A Dallas restaurant legend has died: Michael "Mico" Rodriguez, dubbed the "Godfather of Dallas Tex-Mex," died on October 1; he was 68. According to a friend of the family, Rodriguez exhibited symptoms of a heart attack and died late Thursday night.

Rodriguez co-founded a number of successful Tex-Mex restaurant chains, most famously Mi Cocina, which debuted in 1991 at Preston Forest Village. Its combination of gringo-friendly Tex-Mex, as well as its signature Mambo Taxi frozen margarita-sangria swirl, was an instant hit.

But it was the buzzy celebrity-packed location at Highland Park Village, which opened in 1993, that sent the concept into the stratosphere, launching an entire chain. Under the M Crowd umbrella name, he helped launched a number of other concepts, including the pioneering Taco Diner chain.

Rodriguez was born on October 30, 1957 and entered the restaurant industry not long thereafter: busing tables when he was only 6 years old at El Chico, where his parents worked, until he went to work at Mia's Tex-Mex, the restaurant his mother opened in 1980.

He also experienced personal challenges, and was eventually ousted from Mi Cocina due to alleged financial improprieties.

Driven and ambitious, he went on to found other similar concepts, beginning in 2011 with Mr. Mesero (later shortened to Mesero), which he opened at 4444 McKinney Ave.

Mr. Mesero served as a template for the Mesero chain, which currently has seven locations across DFW and two outside Texas.

But in 2018, Rodriguez and Mesero Restaurant Group parted ways. He kept the original Mr. Mesero, now named Doce Mesas, and opened more locations before being ousted in 2025.

Most recently, he became involved in the Maple Street Food Hall, a food hall launched by entrepreneur Ray Quintanilla in 2022.

Rodriguez can be seen sharing some of his memories on a podcast with Jeff Crilley. He's survived by his daughter, Bianca, and his ex-wife, Caroline. Services have not been announced.