Dining at the Dutch: Area couple reopen famous Tampico eatery

TAMPICO – It’s always been Butch McNinch’s dream to own his own restaurant.

Today, his dream comes true: He and his wife, Rita, are reopening the Dutch Diner, a familiar and famous fixture in this tiny town, as the renamed R&B Dutch Diner.

They have one goal: to get you full.

“We want people to go home and know they got a great meal,” Rita said. “If you didn’t eat enough, it’s your own fault.”

The McNinches bought the restaurant in September from Beverly Adamson of Tampico; it had been closed a year.

Since then, they have worked around the clock, putting up new drywall, replacing aging or broken kitchen equipment, laying carpet, and adding a large salad bar.

Today, they’ll have a little extra help: “We both come from large families, so family has always been very important to us. When we open, some of our kids and grandkids are going to be on hand as waiters,” Butch said.

He’s not worried about the debut.

“I’ve been in the business so long, and I knew this is something that I can do,” Butch said.

As a kid, he was a meat cutter for a grocery store; later he moved up as a cook in a local restaurant. He and Rita bake desserts and cakes for fancy occasions.

Stan and Alta Headings, now 70 and 72, built the Dutch Diner in 1981. It was named in large part for Tampico-born Ronald Reagan, whose nickname was Dutch, Stan said.

He visited the diner last week and was excited to see the progress.

“I hope that it will be a roaring success,” Stan said. “If nothing else, it will be nice to see the old customers again.”

What brought in the locals and the tourists in droves, Alta said, was the pies.

“We had people coming in from all around to get some pie,” she said. “One time, we even had someone come all the way from France.”

The crowd favorite? Coconut cream.

The McNinches also want to make the best pies possible, so it just might take a little practice.

“We’re just going to have to learn again how to make pies,” Rita said with a laugh.