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Brownsville Mayor John Cowen Jr. delivered his second State of the City address to a near-capacity audience at the Texas Southmost College Performing Arts Center on Wednesday.

The tone was upbeat and bullish on Brownsville, Cowen citing a long list of achievements and trends that he said have helped make the city “an economic driver for the Rio Grande Valley, the state of Texas and the nation.”

With a population of nearly 200,000, Brownsville is the largest city in the Valley, while the Brownsville-Harlingen metropolitan area has the fastest job growth in Texas, he said.

That’s due in large part to SpaceX, which Cowen described as a “transformative force” for the city, having created more than 3,400 direct and 21,000 indirect jobs while investing $3.2 billion at Boca Chica since 2014.

He also cited NextDecade’s Rio Grande LNG project at the Port of Brownsville, an $18.4 billion investment construction of which is currently employing more than 2,000 people, with another 6,000 or so jobs on the horizon.

According to one of the video presentations interspersed with Cowen’s comments, Brownsville has experienced a 6.7% increase in “inter-generational mobility,” the highest income growth for low-income areas in the nation; a 5.4% increase in employment; and an 18.8% increase in private sector wages — all thanks to new jobs in aerospace and energy but also manufacturing, health care and tourism.

S&P Global Rating bumped the city’s credit rating from “AA” to “AA+” (outlook stable) early this year on the strength of Brownsville’s vigorous growth, status as a regional trade center and “robust financial profile supported by well-embedded management practices,” according to S&P.

Cowen noted that the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas recently reported “robust growth in employment opportunities” for the city, of 4.2% in the third quarter of 2024.

“Brownsville’s making history and the nation is taking notice. … Our city’s now the number metro in the U.S. for investment,” he said. “It is recognized as an emerging economic hot spot.”

At $300 million, Brownsville’s latest five-year capital improvement plan (CIP) is the biggest in its history, Cowen said. The plan includes $13 million for reconstruction of Old Highway 77 as well as $28.3 million for road maintenance drainage projects, plus another $5 million for six hybrid B Metro buses and 32 solar-powered bus shelters.

Cowen said the CIP will make Brownsville “safer, more efficient and more connected,” noting that the city’s Omni/Lit Fiber high-speed, fiber-optic internet network is being rolled out, has more than 1,300 customers signed up and 1,800 more on the waiting list.

The Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation, one of the city’s two economic development organizations, is playing a crucial role in the city’s growing success, he said, with GBIC investing in and leading development of the 90-acre Brownsville Tech Industrial Park, an $11 million project that will bring in as many as 15 new companies.

Phase one of the project will break ground this spring, while phase two will get underway later this year, which will add another 100 acres, Cowen said, adding that the park will address current and future needs of industrial companies interested in locating operations in Brownsville. A state-of-the-art, 100,000-square-foot public safety complex will be built at the park on 55 acres at a cost of $70 million, he said.

Another major project GBIC will soon announce involves a “tier-one supplier for SpaceX that will be setting up shop in our city,” Cowen said. The company, which he called a “global leader in the energy sector,” will bring more than $100 million in initial investment with the potential for $150 million, and create more than 90 high paying, skilled jobs, he said.

GBIC is investing $1.3 million in job training incentives and grants to ensure the workforce is in place, Cowen said.

“Over the next six months we expect GBIC to announce three major additional projects totaling $300 million in capital investment,” he said. “This will bring over 500 new jobs into the industrial park.”

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Cowen noted that the “Port of Brownsville is working overtime” in contributing to the region’s economic growth, supporting directly and indirectly more than 10,000 jobs in the Valley, and 66,000 jobs across the state, with a $1.1 billion annual impact on the local economy.

The Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation, the city’s other economic arm, is also “making strides in advancing the local economy,” he said, noting that BCIC secured a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to enhance BCIC’s Startup Texas accelerator project, which supports local entrepreneurs and attracts new businesses.

BCIC is also integral in the forthcoming “Downtown Renaissance Master Plan,” which will be the map for further revitalization and preservation of the city’s historic downtown, Cowen said.

In addition to promoting culture, art, music and culinary experiences downtown, the plan will include enhancements to downtown infrastructure, he said, adding that all of it will “lay the groundwork for businesses to thrive and residents to live.”

The Tex-Mexplainer series explores the ingredients, techniques, history, and culture of Mexican food in Texas.

The first time I had espaghetti verde, or green spaghetti, was at the Texas Monthly BBQ World’s Fair in downtown Lockhart in 2022, where the dish was served at the Barbs B Q booth. At the time, Chuck Charnichart’s joint hadn’t yet moved into its nearby brick-and-mortar, but the line for $25 plates of lime zest–garnished pork ribs, spongy concha bread pudding, and, of course, espaghetti verde—or as the menu calls it, “green spaghett”—was long. I slurped the side dish of noodles, chiles, spices, cream, and cheese, leading to spots of greenish-white liquid splashing across my shirt.

Charnichart’s recipe was developed by her mother, Francisca Robledo, in Brownsville, where Charnichart was raised. Her version features a sauce of poblano chiles, cilantro, sour cream, cream cheese, and bouillon that is reduced before pasta is added to it. The key is to boil the noodles to just a little before al dente so they can absorb as much sauce as possible.

It’s pretty rare to find this dish in restaurants, but it’s a staple in Brownsville homes. For generations, Mexican American matriarchs have cooked it for special occasions, such as baptisms, birthdays, confirmations, and especially Thanksgiving. It’s quick, easy, colorful, and affordable—a sleeve of H-E-B brand spaghetti cost only 78 cents the last I checked at a Rio Grande Valley store.

There isn’t any particular way to make green spaghetti, and even members of the same family will have their own special touches. Some, like Robledo, add butter but not onions or green bell peppers. Others might add onions and bell peppers but not butter. Robledo hadn’t even heard of the dish until a neighbor asked if she was going to make it for Thanksgiving. “I thought I’d try it,” she tells me in Spanish. It’s since become a beloved family tradition that easily serves a crowd. “I put up to eight large poblanos in my green spaghetti,” she adds. “It makes a lot.” Its fans include even the youngest of the group. “If my grandchildren ask for green spaghetti, I will of course make it for them,” Robledo says, beaming with grandmotherly love.

Brownsville native Daniel Arizpe, co-owner of Pluton Brewing Company, also associates the dish with home cooking. “When I think of green spaghetti, I don’t think about going to a restaurant to have it,” he says. “I think of my sister-in-law, a friend’s mom, or my mom. [My mom] usually does it for games of lotería.” But he does know of one local restaurant that sells it off-menu: Cobbleheads Bar & Grill. He adds that customers have to order the chicken alfredo and swap out the white sauce for the poblano sauce. It’s presented with sliced chicken milanesa atop the pyramid of the creamy green goodness. It has to be meant for two, I thought when I looked down at my plate.

When Cesar Treviño, a manager at Cobbleheads, has to step in as a server, he asks customers who order the chicken alfredo or the chicken parmesan, “ ’Do you guys want to swap that out for the poblano sauce?’ That’s the initial sell point. No charge, no nothing,” he says. The rest of the staff is instructed to do the same. Treviño has customers who come in weekly just for the green spaghetti.

It’s personal for him. When Treviño first met his mother-in-law three years ago, he had been making alfredo sauce at an Italian restaurant for six years. She asked him if he could make green spaghetti. Naturally, it was a test. “I just blended in a bunch of peppers in there, and she was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s the best,’ ” he says.

Gazpacho’s, an Italian-Spanish-Mexican restaurant in Brownsville, also sells it. The green spaghetti there is thick with sauce and long strands of cheese concealing the diner’s protein of choice. The pasta dish is new, added to the menu in February, because “people kept asking for green spaghetti,” one waiter reveals.

Although it’s a Brownsville staple, green spaghetti is only now entering the publicly recognized canon of regional Texas dishes. “Moving out of the Valley and realizing it wasn’t a common dish was a surprise,” Charnichart says. “I think for me, moving [to the Austin area] in 2016 and having all these conversations about Austin having the best tacos and Mexican food, I was almost shocked, [like] no one knew the Valley existed.”

Now the dish is the best-selling item at Charnichart’s restaurant. “At the end of the day, we have people waiting in line for quarts of green spaghetti,” she says.

Brownsville isn’t the only city where green spaghetti is served. In Edinburg, a short drive from there, Vargas BBQ offers it as a side. In San Antonio, Reese Bros Barbecue offers a similar poblano mac and cheese. Nevertheless, Brownsville is arguably the only place where the dish is integral to identity. I asked some friends of mine if it was as common for them, being from different parts of the state. Isidro Salas, who lived in Manor, outside of Austin, but was raised in San Jose, California, says, “I grew up eating it at home. It wasn’t a big deal and we didn’t eat it very much. It was almost a struggle meal.” Clarissa Zubia, an El Paso native, said she knew about green spaghetti growing up, but she didn’t eat it until she was in college, when her tía started making it. “I believe she saw it online, maybe TikTok, and someone in our family asked her to make it,” she says. “I also started making it. It’s a great party dish.”

In McAllen, during a recent trip, I asked restaurant patrons and servers and hotel housekeeping staff if they’d ever heard of green spaghetti. All said no. Charnichart has experienced something similar. “We get a few folks from McAllen, and they are surprised [about its Valley origins],” she says.

But, again, green spaghetti and Brownsville are inextricably linked. As Treviño puts it: “Green spaghetti is roots.”

Robert Briggs // Shutterstock

Highest-rated Mexican restaurants in the Brownsville area by diners

Just like cuisine from any country, Mexican food is not monolithic. It isn't just combo plates and tacos. (Not that there's anything wrong with that style of food; it's delicious and is responsible for popularizing Mexican food in the United States.) But Mexican food means more than that.

It reflects Mexico's diverse population—shaped by waves of immigration—and has proliferated throughout the U.S., showcasing the cuisine in all its complexity and regionality. Mexico has 32 distinct regional styles of cooking, and thanks to immigrant chefs and the rise of promising culinarians of Mexican descent looking to share their signature dishes, Indigenous foodways, and ingredients from various regions, diners are reframing their idea of "Mexican food."

According to a 2024 Pew Research Center analysis of SafeGraph data, 1 in 10 restaurants in the U.S. serve Mexican food, and nearly 9 out of 10 U.S. counties have at least one Mexican restaurant. The analysis also reveals that California and Texas are home to a majority of the Mexican American population and together host 2 out of 5 Mexican restaurants in the country.

These findings serve as a testament to the influence Mexican cuisine has had and continues to have in America. Which begs the question: Where does one go for the best old-school Mexican restaurants, loncheras slinging tacos out of a half-window, and innovative modern Mexican food pushing culinary boundaries?

To help you out, Stacker compiled a list of the highest-rated Mexican restaurants in the Brownsville area based on diners' reviews on Yelp as of February 2025. Restaurants with at least 20 reviews tagged as "Mexican" on Yelp within a 10-kilometer radius of Brownsville were included. As a result, some restaurants featured may serve other food items besides Mexican food. Also, in an effort to highlight independent businesses and local chains, those with more than 50 locations nationally, based on the Yelp data, were not included.

Keep reading to see if your favorite Mexican spot made the list or to discover a new restaurant to try!

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A Texas Historical Commission plaque will be unveiled Saturday morning near an ancient brick bridge in Southmost, marking a milestone in development of the surrounding La Posada Park at 1325 La Posada Drive.

In a 10 a.m. ceremony, the plaque will be affixed to a pole on the entrance pathway to the bridge, which was built in 1898 and was part of immigrant Frenchman Celestin Jagou’s agricultural plantation in the late 19th Century.

The plaque will recognize the bridge as a Registered Texas Historic Landmark, said Eugene Fernandez, director of the South Texas Center for Historical & Genealogical Research, who since 2006 has championed the park and its surviving stand of native Montezuma cypress trees.

Fernandez operates a nursery and greenhouse adjacent to the park that holds dozens of cypress seedlings now ready to be planted along Brownsville resacas.

The Montezuma cypress is native to parts of Mexico, Guatemala, the Rio Grande Valley and usually appears in swamps, streams and riverbanks at sea level, according to wildflower.org. The tree was sacred to the Aztecs and was the favorite tree of Aztec emperor Montezuma. Abundant in the Valley before colonization, most of the population was used for lumber, Fernandez has said.

“These beautiful trees were scalped from the horizon from the Spaniards that came through in the 1500s and 1600s … they list that there were tens of thousands of them,” he has said in prior interviews.

The ceremony Saturday morning will be a collaboration between Fernandez and the city of Brownsville Parks and Recreation Department. It will have a French theme, due to Jagou being a “son of France,” Fernandez said earlier this week.

Two recent additions to Brownsville’s downtown restaurant scene, Le Reve French-American Restaurant, and Jolie Petite French Restaurant, will cater the event, offering French cuisine.

Nineteenth century French music will add ambiance, and the catering staff will be dressed in period French costumes. Enactors in full regalia will present an opening salvo of black powder arms to add drama to the affair.

An audio visual presentation will follow that pays homage to Jagou and further elaborates on details of the French settlers to the Lower Rio Grande Delta region, from Brownsville’s founding in 1848 through the heavy French influx during the Civil War and the French occupation of Mexico in 1865-1867, Fernandez said.

Symbolically, the event will be a launching moment for what is to come in La Posada Park’s development.

Fernandez chaired a Parks and Recreation advisory board, and the City Commission in 2020 committed funding to the park, he said.

To date, much of the work done on the property has involved a volunteer clean-up effort and restoration of the bridge. The first actual structure in the new park is a wooden stairway over the historic bridge.