How Mama Ninfa Brought Fajitas to Houston — And the World

The history of fajitas dates back to Mexico in the 1930s. Merchants and farmers traveling back and forth to Texas with cattle were often compensated in the form of less expensive and less desirable cuts of meat. Skirt steak, also known as “fajitas” — a Spanish word loosely translating into “little belt,” referring to the long, thin pieces of meat — was transformed when grilled over coals.

“They made some iconic and beautiful dishes with those cuts,” says Patricia “Patti” Delgado, executive chef of Ninfa’s Uptown location. “For centuries, those traditions stayed.” But fajitas — sizzling skillets of grilled meats — didn’t become a staple of Tex-Mex cuisine until a Houston woman shared it with her community.

Maria Ninfa Rodriguez Laurenzo — best known as Mama Ninfa — was a force to be reckoned with. Born in Harlingen, Texas, in 1924 with family from Monterrey, Mexico, Rodriguez Laurenzo was one of 12 siblings raised in the farmlands of the Rio Grande Valley. She later married her husband, Domenic Thomas Laurenzo, an Italian man from Providence, Rhode Island, before moving to Houston.

“No one worked harder than my parents,” says Mama Ninfa’s daughter, Phyllis Laurenzo Mandola. She remembers her mother and father waking up every morning at 4 a.m. to kickstart the production at their East End wholesale pizza and tortilla factory, Rio Grande Tortilla Company. The job wasn’t glamorous. Laurenzo Mandola says it made the “profit of pennies,” but it helped pay for food and education for her and her siblings.

Things changed drastically for the family when, in 1969, Domenic died suddenly, leaving Mama Ninfa a widow and single mother of five. Laurenzo Mandola, then only 15, says the pizza and tortilla business struggled. Mama Ninfa saw the writing on the wall, but failure was not an option. Mama Ninfa called a family meeting: The family would sell tacos al carbon, she declared. They were the same tortillas stuffed with grilled meats that Mama Ninfa had growing up in the Rio Grande Valley and had seen during her frequent travels back to Mexico. And in 1973, roughly a year before Mama Ninfa turned 50, the Laurenzo family transformed a portion of the tortilla and pizza factory into a 10-table restaurant serving tacos al carbon with Ninfa’s signature green salsa — a combination of tomatillo and avocado. “We did it knowing we’d succeed, but we didn’t think we’d set the world on fire by introducing this type of taco,” Laurenzo Mandola says.

Original Ninfa’s

It took a year and some education for the fajitas to catch on, says Laurenzo Mandola, adding that family had to teach residents how to eat fajitas with their hands. (“They were used to eating crispy tacos”). But lines were soon out the door, and the restaurant quickly filled up with people who became friends, Laurenzo Mandola says. “It was like they were coming to our home,” she says. “That was our philosophy.”

The Laurenzo family had little time to be surprised or celebrate their success. They had to act fast. Laurenzo Mandola says the family moved the tortilla factory, adding more tables to the restaurant, which continued to grow and was fueled — according to restaurant lore — by Mama Ninfa. She brought more ingredients, recipes, and even beautiful dresses and blouses for staff from Mexico, Delgado says.

The “Mama Ninfa” nickname quickly caught on when Maria stepped into a generous, matriarchal role for her staff and the community. “She was very maternal, very loving, and, on top of that, a very great cook,” says Laurenzo Mandola, who remembers her mother inviting children from the neighborhood in for tortillas slathered with butter.

“She knew that’s what it took to make her business successful. She had it in her heart to make people feel welcome with open arms,” says Juan Carlos, a general manager who has worked at the Uptown location for 20 years. But Mama Ninfa was no pushover. “She walked into a room, and you knew you weren’t going to take advantage of this woman. She made you want to work to please her and do a good job,” Laurenzo Mandola says. “It was a special gift.”

Original Ninfa’s

Several other Houston restaurant owners soon followed in Mama Ninfa’s footsteps. “You couldn’t have a Mexican restaurant without fajitas,” Laurenzo Mandola says. Eventually, fajitas and green salsa became a Tex-Mex standard in Houston and around the country, and Mama Ninfa would go on to inspire a whole generation of restaurateurs and chefs.

Tony Mandola, Laurenzo Mandola’s late husband and her brother’s first-grade friend, was one of the first “grillmen” at Ninfa’s. He and Laurenzo Mandola later owned Blue Oyster Bar and Cajun Italian restaurant Tony Mandola’s Gulf Coast Kitchen. Mandola’s brother Vincent Mandola, who died in July 2020, went on to own Nino’s, Vincent’s, Grappino’s, and Pronto Cucinino. His brother Damian Mandola launched Damian’s Cucina Italiana and co-founded the original Carrabba’s, and Mama Ninfa’s oldest son, Roland Laurenzo, opened El Tiempo in 1998. Now with over a dozen locations throughout Texas, El Tiempo has carried on the family’s legacy and similarly introduced the city to the anafre, a tabletop Mexican grill on which the restaurant serves parrillada. Laurenzo Mandola says several Original Ninfa’s employees have also opened restaurants in Mama Ninfa’s honor, some of which have kept her name, including Houston restaurants in Memorial and on Gulf Freeway, as well as in Waco, Texas.

“It was one lady who inspired a lot of people,” Laurenzo Mandola says.

Original Ninfa’s

Today, “every Tex-Mex restaurant has fajitas if they know what’s good for them,” Laurenzo Mandola says. At Ninfa’s, sizzling platters of fajitas are served with homemade tortillas, rice, beans, pico de gallo, sour cream, and guacamole. The recipe is still the same, with skirt steak cooked similarly over a wood-fired grill, which gives the fajita filling its special flavor and noteworthy char. “That’s a part of our culture and our tradition,” Delgado says. “It’s the simplicity of the cooking method that lets the fajita shine on its own. You can smell the wood and the fajita cooking. All of those things are nostalgic.”

Though Ninfa’s is no longer part of the family (the Original Ninfa’s on Navigation was sold to Legacy Restaurants in 2005 following the restaurant’s bankruptcy in 1996), Mama Ninfa’s influence endures. Laurenzo Mandola says she still grapples with her family’s far-reaching influence. She remembers being served fajitas during a 2019 overseas trip to Jordan. “My brother and I looked at each other, and we were like, ‘Oh my goodness,’” she says.

Original Ninfa’s

Stories passed down generations within the restaurant and Houston community continue to describe Mama Ninfa as a pioneer and pillar in the city, one whose generosity, passion, and drive, particularly as a Latina entrepreneur in the 1970s, will never be forgotten. “She was the one who opened doors for other Latinas to take chances and be entrepreneurs. She opened our doors, and I don’t take it lightly. She’s passed down the torch,” Delgado says.

The crux of the restaurant, many say, was Mama Ninfa’s hospitality.

“That’s the heartbeat of the restaurant — her kindness,” Delgado says. It’s something that Delgado says is instilled in the restaurant from the moment diners walk in.

“We want the experience always to be how Mama Ninfa did it,” Delgado says. “It was with so much love.”