Dolores Wright’s Howard’s Charro Cafe

October 29, 2023

With $30 in her pocket and a family recipe for refried beans, Dolores Wright opened her own restaurant around 1956. Born in Scottsbluff in 1931 to parents of Mexican and German descent, she came to Omaha in the 1940s, worked in the meatpacking plants, and eventually turned her culinary ambitions into a business — one that proved challenging to sustain while raising five children.

This house on south 24th was an earlier location of Howard’s Charro before they moved to their current location.

In 1960, her parents, Howard L. and Eva Castaneda, along with her brother Junior, relocated from Scottsbluff — where they had worked in the beet fields — to take over the restaurant. Howard, for whom the restaurant is named, was born in northern Mexico in 1909 as Leobardo Castaneda Vargas. Having difficulty pronouncing his name, officials renamed him Howard Kennedy, which they eventually changed back to Castaneda.

Dolores got her start in Omaha’s restaurant scene working at El Charro Café, which operated out of the basement of a house along South 24th Street. In 1960, she opened her own restaurant, Howard’s Charro, nearby at the intersection of 26th and O Streets. The similarities between Howard’s Charro and El Charro often confused patrons, and a rivalry appears to have developed, prompting the latter to publish an advertisement declaring itself “still the first and original CHARRO dining house.”

1942 photo of Marchio’s Italian Cafe which used to call the building on south 13th home. It’s been the home of Howard’s Charro since 1990. Courtesy of Durham Museum.

In 1965, the Castaneda family moved the restaurant to a former church at 5219 South 24th Street. They proceeded to paint the exterior bright yellow so that it stood out from the houses lining the street and could be seen from the Kennedy Freeway. The interior was decorated with maps of Mexico, bullfighting posters, and piñatas suspended from the ceiling. Howard’s remained popular, with diners frequently waiting in line to secure one of its 16 tables.

2023 photo of the exterior of Howard’s Charro on 13th and J Streets.

By 1979, Dolores’s children were young adults, and her parents retired, allowing Dolores and her husband, Billy Wright, to take over the business. After Marchio’s Italian Cafe at 4443 S. 13th Street closed, Howard’s Charro moved into the much larger space. With both a dining room and a banquet room capable of accommodating up to 270 people, the new kitchen alone was as large as the old restaurant.

Interior photo courtesy of Howard’s Charro.

Over the years, Howard’s Charro became a community center of sorts. Wright opened the restaurant’s doors whenever a group needed a place to meet or host a fundraiser. Her contributions were recognized in 2001, when she was named Hispanic Woman of the Year. After Wright passed away in 2008, the restaurant continued operating as a family-owned business until 2017 when Howard Jr. retired. At that point, her daughter Debra Orduna-Estrada was unwilling to see it close and sold the restaurant to Araseli and David Murillo, owners of Sam’s Leon Mexican Foods.

Enchiladas, taco, beans and rice from Howard’s Charro.

From its humble beginnings in the basement of a house on South 24th Street, even Wright herself could not have imagined how large the restaurant would become after its move to South 13th Street. Not only did Howard’s Charro outlast its rival, El Charro, which closed in 1977, it continues to serve customers more than 70 years later

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