There was once a time in Dallas when “there were no chain restaurants,” recalled 92-year-old Gene Dunston, who opened his first carhop restaurant in 1955.
In the more than 65 years that Dunston has been operating restaurants in Dallas — most notably at Dunston’s Steakhouse — the city has turned into a nucleus for replicable eateries. Chain restaurants later became so popular that Dunston is happy to admit he borrowed a few ideas from Steak and Ale, which originated near Oak Lawn and Lemmon avenues in Dallas.
“I hadn’t seen my customers in a while, so I said, ‘Where have you been?’” Dunston told The Dallas Morning News in a 2022 interview. “They’d say, ‘Oh, you know: Steak and Ale has a salad bar.’”
(The serve-yourself salad bar at Steak and Ale was big deal.)
“So I put in a salad bar,” Dunston said. He was especially proud of that salad bar in the past decade, when Steak and Ale had gone extinct but Dunston’s stayed open.
As Steak and Ale makes a comeback in 2023 and 2024, it’s time to look back on some of the best-known restaurant chains that were born and bred in Dallas, Fort Worth and its suburbs.
Restaurants listed in chronological order from opening date.
El Chico
Before the phrase “chain restaurant” even existed, El Chico opened its first restaurant in 1940 in Dallas and then started to fan out to other locations in Lakewood and Fort Worth. The late Gilbert Cuellar Sr. turned his family-owned business “into a major chain with a goal of selling inexpensive Mexican food to America,” The News wrote in a 2005 story about the sale of the company to a Dallas investment group. While other Mexican restaurants in Dallas like El Fenix were growing slowly, El Chico moved quickly. The company is now more modestly-sized than it once was, with 15 restaurants in six U.S. states, plus two in Abu Dhabi.
Dickey’s Barbecue Pit
Dickey’s is the most prolific restaurant chain on this list, a surprising fact since it took 53 years for the company to become a franchise. During its first few decades, Dickey’s was a tiny barbecue joint on Henderson Avenue, at the crux of what’s now Central Expressway. (It opened in 1941 — before the highway was there.) Dickey’s continues to be a family-owned business, once run by founder Travis Dickey’s son and now run by his grandson and granddaughter-in-law. The small smoked-meat shop near the M Streets has expanded to more than 550 restaurants in the United States, with others in Singapore and Tokyo.
Pizza Inn
One of D-FW’s oldest chain restaurants was launched in 1958 near SMU in Dallas. Pizza Inn was one of the largest pizza chains in the nation in the 1980s, was sold to a St. Louis company in 1987, and then its executives filed for bankruptcy protection in 1989. Since then, it has been run by a host of high-profile restaurant folks, including past leaders of Whataburger and Smashburger. Pizza Inn’s current headquarters is in The Colony.
Steak and Ale
In 1966, Norman Brinker opened the first Steak and Ale near Oak Lawn and Lemmon avenues in Dallas. Some serial restaurateurs in Dallas consider Steak and Ale the consummate chain: It was a restaurant with a strong identity as a family-friendly steakhouse, and its dining rooms were distinct, with stained-glass windows and pewter beer steins. The News reported that Steak and Ale “peaked in 1992 with 157 locations and $225 million in U.S. sales.” It collapsed nearly overnight in 2008 as it entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection. Current CEO Paul Mangiamele bought the brand in 2015 and said reinventing it is “the passion of my life.”
Black-Eyed Pea
Bar owners Gene Street and Phil Cobb opened Black-Eyed Pea on Dallas’ Cedar Springs Road in 1975. They’ll admit, they didn’t know what they were getting themselves into, selling chicken-fried steak, chicken-fried chicken and sides made from scratch like Mom used to. But they sure did figure it out. Street and Cobb grew the chain into nearly 50 restaurants and then sold it in 1986 for $45 million, our Cheryl Hall reported in a 2016 story. It blossomed into 150 units but also was involved in bankruptcy filings twice in 15 years. BEP remains mostly a memory, as the remaining restaurants closed in 2016 except for one in Arlington.
Chili’s
Chili’s started on Dallas’ Greenville Avenue in 1975. As the name suggests, it was a chili restaurant, where co-founder Larry Lavine added four burgers, hand-punched fries, tacos and margaritas to the menu. Back then, there were no chicken crispers, no skillet queso, no baby-back ribs (and no catchy jingle). Lavine didn’t mean to start the next big chain restaurant, and even today, he seems to feel lucky about how it all worked out. Lavine stuck with the business until it grew to 50 units, then he sold it to Norman Brinker — the man who founded Steak and Ale and created Brinker International, which now still owns Chili’s and Maggiano’s. Today, Chili’s has 1,600 restaurants in 29 countries.
On the Border
The first On the Border sprung up on Knox Street in Dallas in 1982. Then and now, it’s known for margaritas, salsa and fajitas, though current CEO Tim Ward said the brand needs to “bring back sexy” to a chain that has lost some loyalty over the past 40 years. Today, On the Border has more than 120 restaurants and is based in Irving.
La Madeleine
Almost exactly 40 years ago, Patrick Esquerré opened a restaurant on Feb. 23, 1983 on Dallas’ Mockingbird Lane selling French food to an American audience. He admits he made some sacrifices, like serving an “Original Caesar” salad, despite the fact that his mother had never heard of a Caesar salad in her home country of France. La Madeleine’s tomato basil soup, croissants and, yes, Caesar salad remain hallmark menu items at a restaurant that currently has more than 85 restaurants in nine states.
Fuzzy’s Taco Shop
Fort Worth residents are proud to say that Fuzzy’s Taco Shop started on Berry Street in 2003, right by Texas Christian University. The Baja-style restaurant, once described in The News as “a little scruffy,” has catapulted into a fast-growing taco franchise that’s owned by the parent company of Applebee’s and IHOP today. The company has more than 135 restaurants in 18 states.
Twin Peaks
The company prefers to call Twin Peaks restaurants “lodges,” given the mountain theme, but its scantily-clad servers surely have something to do with the name, too. The first Twin Peaks “breastaurant” opened in Lewisville in 2005. North Texas restaurateur Randy DeWitt co-created it as well as other D-FW brands Sixty Vines, Whiskey Cake and Velvet Taco. Twin Peaks is currently operated by FAT Brands, a franchising company that also owns Fazoli’s, Great American Cookies, Marble Slab Creamery and more. The company expects to have 100 total restaurants open sometime in 2023.
Those are not the only chain restaurants that have originated in Dallas-Fort Worth:
- The oldest restaurant in North Texas, the 104-year-old El Fenix, has become a small chain. Today, it has 14 restaurants in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.
- Cheddar’s started in North Texas in 1979. Its headquarters were in Irving for years. Cheddar’s was acquired by Darden Restaurants (which owns Olive Garden, Yard House, Seasons 52 and more) in 2017 and it’s now based in Florida.
- Mi Cocina opened in Dallas’ Preston-Forest neighborhood in 1991 and remains based in Dallas. The company has more than 20 restaurants in D-FW and will soon expand to Houston.
- Bob’s Steak & Chop House started on Lemmon Avenue in Dallas in 1993 and today has 14 restaurants in seven states.
- Velvet Taco opened on Knox-Henderson in Dallas in 2011. It’s now headquartered in Far North Dallas.
Plenty of other restaurant chains carry a Dallas identity but didn’t start here.
- TGI Fridays opened in New York City in 1965. When it eventually made it to Texas, the owners were concerned, they told Texas Monthly for a 1992 story: “Our big worry was that the two of us would just sit there night after night, all alone, praying that a customer would come in,” Walt Henrion said. The red-and-white awning shop did just fine in Dallas, and the company headquarters are now here.
- Golden Chick dates back to 1967, when the first restaurant opened in San Marcos. It “lays claim to bring first to serve fried chicken tenders,” The News reported in 2002. Golden Chick’s strongest concentration of restaurants is in Dallas-Fort Worth and its headquarters is in Richardson.
- Bennigan’s is being reinvented by a Dallas restaurateur right now, but its first location opened in 1976 in Atlanta. Bennigan’s is one of the restaurants created by Dallas entrepreneur and Steak and Ale creator Norman Brinker.
- Fuddruckers burger joint was created in 1979 in San Antonio. Its founder Phil Romano eventually moved to Dallas and created many brands in this region. In more recent years, Fuddruckers floundered, though a fast-food franchise operator from North Carolina scooped it up in 2021, with plans to reinvent Fuddruckers in local malls.
- Similarly, Romano started Macaroni Grill in San Antonio in 1988. It eventually became operated by Dallas-based Brinker International until the company sold a majority interest in Macaroni Grill in 2008. Brinker sold its minority share to a Houston company in 2013.
- Corner Bakery was born and bred in Chicago starting in 1991, but it was wrapped into Dallas company Brinker International in 1995. Corner Bakery’s headquarters remains in Dallas, though it’s no longer owned by Brinker. Corner Bakery filed for bankruptcy in February 2023.
- Maggiano’s Little Italy was born in 1991 in Chicago and was purchased by — you guessed it — Dallas’ Brinker International in 1995. The Italian restaurant chain is one of the few remaining flagships for Brinker. The headquarters remain in Dallas.
- Raising Cane’s calls Baton Rouge, La., home, but its operations are run out of a secondary headquarters in Plano. The first Cane’s opened near Louisiana State University in 1996.
- And Pei Wei was the brainchild of Dallas restaurateur Mark Brezinski, though its first restaurant opened in 2000 in Arizona. Pei Wei’s headquarters today is in Irving.
