How Diana Madrid Continued One of San Antonio’s Best-Known Burger Traditions

Diana's Burgers is more than another neighborhood burger restaurant in San Antonio. The restaurant is owned by Diana Madrid, sister of the late Chris Madrid, and carries forward a family connection to one of the city’s best-known burger traditions. That story goes back to 1977, when Chris Madrid returned to San Antonio after graduating from the University of Texas and opened a small restaurant called Chris Madrid’s Tacos and Burgers. Burgers quickly became the main attraction, and the restaurant eventually became known simply as Chris Madrid's. Diana was closely involved with the family business for decades. According to reporting from the San Antonio Report, she worked at her brother’s restaurant for about 40 years, making her part of the operation long before she had a restaurant of her own. Chris Madrid died in 2012 at the age of 61. His family continued operating the restaurant for several years before selling it, along with the naming rights, in 2017. The sale marked a major change for a restaurant that had remained closely associated with the Madrid family for four decades. Diana eventually decided to start something of her own. She began pursuing plans for a restaurant on North Zarzamora Street near Woodlawn Lake, moving into a building that had previously housed another burger restaurant. In January 2019, Diana’s Burgers officially opened at 2202 N. Zarzamora St. Although the two restaurants share family history and a recognizable style of burger, Diana’s is an independent business and is not affiliated with the current ownership of Chris Madrid’s. The family influence is easy to recognize in the food. Diana’s serves large, flat-top burgers with melted cheddar that often spills well beyond the edges of the bun. The menu includes straightforward cheeseburgers, jalapeño cheddar burgers and a San Antonio favorite, the bean burger. Diana’s version combines a beef patty with refried beans, cheddar cheese, tortilla chips, pico de gallo and salsa fresca. The menu even identifies the Bean Burger as “Diana’s Favorite.” Hand-cut fries are another part of the restaurant’s identity. Rather than trying to turn the family burger style into something modern or upscale, Diana kept the menu relatively simple and focused on the kind of burgers San Antonians had already associated with the Madrid family for decades. The restaurant itself has its own personality. Its bright pink exterior on North Zarzamora makes it difficult to miss, while the atmosphere inside remains casual and neighborhood-focused. Over time, Diana’s has also hosted events such as karaoke nights and developed into a gathering place for families on San Antonio’s West Side. In 2025, Diana’s story received recognition from the Texas House of Representatives. House Resolution 1131 recognized Diana Madrid for her contributions to the San Antonio community, noting that she opened the restaurant to continue the legacy of her late brother and had created a place where local families could gather. That family connection is what separates Diana’s from being simply another burger stop. Chris Madrid helped establish a distinctive style of San Antonio burger beginning in the 1970s. Diana spent decades working alongside that tradition, then eventually opened a restaurant under her own name after the original family business changed ownership. Today, Diana’s represents a separate chapter of the same family story. The restaurant does not try to hide its connection to Chris Madrid, but it also has developed an identity of its own on the West Side. More than 45 years after Chris Madrid first started serving burgers in San Antonio, the Madrid family’s influence can still be found in a pink building on North Zarzamora, where Diana continues serving the big, cheese-covered burgers that helped make the family name part of San Antonio food history.