Restaurant News<\/p>\n
Related:4 Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants featured on \u2018Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives\u2019 in 2025<\/p>\n
Initially, the show\u2019s production asked the El Palote crew to make vegan barbecue and gorditas. But when Fieri saw the menu, he asked if they could make vegan tamales instead of barbecue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already had everything prepared for the barbecue and when they asked us to change it, it was a surprise. The good thing is that we had everything to do it,\u201d said Lily. \u201cFieri looked happy. He really liked our food, and that makes us proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only drawback was that Arnulfo, Lily and Aurelio\u2019s second son, did not get to meet Fieri, whom he had watched cooking on television since he was a child.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a detective and that day he was too busy, so he didn\u2019t come to meet his idol. He was very sad,\u201d said Lily.<\/p>\n
The Story Behind El Palote Panaderia<\/h2>\n
The Arias family opened El Palote Panaderia in 2015 in Pleasant Grove after Aurelio suffered a health crisis. Heart failure kept Aurelio in the hospital for several days and during his recovery, he picked up a book his wife purchased a few years earlier about herbs and vegetables.<\/p>\n
\u201cI opened it to the exact page that talked about the PH of blood and how animal products make it more acidic,\u201d Aurelio said. \u201cIt was the last day I ate animal products.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Arias began selling vegan meals to acquaintances and around their neighborhood. Then, they opened their restaurant, which served traditional Mexican food with meat most of the week and vegan food on Thursdays.<\/p>\n But after a visit from some well-known people in the vegan movement in Dallas, the place became popular in that community and Thursdays weren\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were getting lines of people coming in to eat vegan,\u201d Aurelio said. \u201cSo we decided to become 100% plant-based.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, the restaurant has dubbed itself the \u201cHome of the original vegan taco.\u201d Its menu features more than 16 varieties of tacos, such as barbacoa, fajita, chorizo, al pastor, carnitas, or chicharr\u00f3n, as well as vegan Mexican dishes like enchiladas and menudo. The restaurant uses soy as protein.<\/p>\n El Palote is a bakery, too, offering vegan bread without milk, eggs, butter or other animal products.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a familiar scene at many vegan restaurants: a person sits down to eat at a restaurant, but their dining companions don\u2019t order anything because the food isn\u2019t their thing.<\/p>\n That\u2019s something the owners of El Palote Panaderia try to avoid by allowing people to bring their own food if they wish to.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t want this to separate families,\u201d said Lily. \u201cThe vegan option is mostly for health, but we know having good moments with family is also important.\u201d<\/p>\n For almost 10 years, the restaurant has transformed and the Arias with it.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we started, we were very strict about everything vegan, and we carried that on to our extended family. It was a mistake,\u201d Aurelio said. \u201cWe lost friendships and family because you would go to a party or family gathering, and they would look at you funny or bad, and you felt bad.\u201d<\/p>\n El Palote Panaderia: A Vegan Mexican Restaurant Taking the National Stage El Palote Panaderia has become famous locally for serving Mexican vegan dishes and selling vegan bread in Dallas\u2019 Pleasant Grove neighborhood. Next up, it will take the national stage. The spot, located on Buckner Boulevard, will be on \u201cDiners, Drive-Ins and Dives,\u201d Guy Fieri\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":4166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-4165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dining"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/UFW4A6RIUJB6NMU46QJAN4F7E4.jpg?auth=bb1ba202bcec655ea37b7fbfb7680f3a6721d64f8b74a530dfded494c0c3c7e9&height=630&width=1200&smart=true&quality=80","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4167,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4165\/revisions\/4167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/dallas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Vegan](\"https:\/\/dmn-dallas-news-prod.cdn.arcpublishing.com\/resizer\/v2\/TZ2AQW2JXFDWRKG47JDAIKLUWM.jpg?auth=983e37082fe66487c0e3a185a3c69b9e87505cd8c0b5591c02cc290077899421&width=830&quality=80\")
\nVegan fried chicken tenders is served in a box at El Palote, a vegan Mexican restaurant in Pleasant Grove, Dallas, Texas, Thursday, April 17, 2025(Anja Schlein \/ Special Contributor)<\/span><\/p>\nThe Menu and Bakery<\/h3>\n
The More, the Merrier<\/h2>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"