Charley Brown’s Mexicana to close Sunday, offers sneak peek of new digs

By Laurel Tuohy

 

Artist renderings. Photo: Courtesy of Charley Brown’s Mexicana

 

Charley Brown’s Mexicana, along with Cheap Charlie’s bar and a handful of other popular bars and restaurants in an alley on Sukhumvit Soi 11 are starting to close to make room for a real estate development, as we first reported in June.

 

Kai New Zealand, Stash and The Alchemist bars have already shuttered their spots and none yet have plans to re-open.

 

Cheap Charlie’s, the beloved outdoor expat bar that anchors the side soi, will serve their last drinks on March 31 and have also not yet found a suitable place to re-open, though they are looking.

 

Full Story: https://coconuts.co/bangkok/food-drink/charley-browns-mexicana-close-sunday-offers-sneak-peek-new-digs-photos/

 

-- © Copyright Coconuts Bangkok 2017-3-15

Heard of this place for years.. never thought of trying it because expats are really bad recommendations..

 

went recently and omg.. best tex mex ive had anywhere and better than my own. Really hope they find a good spot, the pulled chicken enchiladas are to die for.

I must admit to not having been to this place for a couple of years, but in the past always found it to be pretty poor and certainly not up to the standard of the better Mex places in Bangkok e.g. La Monita.  

Having said that I shall miss this soi. I have been a regular customer of the excellent Spanish tapas restaurant for a number of years and also the newish French place next door chez Pepe , both will be sadly missed by me.  I rather wish it was these two that had found new, larger, premises on soi 19 rather than this, very very average tex mex restaurant.

   A sad waste of restaurant space, in my opinion!

 

To add insult to injury it looks like this very  average tex mex place is opening on the site  of another sadly missed restaurant i.e Grottino, Which used to be the best, in my opinion, Swiss/German restaurant in Bangkok. Sad days indeed!

 

Re the OP article, I believe the fish place that closed was Snapper New Zealand, not Kai New Zealand, which is its sister branch in the Sathorn area.

 

On the Snapper New Zealand webpage, I believe it says they're looking for a new location, but don't have one identified as yet.

 

Quote

 

Due to lease expiry we are currently closed and in the process of finding a new location for your favourite NZ seafood restaurant Snapper. In the meantime please visit our latest Kiwi restaurant Kai New Zealand in Sathorn Soi 12.

 

http://www.snapper-bangkok.com/

 

Elsewhere there, I believe Tapas Cafe was still open right now -- unlike some of the others that have already pulled out -- but obviously its days are numbered in the current location.

 

 

There's also a very low-cost, simple medical clinic at the end of that subsoi that's closing at the end of the month -  Sukhumvit Soi 11 Clinic. Went there several times in the past for med certifs, other basic stuff.

 

Popped in the other day, and they too said they didn't have a new location identified yet, but that they were actively out looking, and would be closing by the end of March along with all the other businesses there.

31 minutes ago, wordchild said:

To add insult to injury it looks like this very  average tex mex place is opening on the site  of another sadly missed restaurant i.e Grottino, Which used to be the best, in my opinion, Swiss/German restaurant in Bangkok. Sad days indeed!

 

 

Did Grottino simply go out of business, or did they relocate elsewhere?

 

re Grottino;  I think they just closed down/sold up. The hotel changed hands and they continued to run the restaurant/bakery for a time but then that just closed. I have not heard they opened any where else but maybe somebody else can post if they know different.

Its a great shame the food was consistently good, but it never really got that busy, tended to be the same faces in there (Swiss expats) every time I went. I used to go there often when I lived in the area a , hadn't been for a while and went to try it again couple of months ago , one evening, and found it had just closed.  

Over the past fifty years I've lived and/or traveled in 60 different countries, and the only place I've had good Mexican food is in USA southwest and, of course, Mexico. In fact, non-USA/Mexico food is not only not good, but almost always it's mediocre at best and terrible at worst.

 

Given the Thai's and Mexican's mutual love of chilies and hot sauce — and the wonderfully delicious food in Thailand — you'd think the Thai's could get Mexican food right, but, alas, I gave up long time ago trying to find decent Mex food in Thailand.

 

Fortunately you can get excellent Middle Eastern food in Sukhumvit's Little Arabia area.

The new spot looks fantastic hope it all works out.

On 3/16/2017 at 11:48 AM, HerbalEd said:

Over the past fifty years I've lived and/or traveled in 60 different countries, and the only place I've had good Mexican food is in USA southwest and, of course, Mexico. In fact, non-USA/Mexico food is not only not good, but almost always it's mediocre at best and terrible at worst.

 

Given the Thai's and Mexican's mutual love of chilies and hot sauce — and the wonderfully delicious food in Thailand — you'd think the Thai's could get Mexican food right, but, alas, I gave up long time ago trying to find decent Mex food in Thailand.

 

Fortunately you can get excellent Middle Eastern food in Sukhumvit's Little Arabia area.

you may want to check out the Tex Mex place next to Annies between Soi's 2 and 4.

7 hours ago, catinthehat said:

you may want to check out the Tex Mex place next to Annies between Soi's 2 and 4.

That place is just OK I thought but now you have to walk all the way around to Soi 2 becasue of construction on 4.  The biggest problem here is the lack of guacamole.  Most have it on the menu but never serve it because ¨it spoils too easy and is way too expensive¨.  Avocados are expensive here it seems 99b for one is pretty standard. But, a Mexican meal seems not complete for me without it

The best place I have been so far is in Pattaya called Mike´s Mexican.  Great Burritos similar to Socal Mex taste.