Jorge Perez-Negron opened Chepa’s Mexican Grill in McKinney in 2023. He said his menu reflects his heritage and the local community.

“Because of the area we are in, we have to be more Tex-Mex than ‘Mex-Mex’,” Perez-Negron said.

On the menu

One of the top selling menu items is Quesabirrias, a birria-style cooked beef folded into corn tortillas with melted cheese. Other popular items include salmon salad, enchiladas and Molcajete—a meal for two people served in a lava rock dish containing salsa verde and panela cheese, topped with beef, chicken fajita, grilled shrimp, sausage and roasted chile.

The setup


When asked why he opened Chepa’s Mexican Grill in McKinney, Perez-Negron's answer includes childhood memories of floating in a gourd across a river in Mexico to attend school, leaving home when he was 11 years old to pursue a better education, becoming a family practitioner in Mexico in 1998 and moving to the United States in 1999.

“Where we lived, we didn’t have hot water. The only thing I knew of the outside world was from my textbooks. That’s how I knew television existed, and different fruits and vegetables existed that we didn’t grow at home,” Perez-Negron said. “I want to give my mom, her nickname is Chepa, whatever she never had, and right now, I feel so grateful that I can provide for her.”

Also of note

Perez-Negron opened Anna’s Mexican Grill in Colleyville in 2014. In 2018, he opened the first Chepa’s Mexican Grill in Allen and three years ago, he opened Macarena Taco Shop & Margarita Bar in Bedford.


In addition to being a restaurateur, Perez-Negron also works in a local medical clinic.