Matt’s Rancho Martinez is set to reopen in its new location soon, as we reported last week. A couple of readers asked whether the mural from the old Matt’s is moving to the new place, at La Vista and Skillman.
Rick Timmons, who painted this mural, says he is giving some updates to the painting, which has moved three times already and will have a place in the new Matt’s.
“People familiar with the painting will notice the changes,” Timmons says. He wouldn’t give any details, but he says he’s adding a longtime friend of Matt Martinez’s, as well as some reference to the old Matt’s location, next to the Lakewood Theater.
Timmons’ business, Loco Gringo Studios, was next door to Matt’s at the time he painted the mural. Alongside fictional Texas characters, including Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones as Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call, there’s James Dean as Jett Rink and Clark Gable, all Texaned up, maybe as Devereaux Burke in “Lone Star.”
But there are less famous characters. Matt Martinez is in the center, and his son is behind him. Stella Martinez is dancing with Elvis. The legendary sports writer and editor Blackie Sherrod is to the right of Elvis. More local sports media notables are on the right side of the mural, Randy Galloway and Dale Hansen.
Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, who used to be a regular at Matt’s, is sheriff of the mural.
Martinez says the mural is moving to the new space, along with chandeliers from the old place.
“It’s a little bit of old with the new,” he says.
