ObservanceSaturday, November 6, 2027
National Nachos Day
- Date
- Recurs
- Every year on November 6
- Category
- Food
National Nachos Day falls on November 6 and marks a dish with a well-documented inventor and an undocumented holiday. Nachos take their name from Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, who improvised them at a restaurant on the Mexican side of the Texas border, and they became a stadium fixture three decades later because a San Antonio businessman worked out how to pump cheese. Who chose November 6, and when, is not recorded in any source that can be checked.
History
The dish is named for a person. Ignacio Anaya García was a maitre d' working in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, directly across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. In the version usually told, a group of Army Air Corps officers' wives crossed over in 1943 and stopped at a restaurant called the Victory Club; Anaya could not find the cook, so he took tortilla chips, grated yellow cheese over them, ran the plate under a broiler, and finished it with pickled jalapeños.
That account has a complication worth naming. In The Tex-Mex Cookbook (2004), food writer Robb Walsh quotes a 1961 interview in which Anaya himself placed the dish's birth not at the Victory Club but at El Moderno, another Piedras Negras restaurant. Anaya's own testimony, given while he was alive, is the more primary record; the Victory Club story is simply the version that spread. Texas Highways, reporting both, adds that something like nachos was probably already being made in the region before Anaya lent it his name. The earliest printed recipe anyone has traced is not his: it appears in a 1954 cookbook from the Church of the Redeemer in Eagle Pass, under the name "Nachos Especiales." Anaya died in 1975. Piedras Negras put up a bronze plaque in his honor and declared October 21 the International Day of the Nacho.
The nachos most Americans have eaten are a second invention. In 1976 Frank Liberto, a San Antonio businessman, began selling them at Arlington Stadium, then home of the Texas Rangers. His contribution was not the dish but the cheese: a sauce thin enough to pump and ladle, which made nachos work at a concession window. That season Arlington Stadium sold nachos to one patron in every two and a half, over $800,000 worth, against popcorn's one in fourteen and $85,000. By 1978 nachos were at the Dallas Cowboys' stadium, where Howard Cosell took up the word on Monday Night Football and kept using it for weeks.
Timeline
- 1940s — Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya improvises the dish in Piedras Negras, Coahuila. In a 1961 interview he placed it at El Moderno; the version usually told puts it at the Victory Club in 1943.
- 1954 — A cookbook from the Church of the Redeemer in Eagle Pass, Texas, prints a recipe for "Nachos Especiales," the earliest printed version traced.
- 1975 — Anaya dies. Piedras Negras installs a bronze plaque and declares October 21 the International Day of the Nacho.
- 1976 — Frank Liberto introduces concession nachos with a pumpable cheese sauce at Arlington Stadium, home of the Texas Rangers, and founds Ricos Products Co.
- 1978 — Nachos reach the Dallas Cowboys' stadium, where Howard Cosell uses the word on Monday Night Football.
- 1980 and 1987 — The National Association of Concessionaires names Liberto the "Father of Nachos," then its Man of the Year.
How to observe
Make Anaya's version and the stadium version side by side. The first is fried corn tortilla quarters, grated cheese melted under a broiler, and pickled jalapeños — three ingredients, no sauce, eaten immediately. The second is chips and pumped cheese sauce. They are less variations on each other than two different dishes sharing a name, and tasting them in sequence explains thirty years of food history faster than reading about it.
And treat the dish's nationality as an open question. Chef Adán Medrano argues that nachos are neither Mexican nor Texan but Texas Mexican: the food of a border region that belongs to both countries at once.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented nachos?
Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya, a maitre d' in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, is the person the dish is named for. He is better described as its popularizer than its inventor: similar snacks were likely already being made along the border, and the earliest printed recipe traced is a 1954 Eagle Pass cookbook, not anything of his.
Was it the Victory Club or El Moderno?
Both restaurants appear in the record. The widely repeated story names the Victory Club in 1943; in a 1961 interview, Anaya himself named El Moderno. His own account is the more primary of the two, and this page follows it.
Is November 6 the official nacho day?
Not in any traceable sense. No founding organization, government proclamation, or dated record for November 6 could be found. The date with a documented origin is October 21, the International Day of the Nacho, declared in Piedras Negras in Anaya's honor.
Who invented stadium nachos?
Frank Liberto of San Antonio, in 1976 at Arlington Stadium. The innovation was a pumpable cheese sauce rather than the dish itself, and the National Association of Concessionaires later named him the "Father of Nachos."
Did nachos really outsell popcorn?
At Arlington Stadium that first season, yes, by a wide margin: one order per two and a half patrons and over $800,000, against popcorn's one in fourteen and $85,000.
When is National Nachos Day?
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2027 | November 6 | Saturday |
| 2028 | November 6 | Monday |
| 2029 | November 6 | Tuesday |
| 2030 | November 6 | Wednesday |
| 2031 | November 6 | Thursday |
Sources
- Texas Highways (Texas Department of Transportation), On National Nachos Day, Dig Into the History of the Beloved Dish — https://texashighways.com/travel-news/on-national-nachos-day-dig-into-the-history-of-the-beloved-dish/ → the 1943 Victory Club account; Anaya as maitre d' and the preparation; the dish named for his nickname; Robb Walsh's The Tex-Mex Cookbook (2004) quoting Anaya's 1961 interview naming El Moderno; that nachos were likely made before Anaya named them; Frank Liberto, Ricos and Arlington Stadium in 1976; Adán Medrano on Texas Mexican food.
- Smithsonian Magazine, The History of Baseball Stadium Nachos — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-history-of-baseball-stadium-nachos-53046650/ → the 1943 Victory Club and the army wives; "Nachos Especiales"; the 1954 Church of the Redeemer cookbook in Eagle Pass; Anaya's death in 1975, the Piedras Negras plaque, and October 21 as the International Day of the Nacho; Liberto's pumpable cheese sauce; the one-order-per-2.5-patrons and $800,000 figures against popcorn's one-in-14 and $85,000; nachos at the Dallas Cowboys' stadium by 1978 and Howard Cosell's use of the word.
- Ricos Products Co., About Us (company history) — https://ricos.com/about-us/ → Frank Liberto inventing concession nachos in 1976; nachos first served at Arlington Stadium; the founding of Ricos Products Co.; the National Association of Concessionaires naming him "Father of Nachos" in 1980 and Man of the Year in 1987.
- Not sourced, and therefore not claimed: any origin for the November 6 date. No founding organization, proclamation, or dated record for it could be found.
- Rejected as sources: nationaltoday, nationaldaycalendar, checkiday, timeanddate and similar aggregators. They assert a November 6 origin without evidence, which is the claim this page declines to repeat.
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