Virgie Martinez, 85, served tamales and Tex-Mex in her family’s Fort Worth backyard
Virgie Martinez, 85, who carried on her family’s legacy of a restaurant and tamaleria in the garage behind their home and made Mi Cocinita into a 45-year tradition, has died.
Martinez took over a backyard landmark in the Worth Heights neighborhood from her mother, Betty Mendez, and continued to serve tamales and combination plates once named by the Star-Telegram as the “Best Mexican Food in Fort Worth.”
Martinez had been sick off and on for 16 years but did not fully retire until 2017, ending a career when she often handmade 600 dozen Christmas tamales every November and sometimes worked 20 hours a day.
Mi Cocinita became known for Martinez’s cooking and for its quirky neighborhood location in Worth Heights.
The restaurant was open only weekdays at lunch and did not advertise. At first, it did not have a listed telephone number.
It was allowed to continue serving quietly in a residential area only because businesses had been allowed there under city zoning when Mendez opened in 1972.
Martinez quit work as a hairdresser in the late 1970s to help Mendez as customers poured in. When Mendez passed away in 1988, Martinez redecorated the restaurant and named it Mi Cocinita.
“I still cook just like my mom,” Martinez said in 1988. “I always will.”
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She described the restaurant as “this little backyard garage” and often delivered Christmas gift baskets to regular customers, including business leaders from downtown banks and law offices.
Late Fort Worth novelist Dan Jenkins, owner of Tex-Mex restaurants in Fort Worth and New York, praised Martinez’s enchiladas and mentioned Mi Cocinita in later books as his favorite.
Often, older Mi Cocinita customers mistook Martinez for her mother and called her Betty.
Betty Mendez was 62 when she retired in 1972 from sewing draperies for a downtown department store. When she grew bored with watching telenovelas, she started cooking for her Bryan Avenue neighbors.
Soon she set up stoves in the garage and opened “Betty’s.” She summoned family members including Virgie Martinez to help sell lunches from a counter behind a hand-lettered, torn cardboard menu.
So many Star-Telegram readers called asking directions to the restaurant that a note was thumbtacked over a newsroom phone: “The restaurant in a garage is at 3509½ Bryan Ave.”
Martinez’s survivors include daughters Cecelia Martinez, Jo Ann Nilo, Adrena Martinez Orr and Becky Pederson.
Rosary will be at 6 p.m. Dec. 19 at Mount Olivet Chapel, 2301 N. Sylvania Ave. Services will be at 9:30 a.m. Dec. 20.
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This story was originally published December 15, 2024 at 9:35 AM.
