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| El Chico | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Restaurant information | |
| Established | 1940 |
| Food type | Tex-Mex |
| City | Dallas |
| State | Texas |
| Country | United States |
| Other locations | Chain |
| Website | elchico |
El Chico is a restaurant chain in the Southern United States. The first restaurant opened in 1940 in Oak Lawn, in Dallas, Texas. There are 13 locations. [1] The restaurant serves a variety of Tex-Mex dishes.
The restaurant's origin was Adelaida "Mama" Cuellar's popular homemade tamales at a county fair in 1926. Two years later, Cuellar opened Cuellar's Cafe in Kaufman, Texas. [2] Her sons opened a cafe in Dallas using her recipes. [1] [3] The 11th Cuellar restaurant was located at Six Flags Over Texas amusement park, which was owned by Adelaida Cuellar's husband's employer, Angus Wynne. The Six Flags location served chicken fried steak and fried chicken to lure those unfamiliar with Mexican food into their restaurant. Most visitors to this location had never heard of tacos, enchiladas, or guacamole before. [2]
Introducing Mexican food to America was not El Chico's only notable feat: It was also one of the early chain restaurants, with multiple locations at a time when mom-and-pop single-location restaurants ruled. [2] Joe V. Carvajal was an integral part of the success of many of the El Chico restaurants in the 1960s and '70s. He introduced the sopapilla to Tex-Mex and American cuisine.
Today, El Chico is part of Consolidated Restaurant Operations, Inc. (CRO) [4]
Tex-Mex cuisine is a regional American cuisine that originates from the culinary creations of Tejano people. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern United States to the rest of the country. It is a subtype of Southwestern cuisine found in the American Southwest.
Chili con carne is a spicy stew of Mexican origin containing chili peppers, meat, tomatoes, and often pinto beans or kidney beans. Other seasonings may include garlic, onions, and cumin.
Nachos are a Tex-Mex culinary dish consisting of tortilla chips or totopos covered with cheese or cheese sauce, as well as a variety of other toppings and garnishes, often including meats, vegetables, and condiments such as salsa, guacamole, or sour cream. At its most basic form, nachos may consist of merely chips covered with cheese, and served as an appetizer or snack, while other versions are substantial enough as a main course. The dish was created by, and named after, Mexican restaurateur Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, who created it in 1943 for American customers at the Victory Club restaurant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila.
The Original Ninfa's on Navigation is a popular Mexican restaurant located at 2704 Navigation Boulevard in Houston, Texas. The restaurant serves both Tex-Mex and Mexican cuisine. The Original Ninfa's was started by Ninfa Rodríguez Laurenzo, a Mexican-American woman, in a tortilla factory. Ninfa Laurenzo became a full-time restaurateur and the tortilla factory closed. Mama Ninfa is widely credited with popularizing the fajita among Houstonians.
Church's Texas Chicken is an American fast food restaurant chain that specializes in fried chicken and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The chain was founded as Church's Fried Chicken To-Go by George W. Church Sr. in April 1952, in San Antonio, Texas, across the street from The Alamo. Church's Texas Chicken trades as Texas Chicken or Church's Chicken in many countries. The chain is owned by American private equity firm High Bluff Capital Partners. As of 2017, Church's Texas Chicken had more than 1,700 franchised and company-owned locations in 26 countries.
Taco Cabana is an American fast casual restaurant chain that serves Tex-Mex cuisine. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of YTC Enterprises LLC, and headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Taco Cabana is recognized for its "pink" color scheme and semi-enclosed patio dining areas. Many menu items are handmade daily on-site, in open-display cooking areas.
A chimichanga is a deep-fried burrito that is common in Tex-Mex and other Southwestern U.S. cuisine. The dish is typically prepared by filling a flour tortilla with various ingredients, most commonly rice, cheese, beans, and a meat, such as machaca, carne adobada, carne seca, or shredded chicken, and folding it into a rectangular package. It is then deep-fried, and can be accompanied by salsa, guacamole, or sour cream.
A wrap is a culinary dish made with a soft flatbread rolled around a filling.
Pancho's Mexican Buffet is a chain of Tex-Mex restaurants in the United States. In 2017, the owners began closing stores due to poor performance, and developed a small store concept named "Cuban Cafe". There are currently three locations: Houston,Dallas Fort Worth(DFW), and Arlington.
El Fenix is a popular chain of Mexican restaurants in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex, (Texas) and the oldest chain of Mexican restaurants in the U.S. The name is Spanish for "the phoenix", the legendary bird which, according to mythology, arose from its own ashes. The chain has its headquarters in Dallas.
Chicken fried bacon consists of bacon strips dredged in batter and deep fried, like chicken fried steak. It is an American dish that was introduced in Texas in the early 1990s. Frank Sodolak of Sodolak's Original Country Inn in Snook, Texas, states that he invented the dish; however, there is a similar recipe in the 1954 cookbook Louisiana Cookery by Mary Land which uses salt pork instead of bacon. It is usually served as an appetizer with cream gravy or sausage gravy for dipping and sauce.
Felix Tijerina (1905–1965) was a Mexican-American restaurateur, activist, and philanthropist in Houston, Texas. He served as the 25th president of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
Maria Ninfa Rodriguez Laurenzo, born with the family name Rodriguez, was an American restaurateur from Houston, Texas, who founded the restaurant Ninfa's. Laurenzo started out running a single taco stand in Houston, Texas.
Texan cuisine is the food associated with the Southern U.S. state of Texas, including its native Southwestern cuisine–influenced Tex-Mex foods. Texas is a large state, and its cuisine has been influenced by a wide range of cultures, including Tejano/Mexican, Native American, Creole/Cajun, African-American, German, Czech, Southern and other European American groups. The cuisine of neighboring states also influences Texan cuisine, such as New Mexican cuisine and Louisiana Creole cuisine. This can be seen in the widespread usage of New Mexico chiles, Cayenne peppers, and Tabasco sauce in Texan cooking.
There is a rapidly growing Mexican-American population in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Abel Gonzales Jr., also known as Fried Jesus, is an "extreme fryer" and the five-time winner of Big Tex Choice Awards, an annual contest at the Texas State Fair, and the inventor of several deep fried items including Fried Coke and deep-fried butter. He has also been a judge on the television show Deep Fry Masters.
Toddie Lee Wynne Sr. (1896-1982) was a Dallas-based real estate developer and oil investor who was best known for his funding the first private rocket to space, in being a co-developer of Six Flags Over Texas, and in helping to bring Tex-Mex food to the United States. Wynne grew up in Dallas, where he graduated from the Terrill School for Boys, which later became St. Mark's School of Texas. Much of Wynne's business involvements involved partnerships, generally with family members and with Clint Murchison Jr.
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