THE FOLLOWING NOTE is about a restaurant that is still around and that has roots that go back to a barrio of yore, to a settlement once called Little Mexico, a storied hub of ours.
The featured food joint was in many ways then, when it was founded, similar to other Mexican eateries that had for years thrived in that community, offering the kind of culinary treats that most customers were used to having at home. And that they expected to find at restaurants in that barrio. You know, mom’s food.
The name of the eatery? Avila’s Mexican Restaurant.
The small diner was given life in that neighborhood in the mid-1980s, on one of its streets, and in a humble home that faced Maple Avenue. The founders of the place? Octavio and Anita Ávila.
Some of the Tex-Mex treats served...
IMAGE: Some of the favorite specialties found in the menu of Avila’s Mexican Restaurant. Photos from the restaurant’s website.
Before making the jump into that business venture, Octavio worked as a “zapatero,” as a shoemaker, the kind that repairs shoes. Anita had a beauty salon; it was located in the front room of their Little Mexico home. Their intentions then, according to credible hearsay, were to soon retire, but son Octavio Jr. changed their minds. He, supposedly, persuaded them to launch the restaurant, and it was something they did just before Christmas of 1985. It was a good thing he convinced them. The place became popular with the locals soon after it opened its doors. The rest is history, as some folks would say.
Avila’s Mexican Restaurant is not only still around, but it’s still serving great Tex-Mex chow, according to most reviews online from the usual sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp. Some reviewers call it a “tasty version of Tex-Mex.” Some rave about its on-the-hot-side salsa and the chips that are served as starters. They also rave about the brisket tacos. The enchiladas seem very popular, too, and so are the margaritas.
The restaurant is featured on this site for several reasons, but mainly because of its roots, of its Little Mexico connection. One other reason, however, has to do with its long-lasting stay at the same location: at 4714 Maple Avenue, on the northern edge of what then was that legendary barrio. And, of course, it’s also featured because of its well-known and long tradition of serving “Absolutely delicious” food, according to a recent online review.
Octavio, the dad, relocated to Dallas from northern Mexico, from Monterrey, to be exact. Anita was from that barrio. They both met there and raised their kids there. Her parents owned a small grocery store not far from where she, Octavio, and their children lived. Besides selling groceries, the store also sold freshly made Mexican food, mostly on weekends.
Anita’s mom was a great cook, we are told, and so was her dad. We’re also told that Anita had inherited that skill for creating Mexican style culinary delights from both her parents. Although she worked at making women look good at her beauty salon, her real passion was cooking, especially antojitos. You know, the stuff that is cooked for special occasions by Mexican moms, like tamales, pozole, enchiladas. Maybe menudo.
It was a calling that Anita practiced often. And it was because of that salient quality that Octavio Jr. insisted on having a restaurant where they could share that savory food with others. His dad, though, wasn’t too crazy about going into the restaurant business. But his son eventually convinced him to do so.
Once the place was open and after leaving the shoe repair trade behind, Octavio ended up washing pans and dishes at the restaurant. Anita spent her time at the back, in the kitchen, concocting, according to information passed down by her descendants, the best Tex-Mex cuisine that could be found anywhere in the Metroplex.
Avila’s is still run by family, by the granddaughter of the founders, by Katherine Ávila. She inherited that gig, it seems. She must be good at what she does and there’s plenty proof of it.
Some forty years later, after opening its doors just prior to Christmas of 1985, Avila’s Mexican Restaurant is still thriving and still serving tasty and authentic Mexican cuisine from that spot on Maple Avenue. In an area north of downtown where a barrio called Little Mexico once also thrived.
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NOTE: The location of the restaurant is on what eventually became an extension to the north of Little Mexico, where some residents from the core of that barrio moved after being forced out by gentrification and other urban maladies.