In a city where the food protocol is 24-hour Coney Islands and late-night fast food chain impersonality, there’s always solace at one soul food spot: Mama Brown’s Ribs & Soul Cafe.
Located on the northwest side, Mama Brown’s is true, down home, southern soul food cooked authentic.
Mixed with the scent of moist macaroni and cheese underneath a layer of perfectly crusted cheese, candied yams simmering in syrupy, brown-sugared juices and dressing seasoned from inside a tender turkey, it’s that lingering aroma of Thanksgiving dinner that lets you know food is cooked fresh daily.
Nothing short of full-course meals, Mama Brown serves meat loaf, pork chop, fried chicken wing, roast beef and gravy, and baked or barbequed chicken dinners, all with a choice of two side dishes and corn bread or dinner roll. However, top of the list with customers is the turkey and dressing dinner and the marinated barbeque rib dinner.
Though dinner is an important meal of the day, the side dishes, including mashed potatoes, collard greens, sweet corn, white rice and black-eyed, pinto, lima and string beans combined can hold their own ground as a complete meal.
And in an industrial city of irregular shift hours where breakfast is considered anytime of the day, chicken and waffles are made daily.
True to southern soul, the menu continues with sweet potato pie and chocolate and lemon cakes. But it’s the perfectly blended banana crème pudding with soft vanilla wafers that steals the whole show.
Hailing from Shady Grove, AL, with her husband, Papa Brown, a 20-year retired GM worker, Mama Brown, the second youngest of 11 children, is used to cooking for large families including her own of eight children and 15 grandchildren.
Loving to cook, Mama Brown’s has been around eight years, vending in front of her son’s All Wet Laundry located on Fenkell near Lahser as well as providing catering and delivery services from her home.
However, needing a central location to accommodate her growing clientele, her son, Milton, made her wishes come true and bought her a restaurant this past May.
“She deserves it; she’s been such a good mom,” Milton says, who gutted the former steak and shrimp carry-out restaurant and updated it with all new appliances and new decor including the plush red and blue mirrored booths outfitted with mounted, remote-controlled flat screen TVs.
Now, eating soul food can feel more like being at home than a restaurant that includes specials created with the customers in mind, including spaghetti Wednesdays, perch and catfish Fridays and Sunday roast dinners.
But it’s not just the daily specials, it’s also being greeted by Mama Brown’s affectionate smile and Papa Brown’s southern charm that let’s you know you’re family.
Mama Brown’s, located at 19721 W. Seven Mile Rd., Detroit, is open Tuesday through Sunday, from 8 a.m.- 8 p.m. For more information, call 313-533-5663 or email mamabrowns@yahoo.com.
Deanna Dunham can be contacted at deannadunham@yahoo.com or visit her website, www.deannadunham.com.
