How did Tex-Mex restaurants start in Houston?
Two long-running Mexican restaurant names in Houston date to the 1930s and 1940s: Felix and Molina’s. Books published in the 1970s defined Tex-Mex as an American regional cuisine, separate from the food of Mexico.
Who was Felix Tijerina?
Felix Tijerina was born in 1905 in General Escobedo, Nuevo León, Mexico. His family came to Texas in 1915, and he moved them to Houston in 1922. He started as a busboy.
He opened his own restaurant in 1929. He opened the first Felix Mexican Restaurant in 1937. The chain grew to several locations. Tijerina served as national president of LULAC from 1956 to 1960 and died in 1965. The flagship at 904 Westheimer closed in 2008.
When did Molina’s open?
In June 1941, Raul and Mary Molina bought the Old Monterrey Restaurant at 1919 West Gray Street. In 1943 they bought the Mexico City Restaurant at 3916 South Main Street and renamed it Molina’s. Their grandsons bought the business in 1977. Molina’s Cantina is still run by the family.
Where does the fajita come from?
The fajita began as grilled skirt steak. Accounts place its roots on South and West Texas ranches in the 1930s. Mexican vaqueros were partly paid in less-wanted cuts, including skirt.
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1930s | Vaqueros on Texas ranches grill skirt steak. |
| 1969 | Sonny Falcon runs a fajita taco stand at a Diez y Seis celebration in Kyle. |
| 1969 | Otilia Garza adds fajitas to her Round-Up Restaurant in Pharr. |
| 1973 | Ninfa Laurenzo opens Ninfa’s on Navigation Boulevard in Houston. |
| 1982 | The Hyatt Regency in Austin puts sizzling fajitas on its menu. |
| 1984 | Homero Recio, a Texas A&M graduate student, writes the first serious study of fajita history. |
What was Ninfa’s role?
Ninfa Rodríguez Laurenzo was a widow with five children. Her family tortilla business had fallen on hard times. In 1973 she opened a small taco stand on Navigation Boulevard in Houston’s East End.
She sold grilled skirt steak in tortillas as “tacos al carbón.” She sold 250 on the first day. As the restaurant grew, it renamed the dish fajitas. The Original Ninfa’s on Navigation says it introduced the fajita to American restaurant menus in the 1970s.
Who invented the fajita?
No single person is confirmed. Otilia Garza never claimed to have invented the dish. She learned it from her grandmother, a restaurateur in Reynosa, Mexico. By the mid-1980s fajitas were common in Mexican restaurants, and fast-food chains sold them by the 1990s.