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Food

Historic Tex-Mex restaurant El Corazon, uprooted from Oak Cliff, has reopened in McKinney

One of Dallas' most storied Tex-Mex families has found a new home in the suburbs.

The decades-old building that housed El Corazon de Tejas in Oak Cliff was

dramatically bulldozed in May 2017

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, to the despair of some residents who considered it part of the neighborhood's history. It's time for new memories for the Cuellar family, this time in McKinney.

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has officially opened on Feb. 1 south of 380 on North Central Expressway in McKinney. That's 35 miles north.

The McKinney restaurant, owned and operated by John and Gilbert Cuellar Jr., moves into an old El Chico, the brand the Cuellar family started in 1940. If you'll remember, the (now gone) El Corazon in Oak Cliff was also formerly an El Chico.

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When El Corazon closed in 2017, Gilbert promised they'd look for a new place "to continue to proudly serve our family's recipes for generations to come," he says in a statement.

El Corazon Vintage Tex-Mex is now located at 1222 N. Central Expressway, McKinney.

Here's one last look at El Corazon in Oak Cliff.
Here's one last look at El Corazon in Oak Cliff.(Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)