About Us

Located in the heart of the San Antonio RiverWalk, the Original Mexican Restaurant is inspired by the exciting and traditional flavors of Old Mexico cuisine. Moreover, the Restaurant is in the middle of the excitement when the City’s major annual events roll around. Namely Fiesta, Spurs Games, the Battle of Flowers Parade, the Fiesta Flambeau, major conventions at the nearby Convention Center and the Alamodome.

In 1969, David Straus turned 19th Century historic buildings between Commerce Street and the San Antonio River into River Square with the fabulous Stockman Restaurant. In 1984, Hap Veltman and Bob Buchanan assumed the restaurant lease and subsequently bought those buildings plus the one on the corner. They planned to have a Mexican restaurant at river level but needed to create more space in the bedrock footing the buildings.

The rumble of jackhammers and earth-moving equipment chewed up the rock and removed it. A new foundation was created for the old, thick-walled limestone buildings. Now, the place needed a name. They asked their partner Tom Chambers of Fort Worth for the name of the most popular Mexican restaurant there. Chambers revealed that it was the Original Mexican Restaurant. Buchanan was astonished.

The Original Mexican Restaurant of San Antonio, founded in 1899 and closed in 1960, was just across the River on Losoya Street. They were granted permission to use the name by the Farnsworths, the restaurant’s owners. In 1988, the new Original was the third Mexican restaurant to open on the economically revived Paseo del Rio. Today, the restaurant continues the tradition of serving San Antonio-style Mexican food in its lively river walk location.