People have jokingly said brothers Cesar and Mitch McDowell should open a restaurant since the two were in their early teens, beginning in 1988 when the movie “Coming To America” came out—in which an incognito African prince falls in love with the heiress of a fast-food place called McDowell’s.
“All our lives, since that first ‘Coming To America’ came out there was always jokes. ‘Hey, you guys ever want to open a restaurant up? You guys are really McDowells. You can call it McDowell’s,’” Cesar said. “So I guess that seed was planted ever since we were kids, to maybe open a restaurant one day and call it McDowell’s.”
But Long Beach’s newest barbecue/soul food joint is a far cry from the McDonald’s rip-off depicted in the movie. The namesake restaurant serves a wide variety of soul food, barbecue and vegan options made with fresh ingredients personally selected by Mitch and Cesar.
“We wanted to have somewhere you can come get your barbecue, you can get your soul food and if your friend or spouse is a vegan, they can have vegan options there as well,” Cesar said.
Soul food dishes at McDowell’s include fried and smothered chicken and pork chops, baked chicken, catfish, oxtails and meatloaf while the barbecue menu features ribs, chicken and hotlinks.
McDowell’s vegan options offer the plant-based Rio Burger (named after Mitch and Cesar’s health-conscious younger brother Mario), red beans and rice, vegan macaroni and more.
Cesar explained that when vegan members of their own family are visiting, it can be hard to find a restaurant that accommodates all of them.
“We’ll go all day, racing around so everybody else gets to order their food,” Cesar said. “[…] There’s not a place that I know of that has really good both vegan and non-vegan options.”
For those who still have room after their meal, Cesar said customers also “go crazy” for two of McDowell’s dessert options: peach cobbler and banana pudding. The co-owner shared that one pregnant customer frequents McDowell’s almost daily with banana pudding cravings.
The two brothers are already used to working with each other, having founded and run the local legal defense nonprofit Unite The People, and are continuing their teamwork in building their new business.
“We work together a lot,” Cesar said. “We’re always constantly going […] Him and I are constantly shopping at the restaurant stores, at the butcher shops. So it gives us a lot of time to hang out, which is good.”
The McDowell brother’s have hired Tony Smith, a close friend of Mitch, to be the restaurant’s chef. Smith has previously worked for Wolgang Puck and other five-star eateries.
“We’ve been killing it,” Cesar said. “People love our food.”
McDowell’s is located at 900 Long Beach Blvd. McDowell’s is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and is closed Monday and Tuesday.
