Death of an Icon

[jhawks99]

Don Chilito's is closing.

https://fox4kc.com/business/popular-joh ... -business/

Here's a review my buddy Zeemanb and I did in 2007.
Zeemanb and I ditched work this afternoon. It was a nice sunny Friday and we couldn't think of anything better to do than play hooky from work and kill our stomachs. He starts to IM me about leaving early and heading to Don Chilito's Fine Mexican Cuisine. I think he's kidding and say, "I will if you will".

I didn't think they could really be as bad as I remember, they've been in business since I was a kid, they must be doing something right, right?

We walk in and notice the place is clean with new paint even, but there's an odor. Not a Mexican food odor though. I'm thinking, "Get a couple of tacos and get out". Z says, "I'm getting the Juarez Platter, and if you don't get a platter you're a wuss." I get the Combo Platter, a taco, tostada, cheese enchilada, chile relleno, rice and beans. Plus you get free sopapillas and all the chips and salsa you can eat at the help yourself bar.

This is all served cafeteria style, you walk up, place your order and watch them assemble it. Chile relleno is taken from the reach-in and put on a plate, as is the enchilada. Its then put into one of the 6 or 7 industrial microwaves for no more than a minute. The cheese is all melted and the food is steaming when it exits the 'wave. The whole mess is slid onto a hot platter and handed to me.

The taco was fine, pre-fab fried corn tortilla stuffed with ground beef, lettuce and cheese. The tostada was the same thing only flat and had beans on it. The chile relleno was weird. It was a small burrito thingie with a strip of canned green chile and some white cheese in it. I ate it all. We laughed throughout the whole ordeal at the true horrible-ness of the food. I was ready to go. Z said we had to eat the sopapillas. These things had been sitting around since the Carter Administration. How do you eff up fried bread? Oh man. Easily the worst part of a truly bad meal.

Odd thing (well one of them), was that the place was busy at 3:00pm on a weekday. Lots of to-go orders and several people at tables. Normal looking people. The kind that should know better. This place is an anomaly that I will never understand. I just have to eat there every decade or so. I have to go now, I'm not feeling well. Rick Bayless, you have nothing to worry about from Don.

[CrimsonNBlue]

A Mission, Kansas, business owner says he’ll consider closing his doors if he’s forced to follow the governor’s orders that his customers and workers wear a mask.

Don Chilitos has been on Johnson Drive for nearly 50 years and they are one of the only businesses in Johnson County to flatly refuse to follow the orders.

The owner of Don Chilitos told KCTV5 News he doesn’t believe masks prevent the spread of the coronavirus. He doesn’t believe that many people are actually dying of COVID-19 and he says he has no plans to force the workers who handle food or his customers to wear a mask.

“I feel it’s an encroachment on my civil liberties my freedom I think it’s unconstitutional,” owner of Don Chilitos, Barry Cowden said.

Cowden isn’t holding back.

“I think there comes a time when our liberty is attacked as it is being that there comes a time when a man has to draw the line in the sand," said Cowden.

And for Cowden, that line in the sand is being “forced” to protect the health of his customers by wearing a mask.

Until recently, Cowden says he proudly hung a sign from his door letting customers know masks are not required here.

. . .

KCTV5 News asked Cowden point blank how would he feel if one of the people in his restaurant today died of COVID-19, would he feel any sense of responsibility?

He said he didn't think that would ever happen.

Cowden does spend extra time sanitizing tables, believing COVID-19 spreads much more on surfaces than through anything that comes out of your mouth.

It is important to note, science does not back him up on that claim.

[Deleted User 89]

free-dumb

[jhawks99]

I was hoping to avoid the whole mask thing this idiot used as a marketing tool and focus on "how the hell did he manage to stay in business for 50 years server that crappy food?"

[Sparko]

Chalupa Big Top was pretty good when I was a lad.

[CrimsonNBlue]

I was hoping to avoid the whole mask thing this idiot used as a marketing tool and focus on "how the hell did he manage to stay in business for 50 years server that crappy food?"

I'd guess that nearly every metropolitan has a restaurant or two that survived the chain takeover of the 90's/00's and stayed open for decades based on nostalgia. Then you make your way back there and don't remember the food being so bad. Some of those places are also those that no one outside of the metro really understand. Taco Via comes to mind for KC. Strouds, sadly, as well.

And then, of course, some are fronts for tax evasion.

[twocoach]

One other thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of Midwesterners who like crappy Mexican food better than authentic, good Mexican food. The Midwest in general is not a haven for spicy, flavorful food eaters.

[CrimsonNBlue]

The Midwest in general is not a haven for spicy, flavorful food eaters.

Not a lot of generalizations work, but this one works like a machine.

[jhawks99]

Yeah, Mrs 99 prefers On the Boarder to anything approaching real Mexican food.

Reading back through some of my old DC stuff (not sure why I'm fascinated with this place) I remembered that a guy I used to work with at The Cornucopia in Lawrence worked at DCs prior that.

If I remember correctly, he said that DCs beans were from a powder. Boil water, add bean powder and stir with a power drill fitted with a whisk bit.

[jfish26]

One other thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of Midwesterners who like crappy Mexican food better than authentic, good Mexican food. The Midwest in general is not a haven for spicy, flavorful food eaters.

Mrs. Fish and I like both (1) authentic, flavorful "real" Mexican food and (2) crappy strip mall "Mexican" food (with nuclear-green margs).

[Deleted User 89]

One other thing to keep in mind is that there are a lot of Midwesterners who like crappy Mexican food better than authentic, good Mexican food. The Midwest in general is not a haven for spicy, flavorful food eaters.

Mrs. Fish and I like both (1) authentic, flavorful "real" Mexican food and (2) crappy strip mall "Mexican" food (with nuclear-green margs).

you aren’t alone

[CrimsonNBlue]

Kind of like Chinese food, you need both.

[twocoach]

The Midwest in general is not a haven for spicy, flavorful food eaters.

Not a lot of generalizations work, but this one works like a machine.

When my wife says that food is spicy, I have to ask "Is it Nebraska spicy or actually spicy?"

[jfish26]

The Midwest in general is not a haven for spicy, flavorful food eaters.

Not a lot of generalizations work, but this one works like a machine.

When my wife says that food is spicy, I have to ask "Is it Nebraska spicy or actually spicy?"

My wife thinks more than a sprinkle of black pepper makes something "spicy."

[TDub]

I put black pepper on everything. Everything. except pizza....maybe ill try that.

[Overlander]

Wife and I met for dinner at one of favorite spots, and our first choice for mexican food.

It is a higher end place, specializing in Yucatan style cuisine (lots of veggies, grilled sea food, the sauces are the real stars). Always top notch, friendly service.

Tonite, horrific. Service was suprisingly bad. Food was reminiscent of prison grub, drinks were weak.

With thier lease expenses, not busy at 6 pm.....

[jhawks99]

One of the top 10 spiciest dishes I've tried is the black pepper chicken at Bo Ling's. Wow.

[pdub]

Your top 10 Lawrence RIPs:

1. Fun N Games
2. Alladins Castle
3. Brewhawk
4. Piasanos
5. Cinema Twin
6. Hastings
7. La Tropicana
8. La Familia
9. The Crossing
10. Jade Mongolian Grill

Honorables:
Vermont St BBQ. Comic Corner. The Casbah ( fake reopen ). Bambino’s. El Mezcal. Joes Donuts. Gumby’s. Molly McGees. Putt Putt. The Plum Garden. Quintons.

[ChalkRocker]

Quintons. Whoa.

Swept some mushrooms from a corner of my memory...

[pdub]

Quintons only just recently closed.