Richard W. Rodriguez
Matthew Deen, left, and Craig Deen
When George Deen returned from service abroad in World War II, his father, sales manager at the famed Armour and Co. in the Stockyards, invited his son to come work there.
However, Edgar Deen — soon to be a three-term Fort Worth mayor — encouraged George to start his own business, believing the economy was about to shoot into the sky like the very best put-together bottle rocket.
Edgar Deen was right.
“That's how my dad got into the meat business,” says Craig Deen, son of George and current president of Deen Meat & Cooked Foods. “He grew up with Edgar at Armour. When he came back from the war, he started buying sides of beef from his dad at Armour and selling them to the mom-and-pop grocery stores around town.”
1 of 4
Richard W. Rodriguez
Craig Deen explains what is going on in this big cylindrical rotating drum, better known as a commercial meat tumbler, mixing up something scrumptious.
2 of 4
Richard W. Rodriguez
The right taquito requires automation and man — and woman.
3 of 4
Richard W. Rodriguez
A finished product.
4 of 4
Richard W. Rodriguez
Chicken wings, anyone?
George’s grandson, Matthew Deen, serves as COO. Matthew Deen’s father, Danny Deen, retired from a long career there in 2020, deciding that was a better option than dealing with all the headaches — literally and figuratively — of the pandemic. Danny Deen had just handed off the chores of president to his brother.
“And then when COVID hit, he was like, ‘You boys have fun,’” says Matthew Deen laughing. “‘I think I'm just going to be retired.’”
In 2026, Deen Meat & Cooked Foods will celebrate its 80th birthday. When I asked the key to the company’s endurance, Craig says with no reservation: “Flexibility. Being willing to change as the times change.”
George Deen, a WWII B-17 navigator serving in Europe, recognized an opening. Armour, Swift, and the other major packers had little interest in catering to small grocers and restaurants. George filled that void in the marketplace, buying select cuts from Armour and delivering them himself in a surplus Army Jeep, which served as his office, too, until establishing a plant on Northwest 28th Street. The company moved into its current home on Northside Drive in 1971.
By the mid-1980s, the company confronted new realities. Grocers and restaurants didn’t need Deen Meats anymore after the big processors took on the boning, cutting, and packaging.
The company figuratively woke up one day and found that more than half of its customers went adios.
Good fortune, however, was just around the corner with the gringo discovery of the fajita, which exploded in popularity across every Tex-Mex restaurant in the Southwest. The Deens placed a bet on the fajita, forming an operation of cutting and marinating strip steak to sell to stores and restaurants.
“My dad tells the story of George saying, ‘What's a fajita?’” Matthew Deen says laughing.
Soon after, the company acquired Double L Foods of Keller, longtime producers of cooked-and-frozen chili.
Cooked foods were its future. The overhead beef rails were on the way out.
“Getting into cooked foods,” Matthew Deen says. “That's the biggest change and biggest reason we're still here.”
Deen’s clients for cooked foods are a who’s who of retail, including Taco Cabana.
You haven’t lived until you’ve watched a small portion of the day’s 60,000 taquitos work their way down an automated assembly line operating in concert with a human labor force, whose shift changes resemble a train station at rush hour — waves of workers flowing out as another wave pours in.
The company has flourished since society reopened after 2020. The tight labor market — just like in 1946 — has meant not enough workers to man kitchen stations.
Those companies have turned to Deen.