by Chris Jay
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“Tex-Mex.” Just six letters, stitched together by a yeoman of a hyphen. Like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, the mention of Tex-Mex is enough to cause some diners to recoil in horror. It’s not authentic, people will tell you. It’s a flavorless, artery-clogging mess of lard-laden refried beans, mountains of shredded cheese and iceberg lettuce.
But, before we turn our backs completely on multi-unit Tex-Mex restaurants with $5.95 enchilada plates and Crayola-yellow queso, the gourmands of North Louisiana ought to acknowledge our community’s role in the proliferation of fast-casual Tex-Mex chains. Shreveport, Louisiana’s very real place in the history of Tex-Mex is the doing of one family, in particular: the Cuellars. In particular, a solid case could be argued that Frank X. Cuellar, Sr., fourth son of Adelaida and Macario Cuellar, developed the blueprint for America’s first Tex-Mex chain while living in Shreveport.
This family’s story could be a novel. It could be a television series. In an effort to chart the entire, incredible journey of the Cuellar family, I’ve created a timeline instead of a story.
I did my best to ensure the accuracy of the following timeline, which I spent weeks researching and compiling, and to handle this inspiring family’s story with care and respect. Often, when this story has been told in the past, Shreveport’s role in the El Chico story—and, as a result, the story of Tex-Mex—has been minimized or altogether omitted.
Shreveporters should know the Cuellar name, and we should know our place in Tex-Mex history.
1891 – Adelaida and Macario Cuellar are married in Monterrey, Mexico. They’d previously lived in rural Nuevo León, the Mexican state of which Monterrey is the capital. He is 23 and she is 20 when they cross the Rio Grande into Texas. They make their way to Rosebud, Texas, where they are sharecroppers.
1913 – The Cuellars continue their northward trek, relocating to a farm outside of Kaufman, Texas.
1926 – There are 12 Cuellar children by this time, including eight sons: Gilbert, Willie Jack, Amos, Manuel, Frank, Mack, Alfred and Jim. The youngest Cuellar child is born when Adelaida is 44.
Adelaida and several of her sons, including Frank, sign up to sell homemade tamales at the Kaufman County Fair. By the end of the fair, they have taken in $300 in profit – more than Macario earns in weeks on the farm. According to the Tyler Morning Telegraph, “she and the children sold tamales, enchiladas and chile, all made from products grown on their farm.”
1928 – Frank and Amos open the family’s first restaurant, Cuellar’s Cafe, in Kaufman followed by a second in Terrell. These early restaurants struggle as the Great Depression wreaks havoc across Texas. They close and reopen with “Mama” Cuellar, as she was called, doing the cooking. A third restaurant opens in Willis Point. A fourth in Longview. These restaurants have names like Little Mexico and El Charrito.
At some point, Frank moves to Shreveport. I wish that I knew exactly why, and exactly when. I don’t. It is easy to imagine him wishing to place distance between himself and his 11 siblings in order to better realize his personal vision for an ideal restaurant.
1937 – Frank opens The Plaza Restaurant at 137 Kings Highway in Shreveport on July 31. Unlike the Texas restaurants, it is an immediate success. Soon after, Frank opens the original home of El Patio at 1900 East Texas Street in Bossier City.
Interestingly, an ad for The Plaza Restaurant placed in The Times on opening day employs the phrases “real Mexican” or “genuine Mexican” a half-dozen times (“a genuine Mexican dinner,” “real Mexican chili con carne”), foreshadowing the authenticity debate that would surround this type of cuisine for the next century.
1940 – Frank moves El Patio to a new, built-to-spec location at 2127 Greenwood Road in Shreveport. His brothers, Mack and Gilbert Cuellar, open the first restaurant named El Chico in Dallas.
1946 – The El Chico Corporation is formed when Frank joins forces with “the Texas brothers.” This newly minted family empire opens its first jointly owned restaurant, an El Chico, in Fort Worth.
1947 – Frank tells The Times that, with 10 restaurants in three states, The El Chico Corporation sells more Mexican food than any other company in America.
In describing a remodel of The Plaza Restaurant, Frank chooses his words carefully: “The same pictures and decorations were retained because of requests by customers that the same Mexican-type atmosphere be continued in the restaurant.”
1949 – The El Chico Canning Factory opens in Dallas. El Chico also establishes a “hub-and-spoke” business model, where many of the staples used in the preparation of their menu are cooked at a centrally located commissary in Dallas and distributed to the restaurants. The Cuellars no longer simply own restaurants; they own factories.
1951 – Frank rejoins his family in Dallas, having spent formative years as a resident of Shreveport and found his first real taste of success there. By this time, the five most prominent Cuellar Brothers, known collectively as “Mama’s Boys,” are folk heroes in Dallas’s Mexican community.
1955 – The El Chico Corporation begins manufacturing and marketing frozen dinners.
1959 – The Plaza Restaurant in Shreveport closes its doors.
1961 – An El Chico opens at Six Flags Over Texas. John Wayne dines there during a visit to Arlington. It is the ninth restaurant named El Chico. Money is rolling in, and the number of El Chico restaurants will nearly double in the next few years.
1963 – El Chico Corporation’s annual sales approach $5 million, according to the Tyler Morning Telegraph. There are 16 El Chico locations by October, when a 400-seat, 9,000-square-foot restaurant opens in Austin. El Chico Corporation payroll tops $1 million annually. El Chico brand canned and frozen food sales top $2.5 million.
1965 – Macario Cuellar dies at the age of 97.
1966 – El Chico caters a meal for 275 guests at the palace of Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco (also known as actress Grace Kelly). Princess Grace requests El Chico by name. For real.
1968 – All Cuellar-owned properties merge into a new, publicly traded El Chico Corporation. Forty percent of the company is purchased by investors and El Chico begins granting franchises. Gilbert Cuellar, who leads the charge to sell franchises, later says of the decision: “It turned out to be the worst decision we ever made.”
1969 – There are now 31 El Chico locations. Adelaida Cuellar dies at the age of 97.
In an absolutely beautiful obituary, Billy Porterfield of the Austin American-Statesman writes of Adelaida:
“She remained, in many ways, a simple, devout peasant. And yet, obviously, there was more to her. She was a superb cook, an instinctive, never-say-die capitalist, a founding mother rare even in American enterprise.”
1972 – Twenty-two franchise licenses have been granted, and none of the franchise restaurants are profitable. In 1972, El Chico stops granting franchises.
1973 – El Chico prepares the “World’s Largest Enchilada.” If the El Chico story were Happy Days, this would be the episode where Fonzy jumps the shark. In case you were wondering, the “World’s Largest Enchilada”…doesn’t photograph well.
1977 – El Chico Corp. is acquired by Campbell-Taggart Inc., one of the largest commercial bakeries on earth. There are now 79 El Chico locations. Campbell-Taggart has no experience in the restaurant industry and, as a company that reaches 98% of all American households, they are primarily interested in acquiring El Chico’s frozen and canned food lines.
An article about the Cuellars published in The Chicago Tribune makes a sobering appraisal of the state of El Chico at this time:
“The rapid expansion of the corporation finally took its toll. The aging family, not quite in tune with the changing times, began to slacken on coordination and supervision.”
1978 – The 95th location of El Chico opens in Shreveport’s South Park Mall.
Gilbert Cuellar, Sr., Chairman of the Board, tells The Times that the Cuellars “plan to open 30 El Chicos in 1979.”
1982 – Campbell-Taggart, Inc. is acquired by Anheuser-Busch in a $570 million merger. The merger cannot proceed, legally, unless Campbell-Taggart divests itself of its restaurant and retail holdings, including El Chico. Led by 73-year-old Gilbert, Sr. the Cuellars buy back 60% of the company stock, outbidding Pillsbury and General Mills in order to regain control of the company for $12.6 million.
1985 – There are 76 company-owned and 17 franchised El Chicos in 11 states, employing nearly 4,000 people. The company launches three new restaurant brands in the mid-1980s: Cactus, Cantina Laredo and Casa Rosa.
1986 – Gilbert Cuellar, Sr. dies and Gilbert Cuellar, Jr. takes the reins.
1991 – El Chico Corporation changes its name to Southwest Cafes Inc. Gilbert Cuellar, Jr. says: “We did it to reflect that the company is different from what people perceive it to be. We’re a lot more than El Chico now.”
1992 – Gilbert Cuellar, Jr. is fired by his Board of Directors. The name of the company is changed, again, to El Chico Restaurants, Inc.
1995 – Frank X. Cuellar, Sr. dies of a cerebral brain hemorrhage at the age of 97.
“By any standards, Frank was a trailblazer,” Dallas lawyer Adelfa Callejo told The Associated Press. “He and his brothers envisioned having a chain of restaurants, which was unheard of for Mexican food establishments.”
2012 – The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History debuts an exhibit called “The Tex-Mex Invasion” that is, effectively, an exhibit about El Chico.
As of October 2019, approximately 25 El Chico locations remain in operation. Louisiana’s only El Chico is, thankfully, still in Shreveport. Though you can’t find El Chico’s enchiladas, fajitas, and “Top Shelf” margaritas in Kaufman, Texas these days, they’re still available in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Abu Dhabi.
And who knows what may happen next?
In 2016, Gilbert Cuellar, Jr. debuted a new concept, Cuellar’s Fajita Ranch.
“I am not looking to innovate,” Gilbert Cuellar Jr. said in a press release, “but rather reflect back on my family’s history.”
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