hey y’all!
We can’t wait to open and start serving y’all every day at our Durham location! If you’ve been to Winston-Salem and eaten with us at The Porch, Alma or East of Texas, you may already know our story, but if not, here’s a little background!
I’m Claire Calvin, and I’m a six-generation Texan from Houston, with family spread across the state far and wide. I always assumed that I’d make my home, raise my family and build a community in Texas, but you know what they say about that. So in 2007, when my husband finished his medical training and we moved to North Carolina for his job, I figured it wouldn’t be long before I figured out a way to convince his Philadelphia-raised self to move to Texas somehow. But wouldn’t you know it, we loved North Carolina and our kids started growing up and thriving, so before we knew it, we couldn’t imagine leaving. However, as anyone who knows Texans or is a Texan will understand, even more than my family back home, I was missing Tex-Mex & Texas BBQ. Being homesick for food might sound a little crazy to anyone who hasn’t lived in Texas, but it’s a real condition, and it can only be treated by frequent exposure therapy to our beloved cuisine. Ask any of us ex-pats around the world outside, and you’ll hear stories of Texans going to great lengths to ship Velveeta and Rotel to foreign countries, tote HEB tortillas home in our suitcases and gorging ourselves on guacamole & margaritas when we go back for a visit.
But there I was, living all the way over here east of Texas, and wondering how I could be perfectly happy in this wonderful state without Tex-Mex. So in 2010, for some crazy reason, I got the idea to start a Tex-Mex meal delivery business for families and friends with busy lives, families and careers who might like a taste of Texas goodness on their dinner tables too. I started Dinners on the Porch with a few favorite meals I love to cook – enchiladas, fajitas, guacamole, my grandmother’s queso recipe, salads, fresh margarita mixes, salsa and a few other things that just always made me feel like I’m at my favorite restaurant back home or sitting outside at my favorite ice house drinking cold beer & eating from a food truck.
What started as a lifeline for my own need for Tex-Mex quickly grew into something that families all over Winston-Salem looked forward to eating every Tuesday night when we delivered fresh, hand-made Texas specialties to their porches. A few years later, Dinners on the Porch needed a real home, so we opened The Porch in 2014 and found out just how much North Carolina loves Tex-Mex and margaritas (a lot).
Since then, our company has grown, then shrunk (thank you, Covid!), and grown again. In 2023 we opened East of Texas to bring central Texas BBQ flavors to Winston-Salem and paired them with all of our favorite Tex-Mex dishes, creating North Carolina’s first (and only!) Tex-Mex BBQ joint! And now, after learning quite a few lessons – both good and bad – we were thrilled when our friends at American Tobacco asked if we might want to bring some of the magic a little further east of Texas.
We cannot wait to open our doors & meet you, Durham! See you in August!!
