Dallas

Dallas's dining record is inseparable from Tex-Mex, the Texas-Mexican restaurant cooking codified in the early twentieth century by immigrant families who standardized the combination plate of enchiladas, tamales, chili con carne and rice and beans. El Fenix, opened by Miguel Martinez in 1918, is among the longest-running of these houses and a reference point for the city's version of the cuisine.

The drinks side has one documented contribution of national consequence: in 1971 Mariano Martinez adapted a soft-serve machine to dispense frozen margaritas at his Dallas restaurant, mechanizing a drink that had been blended by hand; the original machine was later acquired by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

In the 1980s Dallas became a center for what was called Southwestern or New Texas cuisine, as chefs including Stephan Pyles, at Routh Street Cafe, and Dean Fearing, at the Mansion on Turtle Creek, reworked regional ingredients and Mexican and chuckwagon forms in fine-dining registers. Smoked meats remain a parallel tradition, with Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse, tracing to a family barbecue business begun early in the century, among the city's enduring examples.