{"id":126325,"date":"2026-01-16T22:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/126325\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T22:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:23:08","slug":"hurtado-barbecue-team-to-open-new-tex-mex-spot-to-arlington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/126325\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurtado Barbecue Team to Open New Tex-Mex Spot to Arlington"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tEl Tiempo struck out and is being replaced by Loma Tex-Mex. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Lauren Drewes Daniels<\/p>\n

RIP to one of Houston\u2019s alleged best Tex-Mex restaurants and its presence in North Texas. El Tiempo lived for less than two years in the hollow bottoms of Choctaw Stadium (former home of the Texas Rangers). It is now being replaced by the first full-service restaurant created by Hurtado Barbecue <\/a>owner and pitmaster Brandon Hurtado, along with his partner, Hannah.<\/p>\n

In a Facebook post, Brandon wrote, \u201cElevated Tex-Mex is coming to the mound,\u201d and revealed the restaurant will be called Loma, which means \u201chill\u201d in Spanish, after the pitcher\u2019s mound. He told Bud Kennedy at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/a> that the menu will include wagyu beef fajitas and that diners can expect a brunch menu on weekends and date-night vibes with low lighting in the evening.<\/p>\n

Hurtado Barbecue, an Arlington-based barbecue spot, is on Texas Monthly\u2019s<\/a> honorable mentions for the state\u2019s best barbecue spots and on Southern Living\u2019s<\/a> 2025 list of the best barbecue spots in the South. Brandon Hurtado released his first cookbook, Barbacoa: The Heart of Tex-Mex Barbecue<\/a>, last year.<\/p>\n

This restaurant space, across from Loews Arlington Hotel and Globe Life Field, is being vacated by El Tiempo, a Houston export that Dallas Observer editor Lauren Drewes Daniels disliked so much she labeled her meal \u201can overall bland and disappointing feast.\u201d The review caused an interstate dispute with Houston-based Chron.com<\/a>, prompting its food reporter to say, \u201cour neighbors up north can\u2019t be trusted with Tex-Mex.\u201d Yikes. Apparently, they were both right.\u00a0<\/p>\n

El Tiempo never took off, but we can\u2019t say for certain whether it\u2019s because the people of North Texas didn\u2019t get it. Houston\u2019s Tex-Mex favorites have a history of not translating to Dallas \u2014\u00a0just look to the dour state of Pappasito\u2019s here. Having grown up in Houston myself, it\u2019s clear that the food isn\u2019t the same in DFW restaurants as it is in Houston. It\u2019s not as good. Maybe it\u2019s the water?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"El Tiempo struck out and is being replaced by Loma Tex-Mex. Lauren Drewes Daniels RIP to one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126326,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,1960,1961,3090],"class_list":{"0":"post-126325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arlington","8":"tag-arlington","9":"tag-arlington-headlines","10":"tag-arlington-news","11":"tag-bbq","12":"tag-openings-closings","13":"tag-tex-mex"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126325\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}