Tile Vault: Schilo's Delicatessen

What: Floor tiles
Where: Schilo's Deli in San Antonio, Texas
When: Thursday, April 9, 2009, 1 pm
Why: The old German institution (since 1917) boasts dark woods, pressed tin ceilings, delicious reubens, beer and root beer -- and the most striking old tile floor. The earthy color combo and intricate pattern of the hex tiles had us loving Schilo's and past eras.

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Comments (6)

It looks like a colorful snake skin. Pretty!

posted by LilyC on April 14th 2009 at 1:47pm
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@LilyC - snakeskin is a great description for this. And it's super cool looking - I'd love to have something like this in my house!

posted by Miss Jess on April 14th 2009 at 2:12pm
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At first glance I was convinced this was an incredible Turkish rug! Wow! Talk about trompe l'oeil.
Katy
http://fengshuibyfishgirl.com

posted by fishgirl on April 14th 2009 at 2:25pm
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I love these old tiles. Here's a great resource for old tile: The Tile Heritage Foundation. They sell repros of old tile catalogs. You can get plans and patterns for floors, walls, fountains, fireplaces... you name it. Batchelder, Grueby, Hull, Mosaic Tile Co... lots of makers. Browsing their catalog samples on-line helped me identify our 1928 fireplace tile as Calco. I've also ordered from them and the products are good.

For those of you who like porcelain mosaic and hex tiles (like the ones in Schilo's), here is a sample page from their American Encaustic Tiling Co catalog, circa 1900:

http://www.tileheritage.org/CatalogA-inside.html

Have fun!

posted by arroyo on April 14th 2009 at 2:26pm
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Wow, absolutely amazing!

arroyo, thank you for the resource!

posted by sarrazak on April 14th 2009 at 3:03pm
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Schilo's has the best root beer. Plus it's one of the few non-touristy places to eat in downtown San Antonio.

posted by palindrome on April 14th 2009 at 3:12pm
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