Vivian to Don: “Cousin Mark has invited the ‘Wednesday nite Rio Group’ to meet him at Ojeda’s Restaurant in Dallas this Wednesday at about 6:00 p. m. for a little ‘family get-together,’ and I would like to go. Plus, Rachel and Donna have invited us to ride with them.” Don to Vivian: “Sounds like a good deal to me! The only thing that could make it better would be if they also offered to pay for our food!”
I had been to Ojeda’s once or twice during my younger 1970s days, and Viv and I had enjoyed a “date” there when we were a younger and “carefree-er” couple; maybe we had even been back once when the “folks” kept the boys so that we could have a night out just for ourselves. But, in our minds, it had been at least 25 years since we had last eaten there, and we were excited, wondering how the new food and staff would stack up next to the good, old memories!
There are more locations now (four maybe), but the “real Ojeda’s” in our minds has always been the one on Maple Avenue, and that is the one Mark specified…..4617 Maple Avenue.
The first meeting of Ben Ojeda, born in Lockhart, Texas, in 1911, and Cecilia Ruiz, born in 1921, was in Shreveport, Louisiana, at— Guess where!—a Mexican restaurant, and it only took a few months for the “so in love” couple to marry. World War II was raging; Ben was an Army cook for enlisted soldiers; his special cooking with special ingredients was so tasty that he was requested by the “higher-ups” to cook for them!
When Ben returned home after his stint as an Army cook, he continued to do what he loved in several Dallas restaurants, while his wife divided her time “raising” their own five girls and four boys and also often babysitting as many as six more children to “make ends meet.”
1969: With much, much hard work and a little savings stashed away, the still much-in-love couple went to Maple Avenue and Lucas Street in Dallas, made a deal to lease a place that was called “The Peter Pan Grill,” re-named it OJEDA’S MEXICAN RESAURANT, were “discovered” by a Channel 13 reporter by the name of Lee Clark (who really gave the restaurant a boost with her coverage), and in 1971 were featured in a story about the restaurant, run by a Mom and Dad and nine children! Ojeda’s, as far as I can ascertain, has been an “institution” ever since that day!
Papa Ben passed on in 1989, and Mama Cecilia in 2011 (still the one who hired-and-fired ‘til late in life), but the Ojeda’s legacy has continued as the restaurants are still serving the food made famous by that first “so in love couple”—only today, the owners/operators/main workers are the nine brothers and sisters and at least 14 nephews and nieces.
And, of course, the legacy is mainly kept alive by the patrons who keep on coming back and back and back, as all of us who went to see Mark that night plan to do more often!
Some well-known/ famous folks who have dined there in the past include many of The Dallas Cowboys, Jack Nicholson, Dr. Phil, Johnny Mathis, Doc Severinsen, President Bill Clinton (chicken fajitas, rice, and beans), Jerry Jones, Owen Wilson, and Jerry Springer.
The menu is way too extensive for me to list or mention favorites, but most of the people at our table and those within eye-sight were “cleaning their plates!” Try it out if you have never been or if it has been a while. BE A LITTLE PART OF HISTORY! Maybe some day you will be on the list of “famous folks.”
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