Shrimp Po Boys

Chef Anthony Copeland leaves an impression. Not just with his kinetic personality but with his food. At times we forget that Chef’s not only feed us, but they do so in a way that makes them artists. When we think of artists, we think of musicians, painters, sculptors but make no mistake, the marriage of discipline to creativity can make anyone an artist.

Chef Anthony Copeland

Brehane’s, located on 504 S. Mesa St., is the name of Chef Copeland’s new restaurant. Gearing to open soon, the restaurant is a welcome change in the downtown community. With designations in French and Italian food, we were surprised to see the Chef open a soul food inspired restaurant deep in the El Centro District. “We wanted to create something everyone can enjoy. I used to create a lot of fusion foods for people that were used to only eating one thing. I slowly introduced new flavors to their favorites,” said Chef Copeland.

With culinary training, and a background as an Executive Chef, Copeland eventually made the decision to have his own business, first as a caterer and now as a restauranteur. “Meeting clients as a caterer, they expressed interest in me having my own spot, but I didn’t plan on it for about another year, until this opportunity came up,” he said.

Chef Anthony is animated, good-natured and boils over with passion. He is also very generous with his knowledge of cooking. Just today we learned how to retain flavor in something as common as fried chicken and after tasting his fried chicken, its’ clear he’s doing something right. “Once you complete culinary school, you can cook but you’re nowhere near being a chef, that takes years of experience,” he said.

The Chef has been hosting Sunday food services for a few weeks at the restaurant with a revolving menu to gauge the public’s interest in the menu items. This Sunday is more soul food, but throughout the life of the restaurant new specials will be introduced to keep the public guessing.

For now, offerings such as BBQ ribs, southern fried chicken, Po’ Boys, and apricot glazed pork chops are some of the entrée items with sides like collard greens, macaroni and cheese and you can’t forget corn bread.

Desserts have been apple cobbler, red velvet cake and the best tasting sweet potato pie we’ve tasted.

“One thing about soul food, I’ve never met a group of people that didn’t like it,” said Chef Copeland.

For a full menu of what’s being offered on Sunday and subsequently visit their Facebook page or call 915-777-9171

Hours of operation Sun-Thurs 11am to 10pm Fri-Sat 11am to 2am