Big Earl's Homestyle Cookin'
photograph by John Anderson Friends who work in this neighborhood tipped me about this place and the first thing I found out is the "Big Earl" of the name is not Earl Campbell. Restaurant owner Erma Franklin named her Northeast side restaurant for her beloved son Earl, a promising LBJ High School football player who died in 1992. For the past several months, Erma and her mom, Ginny, have been busy six days a week, serving up the homestyle meals that were her son's favorite. Customers order a plate lunch at the window and sit at tables in the sparsely decorated dining room dominated by a large TV. The Saturday afternoon I was there, there was a spirited discussion of the possible outcome of the basketball play-offs.