Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Arkansas Culture and Characters Browning's bites the dust
Posted by Max Brantley on Wed, Jul 28, 2010 at 12:27 PM
Browning's, a Heights Tex-Mex institution for 60-plus years, has closed.
This time it may be for good.
Read it and weep (or scratch your head) at Eat Arkansas.
Comments (75)
Showing 1-50 of 75
I never ate there as a child, so I don't have any mythology to go by. However, I seldom eat or enjoy the same things that I enjoyed as a child. Luckily, my palate has progressed and is much more open to new things. I do remember eating there as a young adult, and never thought there was much to it. The food always struck me as bland, boring and predictable.
I remember the first time I did come across those that revered the place. The restaurant came up in conversation and I said something mildly disparaging to be met with a tearful response something along the lines of "NO!!! IT'S THE BEST RESTAURANT EVER!!! WE ATE THERE EVERY SUNDAY AND THE SAME WAITRESSES ARE WORKING THERE AND THEY REMEMBER ME BY NAME AND THE MENU HASN'T CHANGED IN ALL THESE YEARS!!!"
mmmmkay.
I never went to the redux of Brownings. I wish the owners and staff well. Good luck if you can re-open. Don't be looking for me though.
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I'm crushed. Best salsa in Little Rock. My favorite was the Nooner Special. Friendly, stable, appreciative staff. Lots of memories all the way back to teenage days of roaming the Heights on Saturdays and the old Heights Theatre. And Moses Melody Shop. Feels like a best friend just left town without even saying goodbye. Damn.
I've heard it was supposed to be good in the past, but I went about a year or 2 ago, and it was horrible. Not surprised they went out of business, surprised it took this long if they let their food go down hill that bad.
Damn, we all knew ActMax was secretly a Mexican and now we don't know where to tell the police to look for him.
As a kid we would ride our bikes to Browning’s, eat cheese dip and drink cokes (out of the bottle) in the bar… yes, Brownings had a bar back then… sorry to see it close… maybe someone will put something in there that can make it… hope so!
It was good when there were no other Messican places in LR. Last time I went, it reminded me that the food wasn't so hot and it was an uncomfortable place.
Not being raised in the Heights, I was never under the mystical spell of Browning's. I ate breakfast there often and always enjoyed that. But the rest of the food was just so-so. But I know any of a number of folks that grew up eating there and swore up and down that Browning's cheese dip sprang from the mind of God although the dip I make at home is better in my opinion.
I'm sorry Browning's is closing but it is not like I will miss it.
I haven't had a craving for the orange & brown food there since the '70s when to my shame I had orange and celery shag carpeting in my apt. But I've started having Sat morning breakfasts there on their shady 'front porch,' served by a hard-working waiter named Peter. That I will miss.
I'm bummed. In fact, have an out of town friend in tonight and we were going to take him there...
I grew up eating Browning's and have always liked it. My kids absolutely love it. Today, I picked them up from swim lessons and told them the bad news. Crushed. They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity before my oldest finally said, "But, Papa...where will I get my tacos?"
I know a lot of folks can't stand the place and like to be food snobs but the Saltillo Plate rocks. Period.
That Brownings survived for as long as it did is amazing. There are now so many better restaurants, although not in that neighborhood. When I was a kid going there with my family it was first rate, but that was decades ago. Still, it wasn't as noisy and raucous as some of the newer offerings, like Cantina Laredo. We went there the other night and it was so damned noisy in there you couldn't hear yourself think. It really detracted from the excellent fare. Still, RIP Brownings. It was an institution.
Used to be any decent size town in Arkansas had a place like Brownings. Panchos of West Memphis and Jonesboro was along those lines. Fort Smith had one. Seems Searcy had a place way out Race Street back when that was the fringe of the town. Brownings though was ground zero for Arkies.
Lots of gooey processed cheese, mystery brown sauce, meat flavored with salt, pepper, and maybe a dash of chili powder. Plenty of diced onions all around.
Seemed exotic for the day but was a very American south rather than southwest take on Mexican food.
The uppity food snobs shamed us out of enjoying the heavy fare but there was an appeal to it. I suspect in a few years, some restaurant reviewer will be smitten by a handsome young chef who proclaims that he is serving Tex-Mex Comfort food and once again it will be all the rage for a few years (at twice the price) until the fad fades again.
I last ate at Brownings a few years ago and it was neither the old Brownings nor the newer version of Tex-Mex served by the rival Hispanic families as quasi-chains around the region rather a murky middle guaranteed to fail to satisfy fans of each.
Grew up in LR but we stayed south of Markham for 99% of my growing up. I have since taken residence north of both Markham and Cantrell.
I have been to Brownings twice. I suppose I had been oversold from tales I had heard from people that went often, back-in-the-day.
The first time maybe 6 or 7 years ago 3 of us went and each had different selections but were amazed that they all looked identical. My oppinion was it would not be considered Mexican by anyone living south of Canada.
I thought that one trip could have been a fluke, I had heard so many people rave about the place.
So, after a AT report about a year ago about Brownings (I think it changed hands or something) wife and I went once more. Ordered the vaunted Saltillo Plate, same outcome. Bland.
Growing up south of Markham, and even south of 12th, I am reminded of Casa Bonita. Now that was Mexican! They had soppa pias (sp?) and little flags on the table to raise so a 14 year old watress would come back over. Their punch was red and good! A guy with a fat guitar would come around and play some fancy foreign music.
They even had a little cave room where kids could buy some after dinner candy.
Now after hearing people talk about Brownings I am pretty sure that if I went back to Casa Bonita I would be similarly be let down by what I found.
Isn't there a quote "you can never go back home"? I think this is why that is said.
I now know not to go back to get cotton candy at War Memorial Park, nor pixie sticks or candy cigarettes at Louies Neighborhood Grocery, nor a rootbeer in a mug at Frostop, and especially not back to get a Combo Platter at Casa Bonita.
There is no possible way the present could compete with what I would surely have in memory banks from childhood in 60/70's.
Maybe the quick quiet closing was done as service to those with ancient memories so that there was not a chance for one last visit for old time's sake which could wreck the loving rememorances.
Ah, sopapillas. Why can't anyone do them as well as Casa Bonita used to? I could so totally go for a plateful right now, with a nice squeeze bottle of honey. When I was a kid I could eat my weight in the little puffy pastries.
Sadly, my favorite local Mexican restaurant doesn't quite get this one dish right. Does anyone, any more?
And we need to bring back the flags-on-the-table idea. Save a lot of confusion and hurt feelings.
Citizen1 is spot on.
There'll be much whining and gnashing of teeth by old Heights folks and those who pretend to be, but how many of them actually ate there in the last year? If you want to miss something in the Heights, I'd miss and bemoan the loss of all the great cottages, bungalows and estates that have all been bulldozed in favor of more-expensive mediocrity. A real neighborhood for real people is certainly worth missing and reminiscing over, but some crappy brown-and-yellow...?
I was never a big Browning's person but it does remind me - where can one get Tex-Mex these days in Central Arkansas? Authentic Mexican just doesn't satisfy the way Tex-Mex can
Casa Bonita always makes me think of South Park and the one time I ate there?
Not good.
I like the Mexican place over in Otter Creek.
I first ate at Brownings in the late 50s. This was when they still had Little Rock High School schedules on the wall instead of Razorbacks. Through the 60s, 70s and 80s the food was unchanged. I loved it. About a month ago I talked my spouse, who hated the place, into paying it a visit. What a letdown. The salsa, or hot sauce if you like, was awful. The room had been remodeled in knotty pine and the wide screen TV on the wall was playing the WWE. The food was so so, not the Brownings of old. It reminded me of the disaster that Mexico Chiceto
From when I was born until I was 8 my family lived very close to Brownings, and it was my introduction to "Mexican" food. Hard to hate a bland ground-beef taco when you're a kid. Family lore included the time I fell over in my high chair at age 18 months or so (I'll be 51 next month). Moved to Bryant at 8 and quickly found El Cena Casa, the Benton equivalent run by the King family (Mrs. King had worked at Browning's). More "brown with cheese" through my teen-aged years. In Teeny League and Little League years, I used to go there in my baseball uniform after games. Good times. But not great food, frankly. "Good" is a comparative term, and I've had much better since those days. Just the way it is. But Browning's closing is still sad simply because of its place in LR restaurant history.
---Mexico Chiquito became after the owners sold to the fast food chain. In Little Rock Tex/Mex was popular. Not just Brownings and Mexico Chiquito but also El Patio. They're all gone now and Juanita's is the closest thing left in LR
I soiteny ain't no food snob, but even I used to joke that the Browning's food (no matter which "plate" you ordered) ALL came from two spigots in back: one that dispensed brown goo and one that dispensed orange/yellow goo.
I am an 0'Niner, and I don't remember EVER going to Browning's as a kid. Not that Browning's, anyway. We did occasionally go to Browning's El Patio, the little offshoot between Mabelvale Pike and "the highway" (University Ave.), because it was close to home. They served the same food, as far as I know, and we liked it mainly because it was exotic in the sense that Mom or one of the Frankes didn't cook it. We'd even get it to go sometimes, and I remember the chips coming in grease-spotted brown paper bags. At some point Casa Bonita came on the scene, and that was that. When Dad could raise the flag 14 times at no extra charge, that's all she wrote.
As an adult I went to (the original) Browning's in the Heights a few times, and tried it a few more times after it changed hands. The food itself was never the draw for me--the Tex-Mex fare or the gringo breakfast offerings either one. I liked the feel of the place. Although totally different places, it felt a little like the original Pete's Place in Fort Smith, a plate lunch/burger joint in the old part of town. The waitresses were older ladies, and you knew that many of the clientele knew each other, and came on their regular days...the Smiths on Tuesday nights, the Joneses on Fridays, etc. I like a good neighborhood restaurant, and I guess Browning's was the one nearest my current home.
I'll miss it--not as much as rosso and other staunch regulars--but it's a part of Little Rock that will be gone forever. Makes me think of the Grady Manning and the Marion Hotels.
What I will miss is slipping thru the drive thru window and picking up a pint of Cordells potato salad for dinner!
Big Fun,
then you must remember El Cena Casa (before) they built the new big fancy building across the freeway? I remember waiting in line outside on a Friday night.
Also, Pancho's, between Benton and Hot Springs, was always a routine stop after a day in the Spa City.
I remember El Cena Casa, too. My dad knew Mr. King, and I knew just enough Spanish to be bothered by the masculine article paired with the feminine noun. Not to mention that it didn't seem grammatically correct. I think it is supposed to mean "The house that has dinner." I wonder if houses ever have Mexican food for dinner?
Sorry. Off on another tangent.
After my mom's funeral, all of us, but an Aunt and Uncle who tended to be bossy, gathered at Brownings in the back of the large room and had what amounted to a "wake" since most of us lived in different states and would be leaving in the next few days heading back. There was only one other young couple on our side and we told them that their bill was on us as we had adopted them since they had to put up with the fun we were having. Lots of memories of Brownings and, in fact, our Family Reunions have gotten so small, with the loss of everyone from our parent's generation, that we joked about forgetting the cooking and meeting at Brownings instead.
BTW, anyone remember the Mexican food at Island X which was at the location I think is now called the "ice house"?
The Ice House in Hillcrest is not the building Island X was in as it burned.
Who remembers Charlie Brown's Cow Shed out on Cantrell. Eat a big steak, get set ups and drink whiskey with the meal.
Last I checked, there are still Casa Bonita restaurants in Tulsa and Denver. They have "cliff" divers, mariachi bands, clowns, etc.
Lordy, what a thread. As I said on last night’s Open Line, I shall not miss Brownings. I do, however, still miss the Mexico Chiquito of old, the one out at Protho Junction in NLR. Now, THAT was TexMex, imo.
There are lots of other great old Little Rock restaurants and hangouts that, sadly enough, are gone with the wind and I greatly mourn the loss of ‘em all. They include Hank’s Dog House, The Cow Shed, Lido Inn, Granoff’s, Ole King Cole, The Little Brown Jug, The Gallery, The Ancestor, Brier’s, Jacques and Suzanne, and the all night, every night coffee shop at the Marion Hotel where I fell in love with every waitress under the age of 80.
Lots of other splendid old LR watering holes where a younger Durango had great times have hit the dust, too. Those places include but certainly aren't limited to the Cadillac Club, the Gar Hole, the Drummer’s Club, the Pink Pussycat, the 1600 Main (we’ll never forget that drunken tabletop performance, Billy Mo!), the Gaslight Club, the Tia-Wanna, and the Wine Cellar. A fella sho’nuff could get into some trouble at a couple of those places.
The world spins on, but sweet old times at sweet old places won’t be forgotten!
Here's the website for the Casa Bonita in Denver (Lakewood):
http://casabonitadenver.com/index.htm
The "cliff" divers dive alongside a 30-foot tall waterfall inside the restaurant.
hugh mann, you are so right about Pete's Place! It had such a great feel and the food was very good. Too many places like that are long gone now.
Martine opened another place called Re-Pete's. The food was just as good but it was just too 'new'. You know what I mean?
Then he went and opened Three-Pete's. Same deal.
We'd always go to the original. It was just so well 'seasoned'.
It nearly broke my heart when he closed it down.
I think the only one open now is the second one, Re-Petes.
Is that right, DBI?
Brownings is where I grew up with friends eating cheese dip, saltillo plates and going to the Heights movies. It was just as much a part of my adult life as we had our 50 year Hall High Reunion there. Wow, how sad to see it go. A great piece of Heights history there. Goodbye Old Friend.....Judy
Bummer----big time! The last time I got so bummed out was when Island X closed. Brownings was more than just a restaurant. It was a cultural icon for our fair city. Sitting on the patio, sipping that Dos Equis on tap and munching on chips and salsa was a unique experience unrivaled in the modern world. Brownings was to Little Rock as Dr. Watson was to Sherlock Holmes---that one constant in an ever changing world. Little Rock won’t quite be Little Rock anymore.
Hillcrest - I believe couldn't is talking about 1950's for Island X in that building. Believe it was on the second floor.
When I was little I remember that Island X was a big night for my Mother. She would get dressed up and they would pop for a babysitter and everything. I remember sitting in the floor while she put on earrings and did her face.
"Daddy and I are going to Island eccccckkkkkkks"
It was a big deal for her.
Citizen1 - You might remember the rampant rumors going around the school play yards - Casa Bonita was using Alpo dog food in their meals. The situation got so bad that the company had to air a TV commercial in order to assure the public that the rumors were false.
Casa Bonita's food was not very good, but it was generally better than Browning's.
Citizen ... you've got me by two days. I was born August 16. The day I turned 18, Elvis died. I had become an adult (sort of) and the world was no longer big enough for both of us. Yes, Sadie, this was the El Cena Casa in the tiny pink building that now is painted brown and is home to a tax service, last time I looked. And I remember fondly the Mexico Ka-cheetah at Protho/Prothro Junction. Remember in high school getting the deluxe Mexican plate for $1.99. Talk about "brown with cheese," that epitomized it. Get it to go and it came in two cardboard plates secured by those cool little grippy metal clips. I'd still eat one of those goo platters were it available.
With Brownings gone I guess 'Cheers in the Heights' will be my new official headquarters.
Everybody knows that the public's tastes change in music, architecture, fashion, art, advertising, automobiles, and running shoes change over time. Our culinary tastes are no different.
Contrary to popular pronouncements, what doomed Browning's weren't the changes the new owners made. What doomed Brownings was that they gave in to people's protestations and didn't change it enough.
Aaah Durango, Remember the LR Ginning Company, and then Bennigan's '[still the best nachos ever] and what about the place on Rebsamen Park Road that served the Irish Soda Bread? Leather Bottle!
Also, the place in Breckenridge Village that had all the rooms? John Barleycorns....but best of all, Buster's, now that was the place to go to see and "be seen". Remember the great Brunch they had on Saturday?
I didn't grow up in Little Rock. Although Brownings was a Heights icon and had a cult following with some, I wasn't impressed the very few times I ate there. Probably because Brownings was the "first" and for those folks of a certain era, it was "good enough" for them.
IMHO, time as passed Brownings by. There are far too many authentic and true Tex-Mex joints in Central Arkansas. Brownings just got lost in the shuffle and didn't change with the times.
Sixty years, even if under different management, of the same basic concept and fare is pretty rare in the brutal restaurant business. Wonder if Brownings was the "Gunsmoke" of LR dining establishments. Or Franke's maybe? Or perhaps some little place in the Heights I've never heard of.
"Aaah Durango, Remember the . . ."
Lordjess, Nanc! I remember all those great old places. Loved the Leather Bottle and Buster’s. And, of course, The Embers. Remember it? It was right there at University and Markham.
The Embers with its chefs broiling those great steaks right before your very eyes in LR’s first upscale open kitchen. Can still hear those steaks sizzlin’!
Don’t ask me why, but I’ve had the old coffee shop at the Marion on my mind all night. I was a young single guy just out of the UA and living downtown back then. If I didn’t have a date, I’d often walk down to the Marion late at night for a cuppajoe and the first edition of the Gazette which would just have rolled off the press.
I’d read the paper and shoot the breeze with Stella or Lila Jean, young girls who usually worked the 11-7 shift. They’d often cry on my shoulder about the guys they were dating and I’d suggest they just marry me and be done with it.
Have often wondered what became of them. Young girls then, grandmothers now, I’m sure. I always think of ‘em when I hear this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWx5OX9Vqgk
When I was raised, I was told not to say anything at all about a restaurant that had died if you couldn't say something nice. So ...
Durango--I'd forgotten about the Marion Hotel and went looking for some information and found these pictures of the implosion. Check this out:
http://www.jamesmskipper.us/hotel1.html
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