Judge Roy Beans News
Judge Bean's Restaurant & Cantina to reopen in Keller after 8 years
Fajitas at Judge Bean's Restaurant & Cantina
A venerable restaurant name is coming back to life in Keller: Judge Bean's Restaurant Cantina, which serves Tex-Mex and American favorites, will open at 314 N. Main St., in a space with restaurant history — one that includes Judge Bean's itself.
According to owner Carlos Benitez, the newly-revived Judge Bean's will open in late January with a menu featuring Tex-Mex, seafood, Latin dishes, and burgers.
Judge Bean's history in Keller
Judge Bean's first opened at that address in 1993, and thrived for 25 years as a beloved destination for burgers, brisket tacos, margaritas, and live music, hosting performances by many a grateful local musician. The restaurant traded owners over the years; by 2018, the owners were Al Damhour and Carla Beans, who were retiring and shuttered the restaurant.
They sold it to Benitez, owner of a small chain called Tio Carlos Mexican-Latin Grill, which had locations in Colleyville and Irving. Benitez opened a Tio Carlos at the address, but it did not survive the pandemic. The space then became a mom & pop called Kaycee's, which opened in 2024, but closed a year later.
Benitez has returned to take over the location and apparently has decided to capitalize on the goodwill of the Judge Bean's name.
Judge Bean's menu
Benitez is a man of few words, but the menu posted on the website has little similarity to Judge Bean's original menu. Instead, it seems nearly identical to the menu at Tio Carlos, with Tex-Mex dishes such as brisket tacos, burritos, quesadillas, chile relleno, and nachos in six varieties such as bean & cheese or fajitas.
There's queso, tableside guacamole, and Mexican-style seafood dishes such as shrimp & spinach enchiladas or shrimp in garlic butter sauce with poblano rice.
Just like Tio Carlos, the menu has a separate section called "Mas Al Sur" — "further south" — featuring South American dishes such as pupusas from El Salvador (Benitez is originally from El Salvador), along with ropa vieja, the Cuban favorite; the Peruvian beef dish lomo saltado; and lomito Argentino, a sandwich with steak, fried eggs, jack cheese, ham, lettuce, tomatoes, and salsa rosa.
There are also wings, chicken tenders, and a "Mexican cheeseburger" topped with bacon, guacamole, jalapeno tomatoes, and lettuce, served with french fries.
Judge Bean's early history
Judge Bean's was originally founded in 1978 by Dallas restaurateur Johnny Walker, a brash charmer who opened a number of restaurants and bars in the '80s — one in a cast of colorful characters in the Dallas restaurant industry back then, alongside names like Gene Street, founder of the Black-Eyed Pea restaurant chain (among others), and Mariano Martinez, creator of the frozen margarita.
"I was one of original guys behind Chili's, but I broke off before the first one opened," Walker says. "I decided to do my own place, and was going to call it 'Beans.' That's when I first heard of Judge Roy Bean, the Texas saloon-keeper, so I dropped the 'Roy' and named it 'Judge Bean's'."
He opened the first Judge Bean's on Greenville Avenue with a menu centered mostly on burgers — "but the thick ones," he says — along with Tex-Mex basics like nachos. It also had a full bar which, back in those early dry days of Dallas, required that you join a membership club.
"I put a stagecoach out front so you could sit there, it was big with the kids," he says. He went on to open locations in Carrollton, Addison, Garland, and Irving, then sold the chain in 1989 — four years before Keller opened. He eventually retired and moved to Colorado.
"I opened other locations until I had enough that someone would buy me out," he says.
