Lost Restaurants of El Paso

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 Cafe changed the city’s tastebuds forever. Walk the colonnade of the Hollywood Cafe or plop down at Bill Parks Bar-B-Q in this collection of standbys served up by the El Paso County Historical Society.