Tex-Mex News

Family-owned Mexican restaurant in Plano opens with irresistible lure

Alexander's in Plano.

Alexander's

Since its quiet opening in January, Alexander's Mex Cuisine in Plano has taken a savvy and singular route to success: a generous happy hour.

The restaurant, located in the former Latin Deli at 2237 W. 15th St., boasts all-day happy hour, which means $5.50 house margaritas, $6 flavored margaritas, and $4 on all beer.

"It’s very popular, especially on weekends," says owner Bernardo Garduño. “You don’t find many happy hours on weekends."

This is not to dismiss the food, featuring recipes from Garduño's hometown of Mexico City.

The family-run restaurant includes a team led by Garduño and his wife Claudia, but also various in-laws — and Garduño’s mother, when she is in town. It's named for Garduño's son.

"This is our first restaurant,” Garduño says. “We put our life’s savings into this."

Mexican street food makes up most of Alexander’s menu. Garduño does the cooking.

“I love to cook and while I’ve worked as a server and bartender, I learned to cook just watching,” he says. “I cooked at home using Mexican recipes for my family, watching my mother and other family members cooking."

His path to eatery owner is a familiar one: spend years working in the service industry to learn the trade, then find the right spot. Garduño did just that, then finished a stint on a cruise ship and came to Dallas in 2015, again working in restaurants.

He crafted his menu relying mostly on his experience in restaurants, using his mom’s recipes. Brisket tacos, crispy beef tacos, and brisket enchiladas are part of a blend of Tex-Mex and Mexico City street food.

Pambazo, featuring a savory Mexican bread dipped in chili sauce, filled with potatoes, chorizo and queso and fried, is a favorite. Also of note is alambre, which is steak, ham, bacon with onion, peppers, and cheese.

“It’s the traditional food of Mexico,” Garduño says.

Not so traditional Mexican are vegetarian dishes such as veggie fajitas and spinach enchiladas, which are drawing praise on review sites.

Patrons also receive black bean dip along with salsa for the chips, which is not a common accoutrement in the DFW Tex-Mex scene.

And lest we forget: happy hour, which runs Monday-Friday 11 am-6 pm, Saturday 11 am-4 pm, and Sunday: all day.

tex-mex

Starbucks news

Starbucks to close Dallas office and cut jobs as part of restructuring

Photo courtesy of Starbucks

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Starbucks will close some U.S. offices, including one in Dallas, and will lay off 300 corporate employees and as part of its ongoing turnaround, the company said Friday, May 15.

No coffeehouse employees are affected, the company said. The cuts will impact employees in support functions like marketing, human resources and supply chain management. No international employees are affected for now, but Starbucks said it is also reviewing its corporate structure outside the U.S.

In addition to the Dallas office, at 12750 Merit Dr., Starbucks said it’s also closing underused offices in Atlanta, Chicago, and other cities. The Seattle-based company recently announced that it's opening a corporate office in Nashville, Tennessee, that will employ up to 2,000 people within five years.

Starbucks expects to the moves to result in $400 million in restructuring charges, including $120 million in employee separation benefits.

Starbucks has been trying to reduce costs and complexity under Chairman and CEO Brian Niccol, who joined the company in 2024. Last year, the company laid off 2,000 corporate employees and closed hundreds of stores in the U.S., Canada and Europe.

Niccol said last month that the simplified structure is helping the company innovate more quickly. Starbucks is also investing in its remaining stores to improve customers' experience. It plans to redesign 1,000 U.S. stores this year to give them a cozier, more comfortable feel, and it's also hiring baristas to ensure faster service during busy times.

The efforts appear to be paying off. In the January-March period, Starbucks said its U.S. same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, jumped 7%. Niccol called the quarter “the turn in our turnaround.”

“Our focus now is on sustaining our momentum and making our results repeatable and durable, all while delivering a healthy cost structure that supports profitable growth,” Niccol said during a conference call with investors. “It’s how we turn progress into consistent results.”

starbucks coffee business closure