Cheese dip query sparks trip down memory lane
Recipes that appear in Idea Alley have not been tested by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Mary Miller is seeking a replacement copy of a lost recipe for cheese dip like that served at a restaurant called Mexico Chicata on Kavanaugh Boulevard in the “1960s to sometime in the 1970s.”
Miller noted she had clipped the recipe from the paper when Milly Woods was editor so I limited my search to the late 1950s to mid-’60s.
You may, like I did, see Kavanaugh Boulevard and immediately think of Browning’s Mexican Food. Or see Chicata and assume she means Mexico Chiquito. But, Mexico Chiquito, to our (Celia Storey assisted me in poring through the archives) knowledge never had a Kavanaugh location.
Browning’s was located where Heights Taco and Tamale Co. is today, 5805 Kavanaugh Blvd., in Little Rock. According to the Democrat-Gazette archives, John Todd Browning opened the restaurant in 1946. He sold it to his son-in-law, Boyd Montgomery, in 1959, who sold it to Don Phelan in 1968. The Phelan family sold the restaurant in 2007. The group that bought it from the Phelans operated it until 2014 when the business was bought by Yellow Rocket Concepts, the group behind Heights Taco and Tamale Co.
Another possibility is Island X, which was in the old Ice House building at 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd., from the late 1940s through the 1970s.
It’s important to note, this isn’t an exhaustive list of Mexican restaurants in Little Rock. It’s entirely possible there was a restaurant named Mexico Chicata on Kavanaugh Boulevard and I just can’t find a record of it.
What I know for sure, there’s no shortage of love for cheese dip and requests for cheese dip recipes have been around almost as long as Idea Alley.
This recipe from 1961 is one of the earliest cheese dip recipes I found. (The oldest one I found was from 1956 and ironically, it is quite similar to how many cooks make cheese dip today: Melt 1 pound Velveeta with 1 can Ro-Tel.)
Cheese Dip
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons chili…
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