Another one gone: Fort Worth’s oldest Mexican restaurant lost location, will move

The Original Mexican Eats Cafe, founded in 1930 and one of Texas’ oldest Tex-Mex restaurants, is losing its location and will combine with a north side Original, owner Robert Self said Monday.

The Original’s location at 4713 Camp Bowie Blvd., will close at the end of March.

A 2021 appeals court decision voided the current lease signed 20 years ago. Self and landlords have been unable to reach a new agreement..

The Original will continue at its newer second location, 1400 N. Main St.

“We cherish the five generations of loyal customers who have supported us through many decades, and we thank them for loving our enchiladas, tacos, tostadas, margaritas and laid-back ambiance,” Self wrote in an announcement.

“...We recognize and regret that this is the end of an era for Fort Worth’s West Side,” Self wrote, saying the Original is dedicated to carrying on the atmosphere and traditions at the North Main Street location. All employees will be offered jobs there, he wrote.

The restaurant is nationally known for chili-covered, retro Tex-Mex and its “Roosevelt Special” platter, named for presidential son Elliott Roosevelt.

The combination plate was Roosevelt’s favorite in the 1930s when he lived on a ranch near Benbrook and often hosted his parents, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Other restaurants in Houston and New York have served similar Tex-Mex menus, one even including a “Roosevelt Special.”

Restaurant founders Lola San Miguel Piñeda from Múzquiz, Mexico, and her husband, former Spanish soldier Gerónimo Piñeda of Barcelona, moved here via Laredo and Waco and opened The Original in 1930, according to Star-Telegram archives and census records. (Self has cited a 1926 opening date.)

In a 1932 clipping, Piñeda described the combination “No. 1” plate: “tacos, Mexican rice, chile con queso, Spanish salad, toasted tortillas, Mexican candy [a praline] and a bottle of ice cold Pearl beer” — 50 cents.

The 2021 court decision invalidated the lease signed in 2003 by the late Leticia Grimaldo, owner of the small strip shopping center in the Arlington Heights neighborhood.

The 8th Texas Court of Appeals in El Paso ruled that the lease is not “perpetual” and can end.

An attorney for landlord Joe Frank Muzquiz did not respond to an email Monday.

The news is the second jolt to Fort Worth restaurants within a week.

On Feb. 16, Edelweiss German Restaurant announced that it will close after 56 years on the Benbrook Traffic Circle at 3801 Southwest Blvd. The restaurant is open nightly through Feb. 28, and is seeking another location.

With the move by The Original, Joe T. Garcia’s, 2201 N. Commerce St., becomes the oldest full-service restaurant in Fort Worth still in its original location. It opened there in 1935.

(One exception: The restaurant in the Hilton Fort Worth opened in 1921 along with what was then the Hotel Texas.)

Here are more of Fort Worth’s oldest restaurants:

▪ Carshon’s Delicatessen, 3133 Cleburne Road, opened downtown in 1917, 1925 or 1928, according to various sources. It has moved several times.

▪ The Paris Coffee Shop, 704 W. Magnolia Ave., opened in 1926 but has moved one block west.

▪ Riscky’s Bar-B-Q, 2314 Azle Ave., remains in the same location where it moved in 1927 as a grocery-market that started nearby in 1925 as “Bunker & Riscky.”

The market paired Belarus immigrant Joe Rucky — he changed it to Riscky — and Polish immigrant Marcelia Bunkiewicz Riscky. The actual building was rebuilt in 1950.

▪ Bailey’s Barbeque, 826 Taylor St., opened in 1931 and remains in the same location.

Along with Black’s in Lockhart, it is one of the two oldest barbecue restaurants in Texas still run by the founding family.

Mexican Inn Cafes opened in 1936 but have moved around.

The next oldest restaurants are Sammie’s Bar-B-Q, 1946, and Cattlemen’s Steak House, 1947.

The Chaf-In Restaurant, 200 W. Henderson St. in Cleburne, might be the Fort Worth area’s oldest restaurant. It opened in 1920 at a nearby location.

In Dallas, the first El Fenix restaurant opened in 1918.