From an early age, John Cuellar learned what it meant to achieve the American Dream. The grandson of Mexican immigrants Macario Cuellar and his wife, Adelaida, Cuellar joined the family business as a teenager, when he started working at El Chico #11, located at Six Flags Over Texas, in 1961. Cuellar later earned his law degree from Harvard and served from 1973-1996 as General Counsel of Cuellar’s El Chico Restaurants, a brand that has become a household name in Texas and gained notoriety around the globe. Now retired and active as a member of several nonprofit boards, Cuellar shared the rich history of El Chico and the Cuellar family during his presentation to the Lewisville Noon Rotary on August 31st. His grandparents immigrated to Texas from Mexico in 1891, recounted Cuellar, and eventually settled in Kaufman around 1913, when Macario (a/k/a "Mack) landed a job at the Star Brand Ranch. The couple had 12 children, and their boys grew up picking cotton, until Grandma Adelaida's entrepreneurial venture opened up exciting new doors of opportunity.
In 1926, Adelaida decided to set up a vendor booth at the Kaufman County Fair to sell homemade tamales, enchiladas, and chili. Her recipes were a hit, Cuellar said, and she made more money in one weekend than her husband made all year with farming. Thus, the family business was born.
The couple opened Cuellar’s Cafe in downtown Kaufman in 1928, and the kids helped keep it running. But after the Depression, five of the boys--now fully grown--went their separate ways. Several opened restaurants in different parts of the country, but in 1940, four brothers--Mack, Alfred, Gilbert, and Willie Jack--came together again to open a new eatery in Dallas. It was the first El Chico restaurant, located on Oak Lawn near Lemmon Avenue. Frank Jr. later joined his four siblings in 1949, and the Cuellar brothers worked as a team to grow the El Chico enterprise swiftly.
The fifth El Chico opened in Inwood Village in 1949, and by 1955, they had eight locations. But the El Chico at Six Flags Over Texas, which opened in 1961, gained the most notoriety. It later became the most popular location in the restaurant chain, and it's where John Cuellar cut his teeth in the business.
The Cuellar brothers took the chain public in 1968, and El Chico later became the largest Hispanic-founded business in Dallas in the 20th Century, creating 4000 jobs and serving more than 16 million customers annually. El Chico also got to serve guests at the White House picnic under both Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Cuellar recalled, during his presentation to the Rotary club. The family eventually “cashed out” of the El Chico enterprise in 2008, he said, but numerous family members have stayed involved in the restaurant industry.
In 2013, D Magazine recognized the Cuellar family’s Tejano Restaurant as one of the top 10 TexMex joints in Dallas, and in both 2014 and 2015, the magazine selected the family’s El Corazon restaurant as the best TexMex eatery in the Metroplex. Other restaurant brands with which members of the Cuellar family have been involved include Casa Rosa, El Ranchito, Ojeda’s, Mi Cocina, On the Border, and many more. Meanwhile, the El Chico brand has continued to expand worldwide. Although there are no longer an El Chico restaurants in Dallas, the brand has opened eateries across the U.S. and as far away as Dubai, Cuellar noted.
For a detailed timeline of the Cuellar family story and how they brought TexMex to the masses--including Princess Grace of Monaco--check out the historical narrative on the El Chico website. You can also read excellent accounts of the Cuellar family's amazing journey in this 2013 article from D Magazine and the more recent, shorter write-up in D Magazine from August 2022.