Restaurant Encina, located in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood, was recognized as one of the best in the state by supermarket chain H-E-B.
The restaurant’s blue corn butterscotch pancake mix ranked third in the San Antonio-based chain’s Quest for Texas Best contest, an annual competition highlighting the best Texas-made goods produced by small businesses.
In addition to a $10,000 cash prize, the selection means Encina will have a chance to see its product on H-E-B shelves across the state.
Encina confirmed the news in an Instagram post.
“This has been top secret the last few months, but @heb has been in talks with us to distribute our blue corn pancake mix,” the Aug. 10 post said.
Encina wasn’t the only Dallas area business recognized by H-E-B either. The region accounted for half of the 10 finalists, with five local businesses making the shortlist for Texas’ best. The other finalists included BeeKing’s honey dust, natural sports drinks from HydroNation, Marasi Food’s frozen filled naan bread, and chamoy candy from Sarape Treats.
This was the 11th edition of the Quest for Texas Best contest from H-E-B. According to a news release, this year’s competition evaluated submissions from 470 entrepreneurs and from more than 100 cities in Texas.
The $25,000 grand prize went to Birria Queen from Austin, which created birria seasoning bombs, and Hess Street Foods from San Antonio, the maker of a chorizo seasoning paste, won $20,000 as the first place winner. Another business from the state capital, The frozen lemonade and sweet tea offering from Certified Country Lemonade, also based in Austin, took home the $15,000 second place prize.
H-E-B awarded a total of $70,000 to the four winners.
“A big, Texas-sized congratulations to each of this year’s winners and our finalists – small businesses that keep our communities vibrant and drive innovation across our state,” said James Harris, H-E-B’s senior director of Diversity & Inclusion and Supplier Diversity.
