![]() Karns also owns Mexican/Tex-Mex restaurants Tulum, Jalisco Norte, Meso Mayo, Taqueria Ventana and TorTaco. El Fenix still enjoys success and celebrates its original flavors. Since then, the Martinez family sold El Fenix to Mike Karns who operates it under his Local Favorite Restaurant Company. No matter, more than 50 years prior to that intended insult, two Mexican families emigrated to Dallas and were successfully selling Tex-Mex cuisine before it had the name The Martinez family opened the first El Fenix in 1964 and the Cuellar family opened the first El Chico in 1940. The term appeared again when British food writer, Diana Kennedy, a foremost expert on Mexican cuisine, dismissively and unflatteringly wrote about the Mexican-influenced cuisine she found in Texas and referred to it as Tex-Mex in her 1972 best-selling cookbook, The Cuisines of Mexico. In 1883, Tex-Mex became the first Mexico-United States railway connection when a bridge was built over the Rio Grande River to connect Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. Known as the Tex-Mex, the route connected Corpus Christi to Laredo. With the opening of so many new Tex-Mex joints here, it seems time for a refresher.įirst, the term “Tex-Mex” is derived from The Texas Mexican Railway Company which was christened in 1881, a subsidiary of the Kansas City Southern Railway which was one of the largest operators at the time. Some of this information might be old hat to long-timers here, but we’ve got lots of new neighbors who probably don’t understand the precedent of Odelay’s pan-fried tacos or how the Mambo Taxi came to be. whose family built El Chico, once the largest Tex-Mex chain in the world. ![]() There is a corn silk thread that connects most of them to each other, though there’s only one locally that’s currently owned and operated by one of the two original families that successfully commercialized Tex-Mex in Dallas, and that’s Casa Rosa which is owned by Gilbert Cuellar, Jr. Days after the print version of this story was submitted, I received news that a new Tex-Mex concept called Escondido would open in Preston Hollow. Just a smidge outside our circulation area is Casa Rosa, Mia’s, Uncle Julio’s, Doce Mesas, Chuy’s, Tupinamba, and Desperado’s. That doesn’t include two Chipotles, one Taco Joint, a Velvet Taco and two upscale predominantly Mexican, not Tex-Mex restaurants, Jose and Tulum. Within the circulation boundaries of Preston Hollow People and Park Cities People alone, there are at least 12 Tex-Mex restaurants including Rafa’s, Mesero (2), Odelay, Mi Cocina (2), Fernando’s, El Fenix, Muchacho, and Jalisco Norte. The Tex-Mex segment in Dallas is en fuego.
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