at the time in San Antonio and we were going to downsize because the kids had moved out and stuff. And so we were looking at homes in San Antonio and she searched Zillow and somehow this house pulled up and she's can you me this house in Handel? And I said, I said, okay, well, I'll show you, but you know, we're, yeah, your jobs in San Antonio. So we, I showed her several times.

And so she comes from a restaurant background. Her parents had a Mexican restaurant, Downtown Corpus Christi for a long time. So we'd always talked about it, been in breakfast. I just never thought we, the house presented itself. So that's, it's here and that's why we're here. And the rest, we just bought it, hit the ground running. A few months later, we opened up as a

Bed and breakfast.

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Hi everyone, my name is Melissa Claren. I'm the owner of Chateau Claren. I love to show you our space.

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So Chateau Claire came to be in October of 2021. And we fell in love with this beautiful home that was built in 1914. It is a farmhouse that was a Steers and Roadbug catalog home. And it actually came on rail that comes right here through Hondo. So we love that feature about this beautiful home. It was really important for us to keep the home to as...

everything that's original to the home that we could salvage and make better. So we kept all the hardwood floors, all the original shiplap, any shiplap that was covered with other materials we were able to expose during the remodel of the home.

And it's a beautiful house. for those, if you're here, you can see the gorgeous rooms behind me. They've done meticulous detail in making it an experience outside. And we'll have some great pictures from events like your Oktoberfest event and weddings and family reunions, other large gatherings. You have a wonderful space in the backyard that really you disappear from the hustle and bustle of Highway 90 and you're three blocks off Highway 90.

his house has been here since: 1911

So the house was built in: 1914

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And just to clarify, you found drywall over beautiful shiplap and things that over a hundred years people...

People started, one only and that was stuck on the original hardwood floors. So we started uncovering the discovery and then really doing what we could to preserve it and just really bring it back to life and just really, you know, embracing the history of the home.

So this is our common space for our guests. We have some seating. We've got a small library we put together. Each room has its own name. I've designed them individually and inspired by different things throughout the house. So this is the champagne room. This room is also known as our bridal suite. So we did the champagne chandelier with the champagne bubbles. That's how that name came to be for the room.

We also kept the original cast iron tub that was to the home and had it refinished and built out an ensuite in the space. We also reached out to family who used to live here. That was really important for us to know, you know, who lived here? What's the story? Who was the, you know, who was the original owners? What was their life like in this home? And so it's been a really great experience for us to be able to visit with them.

They come in here and sit with us and tell us about, you know, growing up in the home and just, you know, where they start to have Christmas and things like that.

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sent us pictures with our green shag carpet. They told us the connection between this house and the airport during the one with the pilot.

And what is that connection? Because there is a very famous airfield here that was at one time the largest training center for airmen during World War II. So there was a lot of people here, but how was this house connected?

So the original owners were told they would house the airmen that were training during World War II. And they would house them here and give them somewhere to stay. And that's the connection in that. Our other room is called The Divine. And this room was inspired, as we could see St. John's Chapel is right outside the window here.

And we just really took all of the natural lighting and exposed the shiplap and put chandeliers throughout the space to just give it a really nice feel in here.

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We also have the prohibition room. And this room was an idea from my husband. He really wanted to do something a little bit more masculine. And from the era, since the house was from the era of the prohibition era, and so we did a lot of the crown molding, the darker golds and colors and reds that are in here. This is our king room with our king bed.

That's fantastic. So what kind of events do you host here and where can people come and say, yes, this is going to be a fit for my event?

So really what we've had, multiple weddings, we've done, you know, birthdays, anniversary parties, family get togethers, even small intimate dinner events. You know, we've had small groups who have rented out the space and we've done, we've cooked for them. So really there's been just a variety of events that we've been able to do and

We encourage people to think about their special event that they want to do in a very unique space where we can really create a great opportunity and event for them.

She just hosted her first, she's been wanting to host a tea party. Yeah. And so we had family and friends. All women, of course, girls. I was the only one.

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Cucumber sandwiches and yeah

Different dishes and so it was really something I had been wanting to do and this space again is just you know so unique and just has that great feel to kind of do something different and unique and it was was really a nice experience to be able to do that. So this is a space where we serve breakfast to our guests so my husband and I we do a full breakfast for our guests.

and we cook everything right here in our own beautiful kitchen that we've remodeled.

And with your attention to detail throughout the house, that's just evident when you walk in and looking at your kitchen. I suspect the attention to detail in the food is there as well. I've seen pictures, video and heard from others that that's part of it. You really do make you look at every detail and make sure those events have every bit of it.

Yeah, people ask me, I give them a tour, sometimes she's not here. I'm semi-retired. I'm an innkeeper now. They'll ask me who decorated the- The james' house. I said, you know, and she's been asked before, hey, can you come decorate my place or whatever? But she just, that's, she just has a feel for-

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You're coming out of retirement.

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The house has lent itself to be able to do what I do and and from the moment I walked in I could see what I wanted this to look like I also wanted to create a space that I Would want to be in at a bed-and-breakfast or if I was having an event and the detailed part is very important for us To just give people a different experience, you know from outside of their day to day and so

the details that we spent on the linens, how the pillows were, where we got them from, to plating something for a guest and making it visually appealing to not only, as soon as they see it, great, and they're already experiencing something nice, but then once they start to enjoy it, it really just kind of pulls everything together. So that's really important.

She keeps me on my toes about details. know, men usually are less detailed.

I've been accused of such as well.

Yeah

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I'll put like maybe parsley. We need fresh parsley. Just little things.

So I that's safe.

But that's what makes your event more Instagrammable I would say. And in today's world that's part of the event that you want to have. You want it to look and appeal in many media forms. So not only for the people there, it's a great opportunity for you to see that detail memorialized in social media.

So the gazebo was actually built when we first moved in. We wanted to provide a space where we could have our wedding ceremonies that we have here. So we have had several couples get married here and the backdrop of the gazebo has been just beautiful. We're able to set up the entire space for the wedding and ceremony. And then we make special plaques for every couple that is married in our gazebo. And so we get to put those along the railing.

How do you, mean, it's a town of, Hondo, Texas is an interesting place, right? And we think about, I'm from Del Rio originally, I've grown up driving up and down Highway 90, but I'm hard pressed to take the right, if I'm coming from Del Rio, or the left, if you're out of San Antonio, and come back and find this beautiful property tucked away in a neighborhood, surrounded by church bells, the water tower, and I was just listening to the school.

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playing Creedence Clearwater Revival at 8 o'clock in the morning. There's a fabric of the community that just really comes alive if you're out there. But how do you get them off of Highway 90?

So when we've had guests, we always ask them, how did you find us? It's always intriguing to hear the different stories of how they found us. And a lot of people do go to social media. They'll Google. They've frequented Bread and Breakfast before. Or they have never been to Bread and Breakfast, but they looked us up on social media or our website. And they were just.

They love the pictures and the story, know, all of that's on our website.

get here and they'll say nothing against our marketing girl. She says the pictures don't do it justice.

Director, sorry.

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Well, I mean, and it's, you know, you have the standstill pictures, but when you walk into the space, that's where they feel that, you know, that's what they share, you know, and they always say, you know, no offense, it, you know, it's the space to come into and feel, but most of them are through social media that, you know, we get most of our traffic through.

You've also mentioned that it's an interesting placement where it is. So Highway 90, as we've talked to people across the state, we know that Harris County, Houston, travels west into Texas. They come to Garner State Park just down the road, or they go to Big Bend all the way out. But you're really uniquely positioned right as the center point between Big Bend and Houston. And I can imagine this would be a great, if you've been out.

far west Texas and you're coming back into civilization, this would be a nice day to settle. So do you see a lot of that or the European travelers I could see?

a lot of people from Harris County that are coming through and they do share, know, that they're on their way to Big Ben. And it really is that that middle point to kind of break up that trip. they find us, you know, kind of just searching the area again, you know, what's kind of between here and there. And we've gotten a lot of travelers through.

We've had, speaking about the Europeans, we've had a German couple come twice in a row already. They're friends on social media, couples from Holland. During the eclipse, we had people from Belgium.

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Mm-hmm.

That's incredible and they become your friends. They've invited you over to Europe and having grown up in that culture, when they travel internationally, they want to bring you back with them. So I imagine you have a fan base, an audience that's growing in Europe with the European travel.

It is, and it's really interesting. A lot of people ask, how does it feel having strangers in your home? And it's so interesting that because usually by the time they're leaving, we're taking pictures together. They're wanting to stay connected. And so that's really unique.

story but yeah the people we had two couples from Houston going back from Big Ben that night we were seeing karaoke.

Yeah.

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Yeah, they wanted us in Caryhuffey, so there you go.

It's also helpful to have law enforcement in the house with you. Pretty standard. And Joe, you are from Corpus and you have an interesting history in that, right, too. So you tie in a lot of Texas history, Texas culture. So if if you have the opportunity to come to Chateau Claire, there's a number of stories that you all share that are worth the trip. And I think that's an incredible part of the bed and breakfast culture.

And it ends.

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when you have hosts that are personable, have a lot of value in conversation and in the details and just make you feel at home. I've had the opportunity to be here twice now and the first time was during Christmas and back to the decorations. The Christmas decorations were over the top. How many trees did you have in here for Christmas? Seven. Seven. And in that time, you also had a dinner, like a Christmas party. when you told me,

I was amazed, but you're talking about events in the house for about 40. That's on a higher end, but across the whole property, what size event are you able to host or what's your target size for hosting?

about 50 to 100 people is kind of where our target is.

wedding for 160. It was friends from Katie. Okay. They got married here. But we're trying to stay at the home 100 or less, make it more intimate.

And I think what a wonderful opportunity to for the people local to Hondo, Medina County, neighboring counties and cities. This isn't this is a place where you can bring your whole family. And if your family is not willing to travel all the way to other parts of even San Antonio for a wedding, this is a beautiful solution. Again, great churches all around. The bells are incredible to hear. But what a gift for the city of Hondo here.

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The last thing I want to talk about is the enablers around you. And Joe, you serve the city in an elected role and you've seen Hondo continue to have the conversation about how do we attract, how do we promote, how do we help our citizens? Stepping into that elected role, what have you learned and where do you see that energy creating good for Hondo?

I think we've seen that the, culture is maybe changing a little bit. I'm trying to be a part of that. we have a great, EDC was seen of course, he has a vision, the city manager, John, the mayor.

I have a request. I'm going to move it.

And the other city council members. But I think just education, educating the, the citizens. And so that, we all, we all try to get on the same page to have this vision. you know, we don't want to live in New York. mean, at a big old city like San Antonio, but we Honda. We want nice things for the citizens to be able to go to.

Things to do opportunities to have

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Fire size restaurants or whatever. We have pickleball courts that they put up here. Yeah, I just got some net rackets and that we want to try it. I think we might.

Yeah, we're gonna come back do that

But so small things like that quality quality of life. Yeah, but the citizen

important for us.

And that's what I've said since. And the reason I've come to Hondo is to meet with the Economic Development Corporation and some of the broader community leaders. And I've been blown away by the meetings and the level of collaboration, the level of, hey, what's best for our citizens here? You'll have a lot of momentum towards that quality of life, towards, how do we help each other? And so I always want to advocate. Thank you for serving the city of Hondo in that way. But

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Let's get them involved and help them understand that there's a lot of things happening, whether it's at the airport or in a bed and breakfast community like this, or in the schools. There's really a bright future being built in Honda.

Absolutely. And one of the things that I've noticed is that people really want better, nicer things. But it goes back to educating them about how are we able to do that and have smart growth, but grow. Not just stay stagnant, grow, do it. And really be educated in what the opportunities are. And in just the short time we've been here, three years, we've learned so much of what

Hondo has to offer, but there's so much more that we're not aware of. Even being here three years, so I'm excited about where it's going.

And then there's a lot of local people that still don't know you're here. And that's one of the great opportunities for people, especially that have family that travel into the community. This is a great place for those visitors to stay and experience a home that isn't necessarily your home, but it's a home here in Hondo. And then the family reunion, the Thanksgiving dinners, whatever it might be that brought them here are much more comfortable.

And there are a lot of people that do promote us. There are great people here. The Chamber, EDC, they'll promote us and they'll say there's a weddings or funerals or whatever the event is, people do have to travel them out of town. they're great and they'll promote us and so we're thankful for that.

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If I'm sitting somewhere in the state and saying, I want to go to a tea party here at Chateau Claire in Hondo, how would people find you? How would they reach out to you?

Usually, they can go to Facebook, we're on Facebook, Chateau Claire, and then on Instagram it's at ChateauClaireBNB, and then our website is ChateauClaire.com, and we also have our email is ChateauClaireBNB at gmail.com, is how you can reach us through any of those. Or just Google us and pick up the phone, Joe loves to have conversations with people and it's been interesting.

I'm not gonna answer but we do get a lot of questions. Well is Claire her name or whatever? How do we get the Chateau Claire? So last name is French. there were Melissa the sad was just call it Chateau Claire

Yeah.

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Well, I was going to ask that question as we wrap up. A chateau in Hondo is a bold move.

There's a funny story and Melissa wants to tell you there was a lady who had an event here for a retiring attorney

and one of their guests got the invite and they live in San Antonio and he's like, he pulls up the invite and it's a Chateau Claire in Hondo. And he goes, there's a Chateau in Hondo, I've got to go see this. And he loved the space, he was very impressed. was just, you know, but it was one of those things that kind of took him back and had some kind of question, you know. So, you know, when you think of a Chateau and we walked in and the space just, you know.

just gives it lies itself.

to that. It does transform whether you walk through the front door or you pull through the gate. It is a chateau here in Hondo and I appreciate the boldness in name and it is a conversation starter. So thank you Joe and Melissa for what you're doing here in Hondo and in such a short time the impact that you're making the opportunities you're opening up for others and in the way that you're building Texas.

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Thank you.

for you guys showing up here and telling our story.

Happy to do it.

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