Joe T. Garcia's
Joe T. Garcia’s will be 90 years old on Friday.
The famed restaurant — host to pop culture royalty, governors, three U.S. presidents, and many more, along with the rest of us who have had to nurse the day after a boatload of margaritas — is the face of family business in Fort Worth.
Personally, I’ve always found joy in a “family style” plate and margaritas. Never once had a bad day there.
It all began with Joe T. Garcia and Jessie “Mamasuez” Garcia. And that story actually began in 1919, the year the couple opened a grocery store and restaurant serving barbecue. Their clientele was mostly from the nearby packing plants.
In 1935, they moved a block into their current location, a small shack with fewer than 20 seats. They opened on July 4 serving meats mostly to immigrants, those from all over the world, who worked in the packing plants.
Give me your tired, starving huddles masses — or something like that.
Today, the restaurant can serve upwards of 2,000 in a dining area that includes the spacious hacienda-style patio, the Fiesta Gardens.
What we know today as Joe T. Garcia’s began through circumstance.
Joe got sick one day and stayed home. As the story goes, all Mamasuez had to offer customers were her homemade tamales and nacho-style snacks built from corn tortillas because those went well with beer.
That is when the evolution and eventual rebrand began.
Joe T. Garcia died in 1953 at age 55. Mamasuez died in 1988 at age 82.
Beginning in 1977 with their daughter Hope Lancarte, and continuing through her heirs today, the business has grown into a North Side empire.
¡Salud!