The Brown Bag Club
Per the owners, the chicken salad is the thing to get here.
Ask about the inspiration behind her meal prep and catering business, The Brown Bag Club, and Kimberly Brown points to a single text message: "I'm enjoying my Signature Kimberly Brown Bag Lunch today!"
She received that text from a friend who had taken home Brown's leftovers the night before. Then, the next day, a co-worker came to Brown and asked, “What would you charge to make me a week’s worth of your chicken salad?”
She sold her chicken salad for $30.
"Should’ve said $50," Brown jokes.
But final confirmation came the next day, when she flipped her calendar and read the day's quote: "Dear You, You have what it takes; your heart knew it all along. Love, Courage."
That's when Brown says she knew what she had to do. "In the spirit of ‘start where you are, use what you have, do your best,'" she says, Brown and husband Darrin launched The Brown Bag Club in 2018.
Their first brick-and-mortar opened in 2019 at 8651 John T. White Road in East Fort Worth; their second is about to open at 2900 Race Street, inside The Union at River East apartment complex.
While the first Brown Bag Club location focuses on meal prep and grab-and-go, Brown Bag Club 2.0 will offer both services and also operate as a dine-in café, serving sandwiches, salads, and coffee. Meal prep options change regularly, with beef stroganoff, sour cream chicken enchiladas, and traditional egg rolls among the most popular items, Brown says.
For Brown, opening a restaurant in the middle of a pandemic has been more exciting than frightening.
"Other than the masks and the constant sanitizing, I would not say there has been anxiety," she says. "Truth be told, as I like to tease, we’ve been training our whole lives for this. All of our food was already pre-packaged and ready for folks to enjoy at home. Being a part of the live/work apartment community at The Union brings a service to the residents, giving them real good food."
She also says she's looking forward to growing alongside fellow restaurants and businesses on Race Street.
"We do not look at any of the other restaurants as competition," she says. "We believe there is enough abundance to go around and would never discourage patrons from any other place of business/restaurant. You want a good cocktail? Tributary Café is your go to. You want a taco? Who doesn’t like Fuzzy’s? Got a hankering for a sandwich and a hug? That’s us. We look forward to promoting and working together with other foodies on the street."
Those looking to get a taste of the menu can come by Saturday between noon and 4 p.m., when The Brown Bag Club hosts a menu tasting featuring samples of chicken salad, pickles, and pepperoni rolls. Then on Sept. 12, the eatery will collaborate with its Race Street neighbor, boutique Creatively Beaut Goods, on a pop-up event.
