Friday, October 02, 2026

Don’t Mess With Tex-Mex

I have been eating Tex-Mex for as long as I can remember (and had the pleasure of introducing the Lovely Wife to it in high school. I remember a long time back these days.). I can comfortably tell Trump that nobody in Texas cares if Talarico is vegan or eats BBQ three times a day and as a midnight snack. But all Texans care about complimentary chips and salsa:
The Trump administration imposed a 17% tariff on Mexican tomatoes in July 2025, ostensibly with the aim of protecting U.S. farmers from foreign competition and boosting domestic production. Mexico accounts for roughly 90% of the tomatoes the U.S. has imported since 2015, worth more than $3 billion, according to a study by Texas A&M University AgriLife Extension Service.

Grocery stores and restaurants were initially able to absorb the higher costs rather than passing them on to consumers. But then, bad weather in Mexico and Florida reduced supplies, and tomato prices jumped to their highest level in two decades.

"As a result, we saw the fresh tomato market jumped to about $80 a box," said Dante Galeazzi, president of the Texas International Produce Association. "We saw, as American consumers, that there was a point in late April and almost the entire month of May, where grocery stores were not carrying tomatoes. So that’s a clear reflection of price elasticity where the buyers just say, ‘You know what? We’re not going to participate.'" Restaurants have held out a few months longer, in large part because customers have become accustomed to free chips and salsa. But food costs overall have spiked roughly 35% over the past two years, in part due to the tariffs.

Kelsey Erickson Streufert, chief public affairs officer for the Texas Restaurant Association, said her members are now dealing with a raft of other escalating expenses.

"The challenge is for our Texas restaurants, they operate on very narrow profit margins in what I would call good economic times," Streufert said, "and right now we’re living in a time of very high costs on food — which is most restaurants’ biggest line item — but also labor, utilities, credit card swipe fees, insurance. Almost everything that it takes to run a restaurant these days is significantly more expensive than it was a year or two ago."
I remember when some “Mexican” restaurant chain (NOT based in Texas) tried to charge for chips and salsa before the meal. It went over like a fart at a funeral. I don’t think they’re even in operation anymore.

There are as many different kinds of Tex-Nex as there are regions in Texas: north Texas; Panhandle; west Texas: East Texas: coastal bend; South Texas; Trans-Pecos. You get the idea. When I lived in Austin there was a local chain of three restaurants (no, not Chuy’s) in South, central, and north Austin; which was a far smaller footprint than it is now. And I swear (still) that you could put me blindfolded in any one of those restaurants, and I could have told which it was. San Antonio is south of Austin, Dallas north, and each restaurant reflected that regional influence. And what all those restaurants throughout the state absolutely have in common is free chips and salsa on the table before you even have a chance to order drinks.

We take our Tex-Mex very seriously.

I’ve gotta be honest; gas, and even diesel, are a bit below national averages down here. Not so low it’s cheap, but we’re a bit better off than we deserve. We aren’t crowing about it, but we know we’re better off. We also feel superior in our access to Tex-Mex; especially when we look at that stuff California thinks is “Mexican food.” So threaten our access to free chips and salsa when we sit down to order a plate of cheese ranch with beef sauce and a side of Mexican rice and refried beans? Well, I’ll just say the person responsible would be wise to stay out of Texas, with or without bodyguards.

We take our Tex-Mex very seriously, and consider free chips and salsa our birthright as Texans.
The San Antonio Business Journal has reported that some restaurants in that city spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on salsa ingredients. That may no longer be sustainable.

"You have restaurants that are simply saying, ‘Look, I can’t afford to put salsa on the tables anymore,'” Galeazzi said. "What are consumers going to do? Where are consumers going to find this relief?"
This could seriously effect the midterms.

Don’t mess with Tex-Mex.
(Be careful what you wish for.)
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