{"id":454909,"date":"2026-10-03T03:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T03:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454909\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T03:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T03:34:09","slug":"dallas-tex-mex-icon-mico-rodriguez-dies-at-68","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/454909\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Tex-Mex icon Mico Rodriguez dies at 68"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\n                        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-04-at-7.04.22-PM.png\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-53878 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Screenshot-2026-08-04-at-7.04.22-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2176\" height=\"1448\"  \/><\/a>From left to right: Mico Rodriguez, Jose Ramirez, Ray Quintanilla and Jaxson Ramirez. Photography by Amani Sodiq.<\/p>\n<p>Dallas Tex-Mex icon Michael \u201cMico\u201d Rodriguez died overnight between Thursday, Oct. 1, and Friday, Oct. 2. He was 68.<\/p>\n<p>Ray Quintanilla, Rodriguez\u2019s business partner and longtime friend, confirmed his death in a text message Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez was best known for Mi Cocina, the Tex-Mex restaurant launched in 1991 at Preston Forest Village. The concept helped establish a more elevated style of Tex-Mex dining in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>His latest restaurant venture was Cinco Cocinas Food Nation on Maple Avenue, where he partnered with Quintanilla to purchase the building.<\/p>\n<p>JJ\u2019s Cafe owner and chef Jose Ramirez partnered with the pair earlier this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNext time you eat elevated Tex-Mex food in Dallas, remember Mico Rodriguez was a pioneer of it,\u201d Ramirez said in a text message.<\/p>\n<p>Quintanilla, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Rodriguez, said Rodriguez\u2019s appearance in the August issue of <a href=\"https:\/\/lakehighlands.advocatemag.com\/2026\/08\/05\/jjs-cafe-opens-third-location-at-cinco-cocinas-in-preston-hollow\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lake Highlands Advocate<\/a> was one of his last appearances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe came from humble beginnings but [succeeded],\u201d Quintanilla said in a text message. \u201cHe was meticulous and had an attention to detail. I will miss my dear friend.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; From left to right: Mico Rodriguez, Jose Ramirez, Ray Quintanilla and Jaxson Ramirez. Photography by Amani Sodiq.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[145634,31155,145636,60493,156193,145637,160,162,161,156194,145640],"class_list":["post-454909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-cinco-cocinas-food-nation","tag-jose-ramirez","tag-maple-avenue","tag-mi-cocina","tag-michael-mico-rodriguez","tag-mico-rodriguez","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-preston-forest-village","tag-ray-quintanilla"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454909","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=454909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}