LITTLE ROCK — Jalapeno-shaped Christmas lights dangled from the bright-orange awning, but Browning’s Mexican Grill in the Heights neighborhood of Little Rock was anything but festive Wednesday.
A sheet of paper taped to the door announced to would-be customers, some of whom have made Browning’s their lunch spot for decades: “Closed. I have been deported~Don Pablo.”
Don Pablo, a statue that stands in Browning’s entrance, is the restaurant’s sombrero-wearing mascot. His cult following includes more than 200 fans on Facebook.
The lunchtime activity on Wednesday was in the back, where men came and went, collecting food for Women and Children First, a local shelter. The front door was locked.
David Ashmore, who was part of the group that purchased the restaurant from the Phelan family in 2007, said he hopes the closure is just temporary. But he said he did not know when Browning’s might reopen, or who would be running it.
“We’re just trying to regroup. ... We’re exploring our options,” Ashmore said.
As for potential buyers, “There’s always interest in Browning’s. There’s a lot of nostalgia there.”
Browning’s was one of Little Rock’s first Mexican restaurants, if not the first, Ashmore said. John Todd Browning opened the restaurant in 1946. He sold it to his son-in-law, Boyd Montgomery, in 1959, who in turn sold it to Don Phelan in 1968. The restaurant has been at itsoriginal location, at 5805 Kavanaugh Blvd., for its entire run.
Alma Deason, who has worked at Browning’s for 25 years, said she hopes the restaurant will reopen.
She has watched her customers grow up over the years, coming back with their own children and grandchildren.
“I’ve [raised] lawyers and doctors and everything,” she said. She remembers her own doctor as a boy.
Tax data from the Little Rock Advertising and Promotion Commission indicates that Browning’s took in $787,829 in 2009, an increase of more than $100,000 from its 2008 taxable receipts. In 2009, the restaurant was in the top third of permitted food-service businesses in the city by that measure.
Browning’s latest owners updated the menu and expanded the restaurant’s traditional “Ark-Mex” offerings.Crowd favorites such as the Saltillo plate, which includes a meat taco, a cheese taco smothered in melted cheese, and a cheese enchilada with refried beans and rice, stayed on the menu as well.
But Ashmore said the restaurant was not turning a profit.
“There’s no question we closed because we were operating at a loss and had some management issues, and we’re just trying to correct them before we continue on,” he said.
Ashmore purchased Browning’s as a member of Vintage Eats LLC, a group that included Wally Rowland and Richard Harrison, who owns Pizza Cafe on Rebsamen Park Road. Harrison left the partnership after the first year, Ashmore said.
The Arkansas Secretary of State’s office revoked Vintage Eats’ incorporation last month for failure to pay its franchise tax obligation. When asked, Ashmore said it must have been an oversight and that he had not heard anything about the action before it was brought to his attention Wednesday.
The restaurant is known as much for its atmosphere and role as a neighborhood gathering spot as for the food.
“I’m in shock; it’s like somebody died. It’s like a family member died,” said Jerry Hood, who owns Jerry’s Barbershop, close by on Kavanaugh. Hood said he is good friends with other regulars, many of whom live and work in the area.
“I went there every day for 40 years to eat lunch ... except the days I didn’t work,” Hood said. Some days, he’d also bring dinner home from Browning’s for himself and his wife.
“I may have to start bringing my lunch,” Hood said.
Business, Pages 23 on 07/29/2010