The Encina restaurant in Dallas’ Oak Cliff neighborhood was named one of the best in the state by the HEB supermarket chain.
The restaurant’s blue corn butterscotch pancake mix took third place in the San Antonio-based restaurant chain’s Quest for Texas Best contest, an annual competition that honors the best goods made in Texas by small businesses.
This selection not only means a $10,000 cash prize, but also a chance for Encina to see his product on HEB shelves across the state.
Encina confirmed this in an Instagram post.
“This has been top secret for the past few months, but @heb has been negotiating with us to distribute our blue corn pancake mix,” the August 10 post said.
Encina wasn’t the only Dallas company recognized by HEB. Half of the 10 finalists were from the region, and five local companies made the shortlist for best in Texas. Other finalists included honey powder from BeeKing, natural sports drinks from HydroNation, frozen stuffed naan bread from Marasi Food and chamoy candies from Sarape Treats.
This was the 11th edition of HEB’s Quest for Texas Best competition. According to a press release, this year’s competition evaluated submissions from 470 entrepreneurs from more than 100 cities in Texas.
The $25,000 grand prize went to Austin-based Birria Queen, which created birria spice bombs, and San Antonio-based Hess Street Foods, the maker of a chorizo spice paste, won $20,000 as first place. Another company from the state capital, the frozen lemonade and sweet tea offerings of Certified Country Lemonade, also based in Austin, took home the $15,000 second prize.
HEB awarded the four winners a total of $70,000.
“Congratulations across the state of Texas to all of this year’s winners and finalists – small businesses that keep our communities vibrant and drive innovation in our state,” said James Harris, senior director of diversity and inclusion and supplier diversity at HE-B.
