David Mireles Jr. has been eating huevos rancheros at Garcia's since the 70's. 

I'm sitting across from David Mireles Jr. at Garcia's on Fredericksburg Road, drinking a cup of coffee and picking at my enchiladas verdes.We're at a laminate wood table underneath a Big Red-branded wall clock. It's a Thursday morning, around 9 a.m., he's got a big watch and a checkered shirt with a beaded rosary tucked underneath. He has a lot to say about the mom-and-pop Tex-Mex diner he's been frequenting since the '70s. Suddenly, Mireles whips out his iPhone to reveal an extensive Garcia's archive. We go through the highlight reel in his camera roll. 

First, he shows me a series of sweet photos of his favorite Garcia's waitresses from pre-COVID-19 times.

"I would come here and make them laugh and they'd make me laugh, you know, flirt with them," he says cheerfully. " I would sit up there and we'd talk at the counter." 

Then, I watch a full channel 5 news segment acknowledging a previous Garcia's anniversary. "I like the place so much I just kept it," he says.

Then, the good stuff: a succession of septuagenarian-style foodie photos of Garcia's nachos, paired with an icy glass of Big Red.

Along with their famous brisket tacos, the baked jalapeño bean and cheese-topped nachos are apparently one of the restaurant's "best" menu items. It's incidentally, a favorite of touring comedian Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias, according to owner John Garcia.

Mireles is a retired Army colonel, born and raised in San Antonio, who, like many, left town for 20 years only to later come back. He recently celebrated his 74th birthday and has been eating huevos rancheros at Garcia's since he was a student at St. Mary's University. His friend, who went on to become the Garcia family's doctor, was the first to show him what was up. The old friends still eat there together sometimes, and more often than not order the same thing they always have.

"Now I live way on the other side of the airport just inside 1604, but every now and then I think 'ohhh yeah, Garcia's huevos rancheros!' and I drive over," Mireles tells me, the rectangular dining area growing increasingly crowded. 

Enchiladas verdes at Garcia's with rice and beans. 

Julio and Yolanda Garcia first opened the 60-year-old restaurant across the street from its current location in November 1962. Julio Garcia built the current building eight years later in 1970. 

Described to me as "a big guy with a mustache," the Garcia patriarch began his career as a veterinary assistant before opening shop with $500 and a handful of recipes passed down from his parents. 

The menu consisted of largely Tex-Mex diner staples: carne guisada tacos, huevos rancheros, chilaquiles, enchiladas. You know the deal. 

His wife Yolanda's family was already in the restaurant business, so she knew her way around the kitchen, and did most of the cooking in the early years. Eventually, she taught all four of her children to cook, including her sons Andrew and John, who now run the restaurant.

A trio of brisket tacos on handmade flour tortillas with pico de gallo from Garcia's Mexican Food is a popular menu hit.

Find Garcia's at 842 Fredericksburg Rd.

John Garcia and longtime customer, David Mirales

Andrew and John Garcia, the second generation, took over the reins after their father suffered a stroke in 2002. A few years later, Andrew began developing the barbecue program and perfecting the critically and commonly acclaimed brisket tacos, amongst other things.

"It's amazing, it's really cooked with love," says John Garcia, describing his brother's brisket. "He's really got a talent for cooking."

The brisket in question has now attained a certain mythic quality, and has been written up everywhere from the Express-News to Texas Monthly's Taco Trail. It seems to command respect. 

Juicy, tender, succulent...buttery...these are all words a food critic would use to describe the brisket taco (served on a flour tortilla by the way). I'm not really a food critic, but after trying the brisket taco at Garcia's I'd say its pretty d**n good, and I'm not really even a brisket girl!

While he loves his brother Andrew's brisket, Garcia admits it's not his favorite menu item. 

"I grew up here, not on the brisket, but the carne guisada with cheese, that's always been my favorite."

Garcia's Mexican Food is a Tex-Mex restaurant on Fredericksburg Road turning 60 at the end of 2022.

The Garcia's of today apparently retains many of the charms of the old days, Mireles tells me. There's striking framed paintings on the walls of shadowy roosters, cowboys, elegant ladies and mustachioed men. A gift from one of his father's "compadres" in Mexico in the '80s, says Garcia. There's kitschy stuff too (which Julio Garcia especially loved) like an Elvis clock mounted next to a plain wooden cross near the TV playing local news, not far from the counter with the chrome and vinyl stools. 

Back when his father still ran the show, the city widened Fredericksburg Road, leading to a business-interfering construction project. Currently, there's a similar project afoot on the Garcia's stretch of Fredericksburg Road. Ironically they're now narrowing the street. It's annoying, says Garcia. 

The cheese enchilada plate at Garcia's Mexican Food.

After being closed for a year for dine-in service during the COVID-19 pandemic, Garcia's took on a mostly new staff. Maria Jose, my server that morning, will have been there a year in September (she recommends the enchiladas verdes, which I also enjoyed, even though I question why I ordered them at 9 a.m.). 

For those wondering: Yes, Mireles has become friends with the new waitresses. 

The neighborhood  restaurant will celebrate its 60th anniversary this November, with a special cook out with music and commemorative shirts. Save the date. 

Find it: 842 Fredericksburg Road, San Antonio, TX 78201