The First Tex-Mex Restaurant in History

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This is the first Tex-Mex restaurant in history, the Old Borunda Cafe in Marfa. This photo was taken in 1913, but the Old Borunda Cafe was opened on July 4, 1887 by Tulia Berunda Guitierrez, who also created the Dinner # 1, the basic enchilada/tamale/taco with rice and beans. Her sister, Carolina Palomo Berunda took over and kept the place until 1938, when HER daughter, Carolina Borunda Humphries, took over. Mrs. Humphries ran the cafe for 47 years, until August 1985, when ill health forced her to close. So for the first 98 years of its existence it had THREE cooks.

So, yeah, the Old Borunda opened in 1887. Then in 1900 O.M. Farnsworth opened The Original Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio on Losoya Street. In 1918, the Martinez  family opened El Fenix in Dallas, which is still in operation. In 1922, Austin got its first Tex-Mex when Delfino Martinez opened his place. Then Cuellar's Cafe started in Kaufman in 1928, which was huge because that was the beginning of what became the huge El Chico chain. Houston's Felix Restaurant opened a year later and Joe T. Garcia's in Fort Worth in 1935.

And then a billion imitators came along and so it goes and so it goes.