By the end of the year, a new restaurant/bakery/bar is expected to be the latest addition to the flourishing revitalization of downtown Brownwood.

Lucille + Mabel Kitchen & Libations – owned by Christian Nance, Tammy Nance, Wayne Meadow and Crystal Meadow – is shooting for a Dec. 31 opening at its location on the ground floor, and eventually the basement, of the former First National Bank building at the corner of Baker and Center.

Christian Nance, a 1992 Brownwood High graduate, and his wife Tammy operated a pair of food trucks while living in Houston, which led to their desire to open a restaurant upon their return.

“We went to Houston six or seven years ago, my wife opened a food truck and it took off,” Nance said. “We got connected to another place and they asked us to open a second truck separate from the first one, so we did that and it took off. My wife’s heritage is Vietnamese, our food is not, but she incorporates a ton of herbs and spices a lot of people don’t think about. We enjoyed that a lot, but my wife’s health got real bad so we had to move back to Brownwood.

“We wanted to open a brick and mortar take off of what we did down in Houston, so we started looking at this place probably 18 months ago. We always had an idea of what we wanted, it just took a little time to get a deal worked out with the owner of the building.”

Nance spoke about what he feels will separate Lucille + Mabel from some of the other businesses that have opened downtown.

“It’s going to be kind of an upscale steakhouse on the weekends, but then we do wood fire pizzas, gourmet burgers and stuff like that for lunch and dinner a couple of days a week,” Nance said. “We also make loaded mac and cheese and we’ll have a bakery making four and five generation old cakes and pies

“There’s a lot of places like that here now, cocktail bars, the brewery, the tap house and they’re all doing great things, but we wanted to bring something a little bit different. We wanted to have a full service menu and bring a little of bit of what we did down in Houston back up here with the experience of a full menu.”

Nance stated Lucille + Mabel will most be known for its dry aged steaks.

“We have a supplier for our beef out of Amarillo and it’s incredible beef,” Nance said. “We dry age it anywhere from 30 to 120 days, depending on how you want it. We focus mainly on rib eye, filet, and New York strip. We’ll do some other cuts every now and then. But that dry aging technique just really gives it a great flavor.”

The design of the home of Lucille + Mabel will also aid in the overall experience, according to Nance.

“We wanted a space where you walk in and have a bar and a whole blast in unit where you can watch every stage of the steak,” Nance said. “We come to your table when you order a steak, we ask you how thick you want it, cut it in front of you, let you inspect it and then we go and cook it in front of you. For us it’s all about the experience from the moment you get here to the moment you leave, the experience of high quality service.”

On Sundays, by reservation only, family style meals will be served.

“If a family of four, six, eight or whatever it is reserves a table, it’ll be say prime rib and family style sides,” Nance said. “We’ll come to your table and serve you unlimited sides and keep refreshing just like a Sunday lunch.”

Regarding the two bank vaults on the 3,000 square feet floor, Nance said, “One is going to be a whiskey vault and one is going to be a high end tequila vault. We’ll do special tastings with all our drinks, and we’ll offer more than whiskey and tequila. We want to do something really cool inside those vaults.”

Other plans for the restaurant include, “the back area will be where our wood fire pizzas and bakery are,” Nance said. “We don’t just do a typical pepperoni pizza, one of them we do is a homemade spinach and artichoke dip as the base, with pan-seared chicken and Panchetta, bacon, tomatoes and fresh basil on it. We’re just thinking outside of the box.”

The basement of the building has also been acquired, where unique plans are already in the works.

“Down the line we also have the basement as well, which is another 3,000 square foot, and we’re going to making a speak easy out of it,” Nance said. “Access will be through the alley, you’ll come down, we’ll have a door with a little window and you share your card or password, and all passwords work, but we’re going to try and create a little time travel space for people to go down and enjoy.”

As for the name, Lucille + Mabel Kitchen & Libations, it’s a tribute to the grandmothers of the Nances.

“We named the restaurant Lucille + Mabel after my grandmother and my wife’s grandmother,” Nance said. “Both ladies were very well known for what they made and we wanted to create an environment where people have great memories from their experience with food, and that’s a lot of what we’re going to be doing here.

“We thought about a lot of names. They loved to serve, they loved cooking from scratch and everything we do here is from scratch. All of our buns, our own sauces, we don’t buy anything pre-made and that’s how they were. From desserts to full course meals, we make it from scratch. For them, they loved nothing more than having people come out and eat, it didn’t matter if you were family or not. Come eat and have a great meal. They often didn’t eat, they just wanted to see you enjoy your food.”