Texas Roadhouse Used To Serve Mexican Food: Why It Stopped Just 2 Weeks After Opening In The '90s

The first Texas Roadhouse opened in 1993 in Clarksville, Indiana. The idea was to offer made-from-scratch food and excellent service. Kent Taylor, who had experience at several chain restaurants, joined forces with others from Bennigan's and Chi-Chi's to bring the western-themed steakhouse famous for its country music and line-dancing staff to life. It was that Chi-Chi's pedigree that introduced a very minor Mexican influence when the chain first opened. For just two weeks, customers could order Mexican food from the Texas Roadhouse menu. Poor sales and a fumbled execution caused the chain to drop it almost entirely.

The original Texas Roadhouse was noticeably a little different from today's version. Texas and Mexican flavors obviously pair well, and there's a reason Tex-Mex cuisine is such a popular thing. When some of those first Texas Roadhouse managers insisted on including Mexican food, Taylor was willing to give it a try and added it to the menu. In his book "Made from Scratch," Taylor said, "Our kitchen wasn't set up to do Mexican food justice — it's an entirely different skillset — and it really didn't fit the theme of the place."

After those first two weeks, Mexican food was cut from the menu. There don't seem to be any copies of the original menu available online to determine just what the chain had to offer in terms of Mexican fare. However, despite the failure of the food, one item not only survived, but thrived: margaritas.

The margaritas at Texas Roadhouse have endured, and are so popular they have their very own section on the menu. While many restaurants may offer a single margarita, Texas Roadhouse currently currently boasts 15 different variations of the cocktail. The house margarita is made from Texas Roadhouse's signature mix and Dorado Gold tequila. You can get it on the rocks or as a frozen drink. The Legend Margarita uses the same mix, but this time with a blend of three tequilas and a rim of black lava salt.

Some variations are not specifically listed on the menu, like the peach margarita or the coconut margarita. The mango margarita is made with mango puree and some tajin chili lime salt. If you want, you can skip the tequila entirely by ordering the Hurricane Margarita made with Captain Morgan spiced rum or the Sangria margarita.

Tasting Table ranked 8 Texas Roadhouse margaritas and we had the Legend in our number one spot. We even put them head to head against margaritas at Chili's and Texas Roadhouse won by a landslide. Based on how well the chain does drinks, we'll just have to take their word that the Mexican food wasn't up to par back in the day. If this is the trade off, we'll take it.