The Mexican hacienda-inspired restaurant that serves tacos y mas was constructed on three generations of entrepreneurship, tragedy and keenness.
With out the efforts of two daring immigrants from Mexico, two sudden deaths and two aspirational sisters, Eddie’s Taco Home Bar and Grill wouldn’t be in enterprise.
With out the willpower and grit of the Caballero household, a dream would have died in a small Westside meals manufacturing unit on North Laredo Road.
Eddie’s Taco Home started in a cramped house inside Imperial Sausage Co. in 1976. It has expanded to 2 standalone areas that serve 10,000 to 12,000 prospects every week.
As its fiftieth anniversary approaches in 2026, present house owners Priscilla and Cassandra Caballero look ahead and again, forging plans to develop and recalling the matriarchs who impressed them.
On Mom’s Day, the sisters will honor their late mom, Magda, and late grandmother, Maria, as they at all times do by closing all day Sunday and going to St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic Church.
“We really feel the presence of our mom and grandmother, particularly throughout this time,” stated Priscilla Caballero, 37, the youngest of 4 siblings. “We proceed our household custom of going to church on Mom’s Day with our kids and receiving our blessings from our church group.”
With the passing of Magda in 2020, siblings Priscilla and Cassandra Caballero assumed possession and steered Eddie’s ahead. They secured architectural plans for an occasion middle, they’ve named Hacienda Caballero, adjoining to Eddie’s that can host weddings, quinceañeras and conferences.
“We promised our mother that we’d fulfill that,” Priscilla Caballero stated, “if God blesses us.”
Eddie’s remains to be recovering from the monetary hit it took in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Priscilla Caballero says, so Hacienda Caballero will take a number of years to finish. However there’s ample floor on which to construct on the Northside location.
Eddie’s sits on 1.6 acres on Thousand Oaks Drive, an ornamental dome resting atop its mediterranean-tile roof. A important eating room, bar and personal eating space occupy almost 7,000 sq. toes. Hector and Maria Caballero by no means imagined such house once they emigrated from Mexico within the early Nineteen Fifties.
In San Antonio, Hector labored a number of jobs to assist his household, together with one on the previous Knowlton’s Creamery on Fredericksburg Street. Handed over for a supervisor place in favor of a colleague born within the U.S., Hector pivoted.
“That’s when my grandparents determined to open their very own enterprise,” stated Cassandra Caballero, 48, the oldest sibling. “They made the choice to by no means should work for another person. They’d make their very own future.”
Within the late Sixties, Hector launched Imperial Sausage Co., promoting sausage and tamales to H-E-B and Helpful Andy. In 1976, Hector’s son, Edward Caballero, started his personal enterprise on the entrance of the meals manufacturing unit, referred to as a “molino.” He known as it “Eddie’s Taco Home.” Nonetheless in his 20s, Edward expanded to a second location on W.W. White Street, then began to construct a 3rd location.
Enterprise grew. The longer term appeared vivid. However earlier than the restaurant was accomplished, an explosion from a gasoline leak on the molino claimed Edward’s life in 1980. Edward’s sister, Magda, moved from Houston to assist. 4 years later, Hector succumbed to most cancers, leaving Eddie’s within the arms of Magda, the final supervisor, and Maria, the bookkeeper and cook dinner.
Out of tragedy got here fierce willpower. Mom and daughter saved the molino and restaurant working till Magda opened Eddie’s on West Cevallos Road in 1992.
“I grew up placing stickers on chorizo packages and working round via the manufacturing unit,” Priscilla Caballero stated. “That was our second house. We grew up with our mom within the summers at Cevallos, working together with her on Saturdays.”
Priscilla and Cassandra Caballero labored the drive-through. They washed dishes and waited tables. They befriended prospects and developed a love for the enterprise.
“I knew proper across the time I used to be 15 or 16, that I needed to observe my mom,” Priscilla Caballero stated from a desk on the North Facet. “She requested me what I needed to aspire to. I stated, ‘I really like the restaurant however I need to develop.’ In order that’s when my mom, within the yr 2003 or 2004, bought the property that this location sits on and began planning the enlargement.”
Eddie’s opened in 2011 on Thousand Oaks Drive, the place it’s identified for carne guisada tacos and its steak and enchiladas plate. Magda handed away 9 years later after being recognized with ALS, leaving Eddie’s to her daughters. Her portrait hangs on a founders’ wall at Eddie’s, beside images of Hector and Maria. The photographs stir reminiscences, heartfelt and heat.
Cassandra Caballero remembers going to the W.W. White Street location at age 7 together with her youthful brother Joseph.
“As quickly as we have been sufficiently old to observe instructions, we have been both bagging an order or making a drink for a buyer,” Cassandra Caballero stated. “To this present day, I’ve prospects from W.W. White who knew me at 7 and see me at Cevallos. We speak like time hasn’t even handed.”
Cassandra Caballero was there when the Cevallos location opened in 1992. She remembers 10 to twenty prospects, and clearing $100 on the primary day. At the moment, she sits in a sprawling eating room, marveling on the development.
“I’ll take a second to take all of it in as a result of I’m so grateful for all of the arduous work, the perseverance and the getting up day-after-day and dealing with challenges and fixing issues,” she stated. “It’s an enormous accountability, in addition to an honor, to be right here. We take a variety of pleasure and do our greatest to maintain our mom’s legacy rising.”
