Lost Restaurants of El Paso

by El Paso County Historical Society, Robert Diaz (Editor)

Overview

El Paso was a crossroads long before it was a border town, and its restaurant history represents the same intersection of foodways and culinary traditions. When the Ladies' Auxiliary for the YMCA produced El Paso's first known community cookbook in 1898, a number of its recipes appeared in English for the first time. Many of the eateries that supported that variety are now gone, but places like Jaxson's, Griggs and the Central Caf changed the city's tastebuds forever. Walk the colonnade of the Hollywood Caf or plop down at Bill Parks Bar-B-Q in this collection of standbys served up by the El Paso County Historical Society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781540246417
Publisher:	History PR
Publication date:	03/08/2021
Series:	American Palate
Pages:	162
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d)

About the Author

Historians from the El Paso County Historical Society have drawn on their expertise and the organization's archives to tell the story of El Paso, Texas—a community with deep international roots—through some of its most memorable lost restaurants.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 7

Editor's Acknowledgements 9

Introduction: El Paso's Culinary Heritage Susan Stanfield 11

Part I El Paso and Juárez: Inseparable Sister Cities

1 A Taste of the Evolving U.S.-Mexico Border: Border-Making, Cuisine and La Hacienda Café Robert Diaz 19

2 The Central Café Joe Lewels 33

3 Home of the Special Fizz: Prohibition, Harry Mitchell and the Mint Café, 1926-35 Brad Cartwright 48

Part II From Downtown to the Suburbs

4 The Rise and Fall of Downtown El Paso's Lost Restaurants Melissa Hutson 65

5 Fred Harvey and the Legacy of the Harvey Girls Pres Dehrkoop 79

6 For Those of You with a Sweet Tooth: Elite Confectionary Kathy Pepper 86

7 Hollywood Café? Kathy Pepper 91

8 Eating in the Suburbs: The Lost Restaurants of Central El Paso Joseph Longo Robert Diaz 96

9 Jaxon's, the Other Brother and the Stanton Room Joe Lewels 107

Part III A Downright Home Feeling: Global Influences on Local Cuisine

10 Bill Parks Bar-B-Q: Southern Food with a Taste of the Southwest Meredith Abarca 121

11 A Taste of History: Griggs Restaurant Guillermina Gina Nuñez-Mchiri Carlos Vásquez Claudia Rivers 130

Conclusion Robert Diaz 139

Notes 141

Bibliography 153

About the Authors 157