Interviewer: Letisha Brown and Scott Pryor
Location: Matt's El Rancho, 2613 South Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas 78704
This interview for the Texas Iconic Restaurant Oral History project was produced in collaboration with the Department of American Studies at the University of Texas, Austin, and the Texas Restaurant Association.
Matt and Janie Martinez opened Matt’s El Rancho on July 7, 1952, in Austin, Texas on Cesar Chavez Street. In December 1986, Matt’s El Rancho moved to their current location on South Lamar Blvd. Janie and her three daughters still run the family-owned business, which celebrated its 60-year anniversary on July 12, 2012. The restaurant enjoyed former President Lyndon B. Johnson’s approval as he used to enter the back door with a Secret Service detail to eat his favorite dish, Chile Relleno.
Scott Pryor: My name is Scott Pryor and today is March 10th, 2012, and I am here at Matt’s El Rancho.
Letisha Brown: My name is Letisha Brown and it is March 10th, and I am here at Matt’s El Rancho with Scott and the lovely three sisters and mother.
Cathy Kreitz: My name is Cathy K and it is March the 10th 2012, and I am here at Matt’s El Rancho.
Gloria Reyna: My name is Gloria Reyna and it’s March the 10th, and I am here at El Rancho in Austin, Texas.
Cecilia Muela: Hello, my name is Cecilia Muela, and its March 10th, and I’m [Laughs] at El Rancho.
Janie Martinez: My name is Janie Martinez, and I’m here at Matt’s El Rancho.
SP: Well, like Letisha said, thank you all for being here and agreeing to do this interview, we’re excited to hear stories about the restaurant today. Just like to start with some general, where is your family from? Have you all been in Austin your whole life? A little bit about your family background.
GR: We were all born here in Austin, and, guess we’re first—second generation family that’s been living here in Austin, Texas.
SP: OK. Where was your family before Austin?
JM: I’m the mother, so we were here, been here—so I call ourselves homegrown, ok.
CK: My mom was born in Austin as well; Dad was born in San Antonio, but if you mean, do you mean like previously?
SP: Yeah, like previously.
CK: Um, your mother [Looks at JM] was from San Luis Potosí [Mexico]—
JM: So was my father.
CK: And then, our fathers’—Matt Martinez, his family, was from Monterey, Mexico.
SP: OK. And I’d like to start out just hearing about your family’s history in the restaurant business. Because I know it even goes beyond you, Janie—with your, with—Matt’s family had a restaurant, right? Could y’all just say some about the family’s history?
JM: Well, we come here, and we attend school here, and then my husband enlisted into the service in the First World War, so I was just working, in Austin. And five years later he came back, and he asked me to marry him, so I did. Then, before he left, he had a part time job with a Seaton Hospital, with a dietician kitchen. I don’t know how many years he worked there, but that was his job. Before he enlisted in the service. Before then, I don’t know too much about him. But I did meet him and so I wait for him, and he came back and we got married. We were married and had my son, Matt Martinez Jr. He was born, and then Gloria Marie was the second child, and then some five years later, Cecilia came. And then he decided that he always thought about opening up a restaurant. And I said—he told me what he was thinking. And he thought that if I could help him—and I said, no, I don’t think so, because I don’t know anything about the restaurant. He says, don’t you worry about a thing, the way you’re cooking for me, and my children—I think you would be great. So I said OK, let’s go for it. So he started looking for a place.
SP: And then you opened it up in 1952, right? Was there a specific day? What was the first day?
JM: We uh, July the 7th—
GR, CK, CM: 1952.
JM: 1952, OK.
SP: And didn’t Matt, used to sell tamales, when he was a little boy?
JM: His father used to cook for—at home, because he had eight children and the mother had passed away. So he cooked, and the children—the sons would go out and sell the tamales. They sold towards the Capitol, on Congress Ave. And they were—I don’t know what they saw when they did. But that’s what they did, for a time, for his daddy. And they sold tamales, popcorn and pralines—pralines, homemade pralines. And that was their part time job, so everybody was working.
SP: And did Matt’s father make the tamales and the pralines?
JM: He did, but he also was training some ladies, to cook, to cook the food. And they cooked different things, but the most popular things was the tamales and the chili. And my husband know had to cook the chili very well. And after we opened up the restaurant, I told him that the main thing I know how to cook is plate lunches—that’s what we call them, plate lunches. That’s one meat, vegetables, and different kinds of starches, and so on, and so on. And that’s what I cooked for the children. So he says, that’s fine, we can start with that, but we’re also, also are going to serve some Mexican food. I said, well, let’s see what we can do. Let’s don’t make too much of anything, because we’re just trying out. So that’s what we did. [Background kitchen noises]
SP: Great, um, so the next question is about how you all have learned how to cook. And I’m sure—have you all ever cooked in the restaurant?
CK: That’s, that’s an interesting question because—well, the cook in the family—our brother Matt was an exceptional cook. And Gloria is an exceptional cook and I make very basic foods, and I know that Cecilia makes foods that her children really enjoy, but as far as, cooking like mom, I’d say Gloria’s the most—cooks most like mom.
JM: Excuse me, no one had a chance to cook in the restaurant. The only one that cooked was my son, Matt Martinez, Jr., and he started cooking—well, he started cooking in the kitchen with me when he was maybe nine. He wanted to go see what I was cooking. And he wanted to see if he could do it himself. I said, of course you could do it. At night I would go to work, and my mother would stay home with them. And he would always ask my mother “tell mother to bring us a steak cause I’m a start cooking.” So she’d call me, and I’d bring them whatever and they’d start cooking. And he start cooking—but then, I was bringing out the plate lunches and cooking the rest of the stuff and when he got old enough, he was going to school, and left for school, he’d come in especially on the weekends, and get in the kitchen with us, and he was pretty young. But Matt said, no, no you go out to the front and we’ll see about you later. So we sent him out of the kitchen until he got older.
CK: You and Matt, you, Gloria, used to follow Grandma around.
GR: My mothers’—my grandmother, my mothers’ mother—lived with us for many years and she was a great, great cook just like my mother, and my father and my brother. And, um, I guess just by being around them and to see them cooking—my brother was a great fisherman and hunter, so he’d bring home all kinds of critters and fish and everything. So I would watch my grandmother cook, and that’s how I learned. Really basically, by being around them and watching them cook.
[00:09:42]
CM: I think I learned more to cook, by just being around the food. It was just absolutely delicious. So even though I had never cooked, when I got married I just tried to duplicate, even though I was away from my family. And, so I just kept trying until it tasted like something our family made. And if I had trouble, I’d call my mom or my brother, and they would just tell us what to do, and so it was a fun way to learn.
SP: I’d like to hear from the three of you now, about how you are each involved in the restaurant at this point. What your different responsibilities are.
JM: They didn’t have any responsibilities, until they got a little older. After school, when they were pretty young they didn’t go into the kitchen at all.
SP: Ok, but they have responsibilities now right?
JM: Now, oh yes, now, yes. After they got older they had quite a few responsibilities.