Restaurant
Matt's El Rancho
Layered queso dip hiding taco meat and guacamole beneath melted chile con queso, invented on the spot for a regular customer.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Matt's El Rancho in Austin follows the afternoon a Texas land commissioner walked into the kitchen demanding something off the menu, and the teenage cook, Matt Martinez junior, who took it as a challenge. It traces the restaurant to the ten-table cafe the Martinez family opened in nineteen fifty-two, and the improvised bowl of layers built from one customer's complaint. You'll hear what that customer did with the recipe afterward. Listen with a bowl in front of you, and dig past the top layer before you judge it.
This audio guide was created using AI.