A Fort Worth Stockyards two-step: 41-year Tex-Mex restaurant reopens old spot for now
Los Vaqueros Restaurant has reopened its legacy Fort Worth Stockyards location temporarily, resuming regular lunch and dinner hours in its century-old North Main Street warehouse for a few weeks while work continues on a new location.
Less than two months after Los Vaqueros’ location closed in the D. Hart and Sons Livestock Co. building at 2629 N. Main St., the restaurant reopened Thursday in the same space. It will continue daily hours past Labor Day, owner Vicki Cisneros said.
The new location, 2513 Rodeo Plaza, is “not quite ready,” the Cisneros famly wrote in a Facebook post late Wednesday.
The restaurant is marking its 30-year anniversary in the North Main Street building, its second location. So it opened for an “anniversary celebration” and then for regular business until the new location is ready, according to the post.
“I know this is a bit confusing,” the post read. But “we simply couldn’t let this important weekend go by.”
The cavernous brick cold-storage meat locker location was built in 1915.
The building has been sold and the new owner will be announced soon, Cisneros said.
The Stockyards location is the flagship of the Cisneros family’s Tex-Mex empire, which also includes a Parker County restaurant and caterer..
The new Rodeo Plaza location will eventually be in the Exhibits Building, built in 1911 for the Stock Show and first used as a poultry and sheep barn. Later, it was Frank Kent Ford.
The building was remodeled in 1988 and has housed a series of restaurants, retail shops and a gastropub, along with museums.
The location will be Los Vaqueros’ third in 41 years, all within one block near the Billy Bob’s Texas nightclub.
Founders “Kiki” and Johnny Cisneros originally opened the restaurant Feb. 10, 1983, at 2609 N. Main St. “Kiki” Cisneros’ father, Pascacio Martinez, had worked long hours in the Stockyards for low pay as a butcher at now-gone Armour & Co.
Kiki and Johnny had met working at El Chico, then married and originally opened a restaurant, Mi Casa, in 1979 in a converted home at 2304 N. Sylvania Ave.
But when they took over the Main Street space next to a Stockyards saddle shop, they took the nickname they used for their two little boys — Los Vaqueros, “the cowboys.”
Los Vaqueros became known for its location across from Billy Bob’s, and for old-fashioned Tex-Mex including fajitas and the traditional “homestyle” enchiladas in a lighter chile sauce with lettuce and tomato on top.
Los Vaqueros also has gluten-free and healthier items, such as a rice-and-squash-stuffed chile relleno, spinach or avocado enchiladas, and weekend brunch dishes such as migas or spinach stacked enchiladas.
This story was originally published August 22, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
