By Natalie Lozano Trimble
Photography by Jill Johnson
Before he was a James Beard semifinalist, Chef Omar Flores says he would wander the desert of El Paso as an 8- or 9-year-old to gather mesquite wood for his parents to use on the grill.
Although Flores no longer gathers every load of mesquite himself, he still uses the wood to fuel the grills at Muchacho, where he serves as executive chef. This fall, the restaurant will celebrate five years in Southlake Town Square.
“We opened during Covid, which was kind of nutty,” Flores says. “A lot of restaurants were losing when we signed two leases.”
Grace Marshi, the Head of Marketing for Big Dill Hospitality, the group behind Muchacho, says the brand is very family-oriented. “There’s a lot of shareable food plates on the menu, so we want people to gather around the table,” she says.
Flores calls the menu a take on border town Tex-Mex. Alongside familiar plates like beef picadillo, chile relleno and enchiladas, you’ll find specialty tacos made with fillings like octopus, cauliflower and ahi tuna.
“We kind of pride ourselves on buying the best product possible. You’ll taste the difference,” Flores says.
The tacos al carbon are special to Flores because they’re simple and comforting, he says.
Marshi says the draw is more than the menu: “people can eat good food anywhere, so you want them to come and have a good time.”
Southlake’s Muchacho is the only one offering a daily happy hour from 2 to 6 p.m., while both locations offer brunch on weekends.
The tequila for their cocktails is infused in-house, Marshi says, and their margarita options range from a sangria swirl to flavors like mango and prickly pear, plus a margarita millionaire made with Tears of Llorona tequila and topped with flaky gold salt.
Marshi, whose father and brother are part of the ownership team behind Big Dill, says she majored in accounting and didn’t intend to join the family business, but saw how hard her father was working and wanted to help.
Flores was working in restaurants while studying hotel restaurant management in college when he decided to focus on the kitchen. After attending the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, he was drawn to Dallas while dating someone who lived there.
He met the Marshi family while he was the executive chef at Abacus. Their first restaurant together was Whistlebritches in Dallas, which also opened a location in Southlake in 2021.
Flores says he was at first apprehensive about opening a restaurant this far west — their other concepts are in Dallas, Addison and Plano — but the community has been supportive, with a loyal customer base. “The town square has kind of revitalized itself over the past couple of years,” Flores says.
Big Dill Hospitality has several concepts just launched (Maroma in the Dallas Design District) and underway (Tio, off Frankfurt and Preston), as well as two more Muchacho locations opening this year.
Muchacho Tex-Mex is open seven days a week: Sunday and Monday, 11 to 9 p.m., and Tuesday through Saturday, 11 to 10 p.m.
Find the recipe for tacos al carbon here.