The History of Restaurant Innovation in Dallas

Last year, Dallas was crowned the 2019 Restaurant City of the Year by Bon Appétit! Due to our city’s vast variety in cuisine and highly ambitious chefs, we can find our fix for whatever cuisine we crave throughout the city.

Reflecting on the city’s restaurant success, I was curious to dig into the origins of the Dallas restaurant scene. Come to find that there are some restaurant innovations derived from Dallas restauranteurs that changed not only the city, but the whole U.S. of A.

Early History

So, let’s go all the way back to the 1920s, when Dallas was at 150,000 people strong. Prohibition had taken effect, and at that time there had been almost as many saloons as there were restaurants. “Before this point, most dining out came in the form of lunch stands, lunch counters, and chop houses located in the business district. Often, women preferred dining rooms of hotels or tea rooms in department stores,” (Perryman).

Through the legal ramifications of Prohibitions, liquor sales were obviously forbidden, so the saloons were no longer listed in the 1920 City Directory. Now, Dallasites and visitors looking for a night out, turned to restaurants to provide a leisurely experience (Perryman).

Additionally, automobiles mobilized the city, and an influx of immigrants brought their ethnic cuisines and native dishes to the people (Perryman).

We talkin’ Tex-Mex!

What started out as a tamale factory on McKinney Avenue founded by Miguel and Faustina Martinez in 1918, led to the opening of what we all know and love, El Fenix.

After working and saving from jobs at the Dallas Railway and Terminal Company and as a dishwasher at the Oriental Hotel, Miguel and Faustina opened the Martinez Café. With a few years of success under their belts, the restaurant was enlarged and renamed to El Fenix in 1922, labeling Dallas as the birthplace of Tex-Mex.

A few years after the birth of Tex-Mex and El Fenix, Dallas entrepreneur Jesse G. Kirby and Dr. Reuben W. Jackson made Dallas the birthplace of another restaurant innovation.

The Pig Stand - First “Car Hop”

Sure, we’ve all heard of Oklahoma’s fast food staple, Sonic, but what you might not know is that Kirby and Jackson were the first in the nation to establish a restaurant that took orders from cars that pulled up to the curb.

Located at the corner of Chalk Hill Road and the Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike in Oak Cliff, the Pig Stand opened up and started slinging barbecued pork sandwiches. Servers would hop up on the running boards of customers’ car, take  orders, head for the kitchen, and eventually return to deliver the food to the cars – coining the term “car hop” (Perryman).

The Pig Stand soon became a chain spanning over multiple states throughout the nation, and still continues on today.

Norman Brinker - “Casual Dining” & “The Salad Bar”

When talking restaurant innovation in Dallas, we have to bring up Norman Brinker.

Brinker began his restaurant journey back in the 1950s after graduating from San Diego State at age 26 working at Bob Peterson’s Oscar’s Coffee Shop in San Diego. Due to Brinker’s grit and determination, Peterson took a liking to him and offered him an executive job at Peterson’s new restaurant chain in Los Angeles, Jack-In-The-Box.

Brinker became in charge of one of the Jack-In-The-Box stores, and just one year later was offered 20% of Jack-In-The-Box, after one of the four original partners dropped out. For $3,500, Brinker became a general partner of Jack-In-The-Box.

Brinker made his mark on Jack-In-The-Box by increasing advertising, and being responsible for adding tacos to the menu.

He then moved his family to Phoenix to open 25 new Jack-In-The-Box restaurants, then brought Jack-In-The-Box to Houston and Dallas.

In 1964, Brinker and his family relocate to Dallas, and Brinker decided Dallas lent itself as a great opportunity to open a restaurant similar to Bob Peterson’s Oscar’s Coffee Shop (where he got his start). Brink’s Coffee Shop came to be at the corner of Gaston and Carroll in the summer of 1964.

The coffee shop was short lived, but Brinker came back with a new idea for Dallas. “Casual Dining” that provided quality food, a full menu table service, and a very reasonable price. The 60s brought a time where people were looking for the niche between fast food and fine dining, so Brinker created Steak & Ale.

He hired SMU students that brought in the interest of the younger generation, and introduced the “salad bar.”

Donald Phillips said, “In a very real sense, Steak & Ale was to the restaurant industry what Ford’s Model T was to the automobile industry-it was revolutionary.”

Not only did Brinker change the game by bringing to life “casual dining,” but the people he hired and learned from him went on to run their own major chains, like Outback Steakhouse, TGI Friday’s, Houston’s Restaurants, Longhorn Steaks, Houlihan’s, and more.

Brinker continued to have his hand in some of the largest restaurant chains in the world, and started Brinker International, which operates Chili’s, Corner Bakery Café, EatZi’s, On the Border Mexican Gill & Cantina, Rockfish Seafood Grill, Taco Cabana, and more.

Fast forward to present day, Dallas is 2019 Bon Appétit Restaurant City of the Year, and continues to birth restaurant innovations.

Support Local & Go Find New Dallas Restaurants!

Sources:

Perryman, D. E. (2009). Big B in Big D: A history of business in Dallas County. San Antonio, TX, TX: Historical Publishing Network, a division of Lammert Incorporated.

Brinker, N., & Phillips, D. T. (2002). On the brink: The life and leadership of Norman Brinker. Irving, TX, TX: Tapestry Press.