Missing that Arlington-area Mex restaurant’s old menu? It’s in Parker County, plus pie

The food is familiar, maybe better than remembered.

But the setting is new: an 83-year-old former cafe and Humble Oil gas station on a lonely old highway 15 miles west of Weatherford.

For its first 82 years, the landmark restaurant at 10771 Interstate 20 West was Brazos River Cafe, described in the 1940s as “Famous For Fish.”

Now, it’s Chente Cafe, the new home for 40-year chef de cuisine Antonio Reyes, formerly of the regionally known Campo Verde restaurants that started in west Fort Worth and remain open near Arlington.

Three headlines:

▪ Chente Cafe serves very reminiscent fajitas, enchiladas and combination plates comparable to what two generations remember from Campo Verde, which now serves a new, simpler menu.

Chente also serves similar chile-powder-dusted chips, salsa and cheese sauce.

▪ Chente adds ribeyes, burgers, chicken tenders and catfish.

▪ Maybe this should be the headline: Chente serves the Brazos cafe’s homemade pies. Former co-owner Sandra Griffin still bakes and sells them to raise money for a scholarship fund honoring her late son, Austin.

Bottom line: Chente Cafe is something special, but maybe not as much for the retro fajitas and combination plates with mild Sonoran sauces.

Instead, Chente is special for the small-town atmosphere, the roadside-Americana decor — and for the chance to order creamy green chile chicken enchiladas with coconut meringue pie.

Don’t crowd it yet. The staff is new and still learning.

If there’s a long line, maybe go another time.

But when you do, you’ll drive about 40 minutes west of Fort Worth, past the full Weatherford chain-restaurant parking lots, and take the Millsap exit back into time.

When Brazos River Cafe opened in 1940, what is now the Interstate 20 access road was U.S. 80, the main highway across the southern U.S.

That old river bridge next to the cafe carried touring stars and bands to Hollywood and Elvis Presley to Las Vegas, as remembered by a life-size Elvis figurine in the dining room.

Founder Dub Sawyer’s family sold the cafe quickly to ranch family Cecil and Lois Hill.

In 1954, Cecil Hill caught two Fort Worth teenagers inside at 2:15 a.m., stealing the cash register. He shot and injured both with an M1 carbine as they drove away.

The Hills tried to sell the cafe in 1969, but traffic was already bypassing the old highway and bridge on new Interstate 20. Griffin’s family reopened it in 2000 as Brazos River Catfish Cafe.

Now, Chente Cafe seems poised to benefit as a jumping-off exit for tourists on their way to Mineral Wells, advertised as a new destination to visit the beautifully restored Crazy Hotel and Austin chef David Bull’s Second Bar + Kitchen, opening by November.

Twice last weekend, a combination plate and a fajitas platter seemed more carefully made than when Reyes was cooking the old menu at Campo Verde.

That restaurant, at 2918 W. Pioneer Parkway in suburban Dalworthington Gardens, gets mobbed by hundreds every November through February for its theme Christmas displays filled with 200,000 or more lights.

Chente can seem like an old-time restaurant. But it can also surprise with distinctive dishes such as the creamy New Mexico green chile chicken enchiladas ($14.25, or $8.25 at lunch), a little different from the enchiladas verdes or Suizas in most Texas restaurants.

The pies start with coconut or chocolate meringue and sugar-free versions, along with various selections such as “millionaire” pie, cookies-and-cream pie, Oreos cheesecake or lemon meringue.

Chente is open for lunch and dinner Wednesday through Friday, breakfast through dinner Saturday and breakfast and lunch Sunday; 682-376-5955, or search facebook.com.