Boneheads is a fast-casual restaurant that presents a flavorful culinary experience. Customers order at the counter and a waitress delivers their order.
The menu serves a variety of made-to-order, health-conscious dishes at half the cost that some restaurants offer.
Similar to the backstory of Boneheads (which is printed on the menus or can be read at eatboneheads.com/th…), the owners of the Bentonville location have lead a life painted with a cinematic-quality of coincidence.
Both children of military parents, Tommy and Dana Baker where an item while living in Turkey. He was 12 and she was 11. After a year of dating, their families moved apart. A few years ago, they ran into each other at a reunion and started dating again.
On the day of his retirement ceremony from his 30 years in the Army, Colonel Tommy Baker proposed to Dana on the deck of the USS Missouri.
After retiring from the Army, Tommy Baker looked into several restaurant franchises before placing his bet on Boneheads.
The Bakers came across Boneheads while living in Brookhaven, Atlanta.
“We had a coupon for another restaurant, thinking it was for Boneheads, we went in there and ate. It instantly became our favorite restaurant,” he said.
“Boneheads had such great and this is a place I can be proud of,” he said.
The walls of their restaurant in Bentonville are ones that Baker took while living in Hawaii and when he and Dana went scuba diving in Palau. One of the photos is of a kayak in Pearl Harbor that Tommy used to get to work each morning.
Another is from his last paragliding trip, that tragically ended him in a wheelchair for several months.
Healing from that accident, surviving cancer ten years ago with a prognosis of six months to live, and returning to the Middle East after his retirement, life has come full circle and brought Baker back to his home state.
A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Baker is no stranger to Northwest Arkansas, but this time feels different.
“This is my 34th move and I feel like this is the first time I have a hometown – very exciting,” he said.
The Bakers are proud of their restaurant and candidly banter with their guests.
“We care about our guests. They are like our extended family,” Tommy Baker said.
Weekly Specials
Monday – Free dessert with purchase of two entrees, 4-9 p.m.
Tuesday – Tilapia Tuesday
Wednesday – Burger Wednesday; kids eat free all day
Thursday – Seared Tuna Thursday
Friday – Catfish Fridays
Saturday – Daily special
Sunday – Kids eat free all day
- 10 percent off for all active military, every day
- 10 percent off with a church bulletin on weekends
- Other daily specials featured on Facebook
Boneheads
1403 SE Moberly Lane, Bentonville
(479) 715-6699
11 a.m.-9 p.m. Mon-Sat., 11 a.m.-7 pm Sun. Boneheads is famous for their 5-time award-winning Piri Piri Sauces. Their menu offers everything from grilled fish, Piri Piri chicken and vegetables, fish tacos, salads, soups, and sandwiches to a kids menu. There is also a selection of fine wines and bottled and draft beer.
"For example, our seared tuna, which is my favorite meal with grilled sweet potatoes, comes with rice and a side and it's $11.99 here. Somewhere else it is $25-35. We have great prices," co-owner Tommy Baker said.
"It really is the place to go to if you want some tasty grilled fish or chicken and grilled vegetables with great flavor. Our food is fulfilling, and you aren't hungry or tired an hour later," co-owner Dana Baker said.
The chef-inspired menu features a variety of fish and chicken dishes, seasoned with the signature Boneheads spice and Piri Piri sauces. High-quality meats and vegetables are cooked over an open flame, and Caribbean-style spices and marinates combine fresh citrus, herbs and garlic.
The menu features wild-caught salmon, ahi tuna, mahi mahi, tilapia, catfish and shrimp. Fish entrees also include a choice of a fresh topping, made in the restaurant. Options are cucumber dill, pineapple salsa, Piri Piri mushrooms or black beans and corn.
The menu also includes fresh salads, a flame-broiled chicken breast, honey-glazed chicken skewers, battered chicken tenders, fish and chips, half-pound Angus beef burgers and tacos with a choice of tilapia, shrimp or Piri Piri chicken.
Side items include cilantro slaw, seasoned rice and seasoned fries. There is also grilled asparagus, sweet potatoes or zucchini; char-grilled corn on the cob; and the newly added steamed broccoli.
Other new menu items include hummus, Australian sea bass and grouper.
The Piri Piri sauces are offered at several levels of spiciness. There is lemon and herb, medium, hot, extra hot and PiriBBQ. Bottles of the sauce are also available for retail purchase.
"Our customers rave about our food. Just last week someone said, 'This is the best burger in NWA and I'm a burger connoisseur.' Another person from Florida told us that this is the best mahi mahi they ever had," Dana Baker said.
Boneheads also provides a range of catering options and recently revived the catering menu.
"So many of our catering customers have raved about it. I just catered at Walmart Headquarters twice in the last two weeks, and both of them sent me emails saying, 'Word's out now, you're going to start getting all sorts of business here,' because they loved it," Baker said.
The franchise was recognized by the food-industry website fastcasual.com as one of the top 50 restaurants in the 2014 Fast Casual 100 Movers & Shakers list. Their signature Piri Piri sauce is also a three-time winner of the Scovie Award, which is the world's largest professional competition for barbecue and fiery foods.
Boneheads opened last fall and is located behind Sonic on the corner of Moberly Lane and 14th Street in Bentonville. An outdoor patio off the back of the building is surrounded by trees and overlooks an open pasture.
Happy Hour is from 3-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and provides half off appetizers, beer and wine. A variety of soft drinks are available at the self-service Coke Freestyle machine.
For dessert there are chocolate chip cookies, pecan pie or cheesecake with a choice of chocolate sauce or strawberries.
A current promotion, "Bring a rookie, get a cookie," gives a cookie to any guest that brings in a first-timer.
Customers can also join the V.I.B. (Very Important Bonehead) mobile club and sign up for text messages to get updates, coupons and other special information.
Boneheads will also be a sponsor at the NWA Food Festival at the LPGA Championship. They will serve Piri Piri chicken skewers for Taste of Northwest Arkansas on June 25 and Bonehead burger sliders for the Beer & Burger Fest on June 26.
More information is available by calling (479) 715-6699, online at eatboneheads.com or facebook.com/boneheadsbentonvillear.
NAN Dining Guide Cover on 05/22/2015