Photography by Kathy Tran
El Jordan feels like home, where aunts and grandmas will rock your baby while you eat.
After 24 years in the Bishop Arts District, the owners and staff of the Mexican café have seen littles grow up, go to college and bring their own babies to breakfast.
Through first dates, pregnancies, divorces and deaths, El Jordan has been there with personal kindness that’s as comforting as the food.
“Mr. José would always come out to say ‘hello.’ He and Ms. Lorena would stop on the street to greet us when we ran into them,” neighbor Sara Gradual Vivona says. “The whole staff always remembers our names and little things about the kids to make them feel special.”
Owner José Gonzalez died of cancer in August 2019 at age 62. When he and wife, Lorena, needed help to cover medical costs, Oak Cliff came through, raising $33,000 in a few weeks.
After taking time to grieve, Lorena reopened El Jordan with her dedicated staff. “It’s hard,” she says of running the restaurant without her husband. “There’s always something.”
But she’s still doing it with a smile, and the food is always greatness: flavorful caldo de res full of tender veggies, $2 breakfast burritos, migas a la Mexicana and chiles rellenos with chicken and cheese. Many Oak Cliffers recommend the pancakes and oatmeal as well.
Kimberlyn Crowe lived a few blocks away while on bed rest for the last three months of her pregnancy.
“My husband walked to El Jordan five times a week to bring me bacon, egg and cheese breakfast tacos and a side of frijoles,” she says. “And god help the man if he forgot the frijoles!”
Vivona and her husband are among the many who have left their babies in the arms of the staff while they ate.
Her sons, Nick and Luke, now 12 and 10, are El Jordan kids. They even donated their birthday money to the fundraiser for José.
In a neighborhood full of great restaurants, El Jordan is your favorite chef ’s favorite place.
“I have lost count of the number of breakfast burritos that we’ve ordered to-go and the number of migas a la Mexicana that we’ve eaten at what I consider ‘our table,’” says Jennifer Uygur, co-owner of Lucia and Macellaio.
Open since 1996, El Jordan is the oldest business in the Bishop Arts District, besides the funeral home. And it belongs to the neighborhood in a way that can’t be manufactured.
“We love all the people,” Lorena Gonzalez says. “They keep us going.”
