Tex-Mex is as Austin as it gets.<\/p>\n
While the rage for interior Mexican cuisine and Indigenous techniques recovered\u00a0by a new generation of chefs has swept over the city during the past few decades, Tex-Mex \u2014 by definition a fusion food \u2014 is arguably as authentic to this plot of land as longhorns and the Lone Star.<\/p>\n
During the past year or so, the most popular theme in this newspaper\u2019s \u201cJim Duncan\u2019s Austin\u201d series has been the area\u2019s Tex-Mex restaurants. The retired city planner has researched the business histories of more than 40 of them so far.<\/p>\n
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We offer a roundup of those histories, which include some of the institutions\u2019 ancestors and descendants, in two batches. Part 1: Up to 1975. Part 2: After 1975.<\/p>\n
“Collecting and encapsulating these Tex-Mex histories has been a labor of love,” Duncan says. “Although I grew up in South Texas where the cuisine is common, it was not until the late 1950s when, as a University of Texas student, I discovered my apex of Tex-Mex, the El Mat crispy taco.”<\/p>\n
Note on these histories: In some cases, especially older businesses, such as the Bertram Building and the Lung family restaurants, the Tex-Mex years are only part of the story.\u00a0For readers who find that we\u2019ve skipped one of your favorite comfort spots, send nominations for the next round to mbarnes@statesman.com.<\/p>\n
1925: Tony\u2019s Caf\u00e9 \/ Tortilla Factory<\/p>\n
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Tony’s Cafe is visible on the left in the photograph of Capitol Truck and Trailer.<\/p>\n
Neal Douglass\/Austin History Center<\/p>\n
Before he became Austin\u2019s \u201cTitan of Tortillas,\u201d Antonio \u201cTony\u201d Villasana faced two formidable historical hurdles: the Mexican Revolution and the 1928 Austin City Plan. To escape the revolution, 11-year-old Tony and his family emigrated from Tamaulipas to Austin in 1912. By the mid-1920s, he had opened Tony\u2019s Cafe\u0301, a small eatery near Republic Square, where most of the city’s Mexican residents then lived. In 1928, however, his business was interrupted when city leaders pushed the Hispanic community toward lower East Austin.<\/p>\n
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After brief downtown stops on Congress Avenue and Brazos Street during the Depression, he relocated to 1300 E. Seventh St. in 1935, where he rebranded the business as Tony\u2019s Tortillas, which was noted on city maps as a corn chip factory. After Tony Sr. retired, Tony Jr. continued to operate the business until financial problems caused it to file for bankruptcy in the 1980s. Tony Sr.\u2019s legacy, however, lived on through his two oldest daughters. Carmen and her husband, Moses Steve Vasquez, founded the Tamale Houses in 1960, and Gudelia and her husband, Camilo Jo \u201cC.J.\u201d Villegas, opened the El Mercado restaurant chain in 1985. Tony Sr. died in 1974, Tony Jr. in 1992, Carmen in 1999 and Gudelia in 2019.<\/p>\n
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Bean and cheese and carne guisada tacos are served at Joe\u2019s Bakery & Coffee Shop.<\/p>\n
Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Joe Avila\u2019s stepfather and mother, Florentino and Sophia DeLao, opened La Oriental Grocery & Bakery at 2305 E. Ninth St. in 1935. The store was not just a business; it was also the family home. La Oriental flourished until 1957, when the family closed shop and took some time off. \u00a0In 1961, they reopened at 2217 E. Seventh St. However, due to her husband\u2019s failing health, Sophia sold the bakery to her eldest son, Joe Avila, who had been his stepfather\u2019s apprentice over the years. He renamed the bakery Joe\u2019s Bakery & Coffee Shop <\/a>and the business boomed. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Joe took on every aspect of running the bakery, working 18-hour days, and soon found himself adding a restaurant. In 1969, he relocated the restaurant two doors down to the old Lott Lumberyard at 2305 E. Seventh St. \u00a0Joe\u2019s has always been a family affair. In addition to his wife, Paula, Joe\u2019s daughters, Carolina and Rose Ann, joined the business. In 2003, his granddaughter, Regina Estrada, came on board to manage the restaurant and continue the family tradition and the Avila legacy, which began almost nine decades ago. Sophia died in 2009 at the age of 102. Joe died in 2011. In 2023, Joe\u2019s was one of only six restaurants nationally to receive the America\u2019s Classics Award from the James Beard Foundation.<\/p>\n 1938: Spanish Village \/ Pelons Tex Mex<\/p>\n Restaurants, starting with Spanish Village, have been serving Tex-Mex at Red River and East Seventh streets since 1938.<\/p>\n Alberto Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Before it became the oldest restaurant in Austin to have continuously served Mexican food, the six-room stone structure at 802 Red River St. functioned as a residence for more than two decades. Located near the Capitol and the University of Texas, the restaurant was especially popular with politicos and students. Built in 1915 by Joseph Curry, the structure was converted to a restaurant in 1938 by Jay W. Caldwell. It has since had three more owners: Alexander Alanis \u201cLupe\u201d Abieta from the mid-1950s to 1979, Jaime M. Tames and Charlie Tames from 1980 to 2011, and Douglas Walter Guller and Tasha Miller from 2012 to present. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n For more than 70 years, the restaurant was known by variations of \u201cSpanish Village<\/a>.\u201d In 2012, it was rebranded Pelons Tex Mex in honor of owner Guller (\u201cPelons\u201d is Spanish for \u201cbald one\u201d). Abieta died in 1983, Caldwell in 1990 and Jaime Tames in 2007. Today, Spanish Village and Pelon’s salsas and queso are sold online and at Whole Foods, Central Market and Royal Blue Grocery.<\/p>\n 1939: Old Seville \/ El Toro (1954)<\/p>\n The stone building that houses The Clay Pit restaurant dates from 1872. It was home to two Mexican restaurants.<\/p>\n Deborah Lykins\/American-Statesman File<\/p>\n Two Tex-Mex eateries are part of the history of the Bertram Building, which sits on the site of a trading post established in 1853 by one of Austin\u2019s earliest pioneers, German immigrant Rudolph Christian Bertram. Located near the northern edge of town, it was one of the few places where Native Americans bartered with white settlers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n On West 16th Street (formerly Cherry) between Guadalupe and Lavaca streets, the current building dates to 1872, when Bertram opened a general mercantile store there. The town of Bertram in eastern Burnet County, built as a cotton hub on the Austin and Northwestern line, was named for him. He died in 1892. In 1883, German immigrant William Andrew Achilles purchased the building and doubled its size. A saloon, carriage house, feed warehouse, blacksmith shop, wheelwright shop and wagon yard were part of the complex by 1889.<\/p>\n He and his family continued to operate Achilles Grocery until 1939, when the building began to host a series of restaurants. Among them were Old Seville Mexican (1939-1954), El Toro Mexican (1954-1974), Red Tomato Italian (1974-1989), Texas BBQ (1991-1995), Bertram\u2019s Restaurant & Bar (1995-1998) and the Clay Pit, which has occupied the building for the past quarter-century.<\/p>\n \n Tex-Mex Trivia:\n <\/p>\n \n The term began as “TexMex,” a shortened version of the Texas and Mexican Railroad, chartered in 1875 \u2014 originally without a hyphen \u2014 to run from Mexico City across the Rio Grande to points in Texas. By the 1920s, Tex-Mex, with the hyphen, referred to Texans of Mexican descent. Out of that grew the custom of applying the term to food by the 1960s.\n <\/p>\n Employees prepare breakfast tacos at Cisco\u2019s Restaurant and Bakery, which was founded by Rudy \u201cCisco\u201d Cisneros in 1945.<\/p>\n Mikala Compton\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n One of Austin\u2019s oldest active Tex-Mex restaurants is located in an East Austin building initially occupied by meat-packing companies. From 1914 to 1933, James B. \u201cJim\u201d Pierce, a rancher who drove cattle up the Chisholm Trail in the 1880s, owned and operated Pierce Brothers Packing Company in the two-story stone building at 1511 East Sixth Street. Over the next decade, the building was occupied by two more packing companies \u2014 Austin and Blue Bonnet. In 1945, Rudolf Pena \u201cRudy\u201d Cisneros moved his father\u2019s bakery into the building. In 1950, he expanded the bakery to include Tex-Mex food. Cisneros is credited with popularizing huevos rancheros and migas.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Popular with politicians, many political deals were hammered out in Cisco\u2019s <\/a>back room. Known as the \u201cMayor of East Austin,\u201d Cisneros served on many boards and committees, donated to numerous causes, and sponsored regular civic appreciation dinners. In 1995, Cisneros’s son, Clovis, took over the business. In 2021, Cisco\u2019s brought migas to Muny by opening a satellite cafe\u0301 at Lions Municipal Golf Course in West Austin. More recently, Cisco\u2019s ownership expanded to include Cisneros\u2019s grandson Matt Cisneros, Will Bridges, Rick McMinn and Bryan Schneider. Pierce died in 1945 and Rudy Cisneros died in 1995.<\/p>\n 1947: El Matamoros \/ Monroe’s (1952) \/ El Toro and El Charro (1950s)<\/p>\n El Matamoros, “Home of the Crispy Tacos,” 504 East Ave. in 1957.<\/p>\n Neal Douglass\/Austin History Center<\/p>\n Although his restaurants were long ago shuttered, the entrepreneurial legacy of Monroe Monseis Lopez continues to influence Austin\u2019s restaurant industry. He was a restaurateur extraordinaire and is said to have been Austin\u2019s first Tex-Mex millionaire. Lopez opened his first restaurant in 1947 in a four-room house at 504 East Ave., now Interstate 35. He named it El Matamoros<\/a>, and it was universally known as \u201cEl Mat.\u201d It was the first Mexican restaurant to offer crispy tacos, frosted beer mugs and an \u201call the Mexican food you can eat\u201d special.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In 1952, he opened Monroe\u2019s next door, where he was the first to offer Mexican food to go. Lopez also opened El Toro at 16th and Lavaca streets and acquired El Charro at 10th and Red River streets during the 1950s. In 1980, he closed his four restaurants to devote more time to his other business interests: a radio station and oil and gas exploration. In 1986, \u00a0Lopez returned to the restaurant scene, joining Ramon Lopez \u201cRay\u201d Servantez in operating Casa Daniel at 11835 Jollyville Road. Lopez died in 1992. In 1996, Casa Daniel became Antonio\u2019s Cantina. Today, it is the Pour House Pub.\u00a0<\/p>\n Customers wait to be seated at Matt\u2019s El Rancho in Austin, Friday, Aug. 21, 2026.<\/p>\n Mikala Compton\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Matt Martinez and Janie Gaiton Martinez opened El Rancho<\/a> in 1952 at East First Street (Cesar Chavez) and San Jacinto Street with $75 cash and a $300 loan. In the beginning, Matt worked the front of the 10-seat caf\u00e9 and Janie ran the kitchen. They had no employees. Matt’s dad, Delfino, had immigrated to Austin from Monterrey, Nuevo Le\u00f3n, and made tortillas and tamales for a living. Matt had gotten his first taste of entrepreneurship at age six, peddling tamales near the Capitol. El Rancho\u2019s first menu featured only blue-plate specials, such as chicken-fried steak. It was the occasional enchilada special, however, that garnered the most attention, and it wasn’t long before Mexican food took over the menu.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In 1986, Martinez sold the downtown property to the developer of the Four Seasons Hotel Austin for $5 million and relocated El Rancho to five acres at 2613 South Lamar Blvd. Today, Matt’s El Rancho seats more than 600 diners nightly and has the highest alcohol sales of any restaurant in Austin, thanks to margaritas. Of its current $20 million in annual revenue, one-third comes from alcohol sales. Matt\u2019s is still family-owned and operated by daughters, Gloria, Cecilia and Cathy, and daughter-in-law, Estella. Matt Jr. moved to Dallas and became a well-known restaurateur, celebrity chef and author.\u00a0 The elder Matt Martinez died in 2003, Matt Jr. in 2009 and Janie in 2013.<\/p>\n 1954: El Patio<\/p>\n El Patio Restaurant closed August 9, 2019, but an ownership group that includes family members of the founder reopened the restaurant the following month.<\/p>\n American Statesman staff<\/p>\n In 1933, Harry Paul Joseph, whose family immigrated to Austin from Lebanon in the 1890s, opened the Schoonerville Drive-In at East 30th and Guadalupe streets just north of UT. Two decades later, his nephew, Paul Christopher Joseph, purchased the caf\u00e9 and changed its name to El Patio.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n While hamburgers and fried chicken initially stayed on the menu, they eventually gave way to Tex-Mex selections. One of Paul\u2019s popular menu items was the \u201cpuffed krunchy taco.\u201d<\/p>\n Signed photos of celebrity regulars, including Darrell Royal, Lady Bird Johnson and Walter Cronkite, hang in spaces not occupied by murals of Pancho Villa. The stone building harkens back to a time when air conditioning was a novelty.<\/p>\n Students who came in and munched on free tortilla chips and salsa while not ordering led Paul to institute an El Patio trademark. He began putting saltines on the table to control costs. \u00a0Saltines remained an El Patio tradition until the mid-1990s, when the vendor enacted a price increase. Tortilla chips returned, but saltines are still available on request. After shuttering El Patio briefly in 2019, Joseph family members reopened it with manager Jesse Herman. Harry died in 1991 and Paul in 1995.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mini crispy tacos from Maudie’s Tex-Mex were just one of the many food options.\u00a0<\/p>\n Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n From biscuits to burritos, Maudie\u2019s Cafe\u0301<\/a> has served Austinites a full range of Southern delicacies for more than 70 years. For its first four decades, Maudie Oleta Wilson Hamilton and her husband, Albert, ran a homestyle restaurant at Exposition and Lake Austin boulevards. Her specialties were biscuits and gravy, Southern fried chicken and chicken and dumplings. The merits of Maudie’s were put to song in 1986 by local journalist Winston Bode: \u201cOh, in Austin on the banks of the Old Colorado, there\u2019s a place they make the world\u2019s best enchiladas. They\u2019re cheesy and greasy and meaty at Maudie\u2019s Cafe\u0301.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n When Maudie retired in 1993, she sold the property to Joseph Anthony Draker, who converted it into a Tex-Mex cafe\u0301. Maudie died in 1995. Roe and Pete Hernandez and Jorge Arredondo helped Draker transform the menu. Over the next two decades, Maudie\u2019s Tex-Mex expanded to six restaurants in Central Texas: Maudie\u2019s (1994), Maudie\u2019s Too (1997), North Lamar (2000), Milagro (2002), Hacienda (2003) and Hill Country (2010).\u00a0<\/p>\n 1957: El Gallo<\/p>\n Owner Abel Kennedy seats a customer at El Gallo on Tuesday, January 24, 2017, shortly after the popular restaurant announced it would be closing after sixty years in business.\u00a0<\/p>\n Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n In 2017, skyrocketing property taxes caused another Tex-Mex old-timer to bite the dust. El Gallo was founded by Abraham Gonzales Kennedy and his wife, Maria, in 1957. Except for four years in the early 1980s, the Kennedy family owned and operated the restaurant. Located directly across the street from St. Edward’s University at 2910 South Congress Ave., El Gallo <\/a>was known for its weekend live music. Interestingly, the restaurant’s name and exterior color were influenced by an early customer who was a sign painter. As a Mexican immigrant, Abraham wanted to name it after some matador with a long name. After he found out that sign costs were calculated by the letter, he branded it with a rooster instead (gallo is Spanish for rooster). As for the pink building, the customer happened to have pink paint on sale at the time.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n After Kennedy died in 2000, his son, Abel, and his wife, Jill, ran the restaurant. Maria died in 2015. Despite owning the property and having no liens or debts, Abel decided to sell it in 2017. The reason: His taxes had doubled almost every year for the previous five years. In 2019, St. Edward\u2019s purchased the one-acre property. The vacant fenced lot now bears a sign from the city of Austin that mixed-income housing is on the way.<\/p>\n A gently flowing fountain is the focal point of the lush courtyard of Tamale House East.<\/p>\n Austin 360<\/p>\n From a tiny walk-up window at West First Street and Congress Avenue, Moses Steve Vasquez and his wife, Carmen, sold tamales to hungry downtown Austinites for over two decades. Governor Mark White said, \u201cTamale House <\/a>was an institution, and Moses was the master. Best tamales in Austin. Enjoyed them for years. Wish I had six right now.\u201d\u00a0 Carmen Vasquez called it \u201cjust a shack. When it rained, customers waiting in line got wet. I felt so sorry for them.\u201d Moses had bought the property in 1969 for $80,000, with $4,000 down, and earned money playing with a Spanish and calypso band. Before that, he rented.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Their five children all helped. Then came the real estate boom of the 1980s, and Lincoln Properties offered them $1.6 million for their \u201cshack\u201d to build a high-rise office building, which was at the time the highest-ever-per-square-foot real estate sale in Austin. They accepted and used the money to open four new Tamale Houses in South Austin (2218 College St.), near the UT campus (2825 Guadalupe St.), Delwood (5003 Airport Blvd.) and East Austin (1707 East Sixth St.). Tamale House East is the only location that remains open. Carmen died in 2001 and Moses in 2014.<\/p>\n \n Tex-Mex Trivia:\n <\/p>\n Tex-Mex existed before the name was adopted to describe the cuisine.\u00a0San Antonio had the “Chili Queens” from the 1860s to the 1940s<\/a>, and New Braunfels had Gebhardt’s chili powder in 1896. The company moved to San Antonio in 1903. Austin was not far behind.<\/p>\n 1962: Cocina del Sur<\/p>\n Joe Lung\u2019s family came to Austin in the 1880s. They owned a series of diners, restaurants and sandwich shops. Later in life, Lung welcomed visitors from around the world at the Capitol Gift Shop. MICHAEL BARNES \/ AMERICAN-STATESMAN<\/p>\n Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n From the end of the 19th century to almost the 21st century, three generations of the Lung family<\/a> owned and operated a series of local, culturally diverse restaurants. Considering their collective culinary contribution to Austin, the Lungs are a serious contender for the local title of \u201cFirst Family of Food.\u201d It all began in 1899 when Joe Lung, a Chinese immigrant, opened Joe\u2019s Cafe\u0301, an American restaurant, at East Sixth and San Jacinto streets. In 1924, he moved around the corner to 507 San Jacinto St., and his son, Samuel Pete \u201cSam\u201d took over. At the end of World War II, Sam closed the San Jacinto location. He then opened and operated Lung\u2019s Chinese Kitchen at 1200 Red River St. from 1945 to 1972. It is said that Sam introduced the use of chopsticks to Austin.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n From 1962 until 1982, Joe\u2019s grandson Jimmie Joe operated a Mexican restaurant, Cocina del Sur (roughly, \u201cSouthern Cuisine\u201d), at 2700 Anderson Lane. It was at Cocina del Sur that Jimmy Buffett had his first frozen margarita and wrote a song about it: \u201cMargaritaville.\u201d Also starting in 1962, another grandson, Joe Michael, opened several sandwich shops downtown and around town. Joe died in 1926, Sam in 1974, Jimmie Joe in 1997 and Joe Michael in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n 1963: El Azteca<\/p>\n The late Jorge Guerra, owner of El Azteca Restaurant, at his home in 2016.<\/p>\n Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n More than four centuries after Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s conquered the Aztec Empire, skyrocketing property taxes claimed Austin’s El Azteca restaurant. For more than 50 years, El Azteca<\/a> had been a popular Austin Tex-Mex eatery at 2600 E. Seventh St. Its founder, Jorge De Jesus Duron Guerra, had immigrated to Austin from Reynosa in 1950 when he was 18 years old.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n El Azteca was one of the first local Tex-Mex restaurants to offer vegetarian options. Its menu included something for both herbivores and carnivores. Popular items were cabrito, carne guisada, spinach and mushroom enchiladas, vegetarian tostadas and chile rellenos. Aztec paintings and Aztec calendars covered its interior walls. In 1992, Fiesta Patria named Guerra an \u201cOutstanding Hispanic Citizen,\u201d and in 2000, El Azteca received the Chronicle\u2019s \u201cMost Happily Recovered Vegetarian\u201d award. The restaurant was also featured on an episode of “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain, who met up with local music legend Alejandro Escovedo for lunch. El Azteca closed in 2016, and Guerra died the following year.<\/p>\n 1973: Casita Jorge\u2019s \/ Enchiladas Y Mas\u00a0<\/p>\n The enchiladas verdes, enchiladas rancheros, beef enchiladas and migas at Enchiladas Y Mas on Anderson Lane. photo by Ha Lam\/for Austin American Statesman<\/p>\n Austin 360<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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