In Fort Worth, a new combo: El Rancho Grande changes hands. Will it keep the chips?
Fort Worth’s oldest Tex-Mex restaurant has bought another old-school classic, combining two Texas family legacies with a total of 162 years serving enchiladas, tacos and chili con carne.
The owners of The Original Mexican Restaurant have bought El Rancho Grande Restaurant, 1400 N. Main St., and will blend the menus and reopen as The Original Del Norte.
The new restaurant will keep El Rancho Grande’s signature thin chips and tortillas, owner Robert Self said. That’s been a primary drawing card for the restaurant, founded in 1949 as a tamal and tortilla factory by Herculano and Juanita Falcon. (Current owner Gilbert Falcon retired in July.)
The Original Del Norte will serve the Original’s menu, including the “Roosevelt Special” named for President Franklin Roosevelt’s son Elliott, a Benbrook-area resident during World War II.
The north side location will add more steaks, seafood, quail and roasted chicken.
The Original recently paid tribute to another long-gone Tex-Mex classic, adding south Texas-style puffy tacos and nachos similar to those served for 60 years at two Caro’s restaurants.
Nobody knows exactly when The Original opened, but Self estimates it was in 1926.
Definitely by 1930, founders Lola San Miguel Piñeda from Múzquiz, Mexico, and her husband, former Spanish soldier Gerónimo Piñeda of Barcelona, had moved here via Laredo and Waco and opened The Original at 4713 Camp Bowie Blvd.
The restaurants are two of the state’s oldest serving traditional Tex-Mex, along with Fort Worth landmarks Joe T. Garcia’s (1935) and the Mexican Inn Cafes (1936).
The Original Del Norte is expected to open before the holidays.
This story was originally published September 21, 2020 at 5:05 PM.
