8609 North Navarro Street
Victoria, TX 77904
where Marilyn hangs out with the spirits
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December 12, 2001Saloon owner maintains loyal crowd by Pat Hatchcock Rick Caputo looks like a Rick Caputo. He's a New Yorker become a patriotic Texan who loves it here. A sign he put up reads, "I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could." His style is pure New York yet, from his accent to his gold-link bracelet and pinky ring. The Brown Bag Saloon, which he owns, is sort of a neighborhood beer joint and restaurant whose neighborhood is all of Victoria. The Brown Bag has had a good run for a business that trades in two lines notoriously subject to fickle public affections. Brownbagging it is an honored way to pass some time in Victoria, whether it be a Saturday afternoon ballgame, a Thursday night social evening or just a solid lunch. A good-sized band of retired guys treat the place like their clubhouse, gathering to sip beers, play the eight-liners and tell each other stories that their wives have already heard. Young folks report that Thursday nights are a highlight of the Victoria social scene. People stop in after work for a drink with friends. Pick the Brown Bag that suits your needs. Some husbands find it possible to get in an afternoon with buddies at the Brown Bag if they promise to return with a pizza. This is the other side of the joint's appeal - the food. Caputo has a menu of 20-odd items including the pizza, a hamburger with an 8-ounce patty, and several Italian-American items that hark back to Caputo's Manhattan boyhood. He uses marinara sauce, Mama's own recipe, all around the menu. "We put it on everything," he said. Part of everything is the meatball sandwich and the Italian sausage sandwich. The meatballs are homemade and the sausage comes from Houston and is excellent, just right on the fennel seed. Caputo said that a lot of his philosophy of running a restaurant came from his mother. He started working in a diner she owned when he was 8 years old. She also was a headwaiter in a restaurant located at 1 Wall Street. If he was fated early for the restaurant business, he also got a proper education for it. He got an athletic scholarship to school, graduated from the University of Denver's Hotel and Restaurant Management program in the early 1960s, and worked many years in the world of corporate restaurants in Denver, Chicago, Phoenix and New York. He'll be 63 today and jokes that he'd already lived one life when he got to Victoria. In November 1982 he bought what had been a Cajun place named the Brown Bag just north of downtown. He added Saloon to the name and big bay windows to the building and thrived until work on the street crowded him out in 1987. He moved into a former real estate office on North Navarro in what was then the farthest reaches of town. He remodeled the building to suit himself. "I believe in windows. I don't want anyone getting claustrophobic," he said. "And women feel easier in a place that's open." He exhibits a lot of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia, reflecting an enthusiasm, and other old movie stuff. There are sports-oriented decorations and a TV over the bar runs sports. He owned another Brown Bag Saloon, a strictly drinks place, in Rockport, but he sold it about five months ago. People around the bar tell the story that he won the Rockport place in a poker game. It's not true, but it's the kind of story that attaches itself to a guy like Caputo. Actually his gambling is limited to playing the slots, and it sounds from his stories as if he has more fun in Las Vegas eating than he does gambling. Moreover, he doesn't even drink, although he understands the need to pour an honest drink in a saloon. He even sells a 25-ounce mug of beer. It appears to be the food side that has his heart. He holds his hands up to show volume and brags that an order of Brown Bag fries makes about 20 orders of fast-food fries. "And they're all hand cut," he adds. And they come crisp and hot with just enough oil clinging to hold the salt. Go ahead and put the salt on. Your doctor would already be aghast at the order of fries. His cook, Olivia Rodriguez, has been with Caputo for 20 years. He said, "The first time she made meatballs, I told her 'More garlic.'" There are two-pound jars of chopped garlic in the cold case. He says that they patty up their own hamburgers, cut their own fries and buy top quality mozzarella. The pizza has pepperoni, hamburger, mushrooms, and olives, among other things. You can buy a pizza uncooked and take it home and bake it. Rodriguez said that she cooks Mexican at home, and Caputo brags on her enchiladas, although they aren't on the menu. Her homemade chili is, however, on the menu. It goes on the Frito pie, a dish that looks much superior to your school lunchroom memories. Troy Tucker and friend Brent Goyen were eating Frito pie just before Thanksgiving. Tucker said, "In the lunchroom they never put jalapeņos on it." Tucker's wife, Cyndie, was fighting her way down the homestretch on a hamburger. "It's a big burger and I almost finished it, which is impressive." The Tuckers said they had been hanging out at the Brown Bag since it was down on Main and particularly esteem the hamburgers but like a lot of the other menu items, too. In the evening, a crowd of young guys from a tire store just down the street are sitting at a table and soaking up pitchers of beer. One said, "I come in on Thursdays. It's a kickin' place - play some pool, drink some beer, see some nice ladies maybe." Those coming to the Brown Bag as a saloon rather than a restaurant find plenty to occupy their interest. There are three or four eight-liners and pool tables in the back. Caputo complains that too many restaurants have cut up the dining-out pie too fine in Victoria and makes the noises that businessmen make. Then he figures out the lease extensions he'll have to make to reach his 75th birthday in the saloon. Copyright © 2002, Victoria Advocate |