Anyone know what's going on with Casita's on Millburn Avenue?

It has been closed for the past few nights.

Someone posted on the Facebook page “Millburn Complete Insanity” on Nov 04 that ‘Casitas’ is closed - the implication was that this is a permanent closure

Very sad if this is true, I enjoyed going there.

Apparently a lot of the stores in Millburn are hurting ever since three traffic lanes (between Starbucks and the Town Hall were reduced down to one lane with cars trying to park within the raised ‘bump outs’. 

There are issues and strong passions about what what they did to Millburn Ave. but don't believe the hype about what it did to restaurants. Downtown is packed on weekend nights.

Don’t think the traction from Tinga carried through.  Been going to other Tinga locations, which seem to getting many Millburn customers.  

Casita and Red Mango (next door) have closed. 

I avoid downtown Millburn now. My guess is that others do as well. Whether or not that makes a difference to small businesses is up for debate.

Gee, I didn't even know this place was there.  How was it?  I am naturally suspicious of any Mexican place that has "wraps" in the menu.....

food and service were terrible. If it was half as decent as tinga we would go. Did takeout once and it was ok. Dined in once and it was horrible. Too many other options for Mexican food that are better. 

I didn't like Tinga either.  We still go to Picante in Springfield.  I've never been satisfied with the Mexican food in the wider area and having just come back from a trip out west, I'm even less satisfied.  

BTW, re the supposed connection between the Millburn street changes and the closing of that Mexican place, my understanding is the owner had a restaurant in Montclair and she closed that one too.

Charlie Browns closed too, after so many years.  That's really sad.   

boomie: Charlie Browns is still open in Chatham Township (across from the mall where ShopRite is and the cute www.robertstheatres.com cinema is located). I’m going to Charlie Browns tomorrow, actually

boomie said:
Charlie Browns closed too, after so many years.  That's really sad.   

 Word is that Hoolihan's will replace it. 

Will miss the Millburn CB's salad bar. We had good luck bringing the hungry kids, and getting them to select a variety of veggies to eat while waiting for their main course.

Soul_29 said:

boomie said:
Charlie Browns closed too, after so many years.  That's really sad.   

 Word is that Hoolihan's will replace it. 

 My understanding is that it will be a J. Gilbert's franchise,  an "upscale-casual" steakhouse brought to you by Houlihan's. Menus at restaurants elsewhere show steaks in the $40-$60 range.

Corner of Main and Essex. My earliest recollection was Mario's Italian restaurant. High priced, white tablecloth. The owner died and kids didn't want to run a restaurant.

For about 10 years, there was a casual themed restaurant/bar on the location. The bar had a wheel of fortune kind-a thing which was named, "The Great American Dream Machine." That was the same time, P.B.S. ran a series with that name. Beyond the wheel, there was nothing imaginative about the place. Nothing bad, either.

Charlie Browns has been there for about 40 years. Around 15 years ago, the corporation ran into difficulties and closed several of their locations. They also run/ran "The Office in Summit. 

C.B. was always a good place for Mother's Day, birthdays and such.

shh said:
food and service were terrible. If it was half as decent as tinga we would go. Did takeout once and it was ok. Dined in once and it was horrible. Too many other options for Mexican food that are better. 

 I never considered it real Mexican food.  Does that make me a snob?

boomie said:
Charlie Browns closed too, after so many years.  That's really sad.   

 bummer.

A student of mine works at Goldbergs Deli. She said the rent went way up in the bldg next door, and that Casita, Red Mango, and Chocolate Works were all closing because of it. 

sac said:

shh said:
food and service were terrible. If it was half as decent as tinga we would go. Did takeout once and it was ok. Dined in once and it was horrible. Too many other options for Mexican food that are better. 

 I never considered it real Mexican food.  Does that make me a snob?

 I wasn't even going for authentic, just tasty. One takeout meal we had gotten a nice salad and some decent tacos, we decided to dine in the next time. Empty on a Saturday night should have been the warning. Coincidentally two of our daughters were there and their food was wrong. The owner stood there chatting with employees while we weren't being served. And since it doesn't matter, I won't go into detail about how subpar the food was on top of lame service. But authentic or not, I crossed it off the list