OPINION

REX NELSON: Hall of famers

The first three restaurants inducted into the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame--Lassis Inn at Little Rock, Jones Bar-B-Q Diner at Marianna, and Rhoda's Famous Hot Tamales at Lake Village--say a lot about the culture of a rural state where tradition matters. I can't imagine a better trio for the inaugural induction class. I have no doubt that this year's other nine finalists will be inducted in the years ahead. They also are representative of who we are as Arkansans.

In the capital city, the other finalists were Bruno's Little Italy, Doe's Eat Place, Franke's Cafeteria and Sims Bar-B-Q. To the northwest of Little Rock, there were Feltner's Whatta-Burger at Russellville and Neal's Café at Springdale. To the southwest, the finalist was the iconic McClard's Barbecue at Hot Springs. And in the Delta of east Arkansas, the other finalists were Craig's Bar-B-Q in DeValls Bluff and Kream Kastle at Blytheville.

Bruno's, now on Main Street in Little Rock, has its roots in Italy, specifically four brothers who came to this country from Naples more than a century ago. One of the brothers was named Giovanni. His son, Vincent (better known as Jimmy), was stationed at Camp Robinson during World War II. He returned to the state after the war and opened his Little Italy Café in North Little Rock. Jimmy Bruno was as good an entertainer as he was a chef. The restaurant has been in several locations through the years, but the recipes remain the same. Doe's, meanwhile, was the brainchild of entrepreneur George Eldridge and opened in 1988. Eldridge, a pilot, had been flying friends for years to the original Doe's in Greenville, Miss., for steaks and tamales. He paid the Signa family for the rights to use the Doe's name in Little Rock. The Little Rock Doe's became more famous than the original in 1992 because key staffers for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign began hanging out there on a nightly basis, and the media followed, turning out stories about Lucille Robinson's work in the kitchen.

Cafeterias once were far more common in the state than they are now, and Franke's helped pioneer the concept in 1924. C.A. Franke opened a doughnut shop on Capitol Avenue in Little Rock in 1919 and built a large bakery on Third Street three years later. The cafeteria opened downtown near the city's major department stores and became a favorite of those who worked in the stores and those who shopped downtown. Franke's, which now has two locations in Little Rock, once had locations in other Arkansas cities. You can still get the cafeteria's well-known eggplant casserole and egg custard pie. The other Little Rock restaurant on the list, Sims, dates back to 1937 when Allen and Amelia Sims opened their establishment. After working at the 33rd Street location for many years, Ron Settlers took over the restaurant and expanded the concept to multiple locations.

In Russellville, Feltner's Whatta-Burger is not to be confused with that Texas-based chain. Bob Feltner once owned the Wonder-Burger near the Arkansas Tech University campus but decided to move over to the Arkansas Avenue portion of Arkansas 7 to take advantage of the heavier traffic. Customers have been lining up for the burgers and generous portions of fries there since Thanksgiving Day 1967.

In Springdale, Neal's Café has been a fixture since 1944. Housed in a distinctive pink building, it's the place where politicians and business leaders gather for breakfast and where others go for dinners of country cooking such as pan-fried chicken and homemade pies. Neal's is the type of place that once was common across Arkansas--a gathering spot that brings people together for lively conversations. Arkansas is worse off for the demise of such locally owned businesses.

Kream Kastle opened in July 1952 in the then-booming cotton center of Blytheville when Steven Johns began selling hot dogs out of a small building with only window-service. In 1955, Johns added a barbecue pit. The drive-in restaurant is now best known for its pork barbecue sandwiches, referred to in Blytheville as "pig sandwiches." The restaurant is operated by Johns' daughter, Suzanne Johns Wallace, and her husband, Jeff Wallace. It ranks high on my list of favorite barbecue places in the state, as does Craig's in DeValls Bluff. In 1947, Lawrence Craig and his brother Wes opened Craig Brothers Café in that community along the White River. Lawrence Craig had learned to cook on a boat on the Mississippi River, and word of his skill at producing fine barbecue soon had people traveling to Craig's from as far away as Little Rock to the west and Memphis to the east.

As far as national notoriety, McClard's just might be the most famous Arkansas restaurant of them all. Bill Clinton grew up nearby, and the national media produced a number of stories on McClard's during Clinton's eight years as president.

The McClard family was running a tourist court in the 1920s that also included a gas station and a small diner specializing in barbecued goat. A guest at the tourist court was unable to pay his bill but offered instead the recipe for what he claimed was the world's best barbecue sauce. The family accepted the recipe in lieu of cash payment, made a few changes to it through the years, and ended up with a restaurant where waits for seats are common even during the middle of the afternoon. A fourth generation of the McClard family is now working at the restaurant, which is sure to be a future inductee into the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame.

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Freelance columnist Rex Nelson is the director of corporate community relations for Simmons First National Corp. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.

Editorial on 03/22/2017

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