El Chico was started over 80 years ago in 1926 by Adelaida Cuellar.  The homemade tamales that Adelaide was making in Dallas, Texas were drawing a huge crowd at the county fair.  When the fair ended there were still people that demanded her food and her, her husband Macario, and her twelve children opened a small cafe.  IN 1940 her five sons moved the cafe to Oak Lawn in Dallas and named it El Chico.  This has been a Dallas tradition ever since and they started to expand the restaurant throughout the area immediately.  There are nearly 100 El Chico restaurants today and they cover many of the Southern states.  Twenty-seven of these restaurants are franchises and the rest are company owned.

El Chico is known for using only the highest quality ingredients to produce amazing Mexican food just like Adelaida did back in 1926.  They have held up the tradition with amazing tamales, enchilada, nachos, fajitas, tacos, burritos, and desserts.  They have many combo platters and they serve authentic Mexican food with authentic Mexican sauces.  This is a casual dining type of restaurant that also prides itself on serving fresh and tasty margaritas and a selection of many other alcoholic drinks.

There are many available areas for an El Chico franchise and they are looking for motivated people that want to start one or more franchise restaurants.  They charge a $35,000 franchise fee per restaurant and if you choose to develop more than one unit in a given area they also charge a development fee that is negotiated.  There is a continual royalty fee of 5% of the gross sales of each location and it is estimated that an individual or group will need between $1,550,000 and $2,530,000 to get an El Chico restaurant up and running.  This will cover the franchise fee, land and real estate, licensing, equipment, furniture, fixtures, inventory, training costs, and anything else that is involved with opening the restaurant.