Mystery in west Fort Worth: A phantom sign hints at a return of The Original restaurant

A legal notice has gone up for a new west side outlet of The Original Mexican Eats Cafe , indicating some sort of return to Camp Bowie Boulevard a half-block west of where it served tacos and chili-covered enchiladas for 93 years.

The notice was posted in June in the old restaurant parking lot and also published in the Star-Telegram. It requests a license to sell liquor at the address of t he old parking lot adjacent to 4725 Camp Bowie Blvd.

The Original, one of Texas’ oldest Tex-Mex restaurants, moved to 1400 N. Main St. near the Stockyards in July 2023 after losing a long and bitter legal dispute that voided its property lease.

A lease signed in 2003 was ruled illegal by a state appeals court. That ended the restaurant’s run at 4713 Camp Bowie Blvd., where it opened in 1930.

Owner Robert Self did not return messages.

The Original kept ownership of parking lots on Camp Bowie Boulevard and another lot on Byers Avenue formerly used for the restaurant, according to Tarrant Appraisal District records.

The restaurant’s sign still stands alone in the parking lot, now holding the legal notice.

No application for a liquor license is in the state computer system yet, according to a spokesman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

The lot has always been considered a potential location for a small Original Mexican Eats stand, kiosk or mobile food truck. The restaurant continues to sell salsa at nearby shops and at the new north side restaurant.

The former space has been converted for retail shops.

The restaurant is nationally known for chili con carne, retro Tex-Mex and its “Roosevelt Special” platter, named for presidential son Elliott Roosevelt, a former Fort Worth and Benbrook resident.

Older servers interviewed in the 1980s said the combination plate was Elliott Roosevelt’s favorite. He and his wife, Ruth Googins Roosevelt, lived on a ranch near Benbrook in the 1930s and often hosted his parents, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

The Original founders, Lola San Miguel Piñeda of Múzquiz, Mexico, and her husband, former Spanish soldier Gerónimo Piñeda of Barcelona, moved here via Laredo and Waco and opened the restaurant in 1930, according to Star-Telegram archives and census records. (The restaurant claims a 1926 opening date.)

In a 1932 clipping , Piñeda described the “combination No. 1” plate: “tacos, Mexican rice, chile con queso, Spanish salad, toasted tortillas, Mexican [praline] candy and a bottle of ice cold Pearl beer.”

The price then: 50 cents.

The North Main Street location is open for lunch and dinner daily except Monday; 817-761-1890 , originalmexcafe.com.