The original Burge's location in
Lewisville. (Kat Robinson)
This is one in a series on historical restaurants in the state of Arkansas. For a look at the Arkansas restaurant timeline, click here.
Most restaurants begin with a concept or a family dream. Burge's began with a backyard smoker -- and a whole lot of friends who loved what came out of it. It took nearly 10 years to get to a restaurant, but what was created there has endured generations.
Back in 1953, Alden Burge moved from Shreveport to a little town south of Hope, called Lewisville. Burge was a hand in the oil fields, but he also liked to dabble in meat smoking, so he built a smokehouse in his backyard. It didn't take long for that smoke to travel, and eventually Burge started sharing the benefits of the little smokehouse, bringing smoked chickens to Friday night ballgames along with baked beans and coleslaw.
Burge's Dairyette in Lewisville, circa 1960s.
Some nine years later, Burge was offered the chance to run a little dairyette at the intersection of Highway 82 and Highway 29. It seemed a prime opportunity for his family -- so he and his wife and their three kids jumped in to create this family-run barbecue joint. It caught on quickly -- fueled by the great wonders of smoking Burge had refined and paired with a magnificent round of burgers, ice cream desserts and family traditions. The place became well known for its smoked hams and turkeys -- which some folks passing through would take with them -- and for smoking goat and serving peppermint ice cream on Independence Day (smoked goat seems to be a theme with Arkansas family-run barbecue joints).
Burge's in the Heights. (Kat Robinson)
Now, Lewisville is about 130 miles or so from Little Rock... but it lays along a road (Arkansas Highway 29, which becomes Louisiana Highway 3 on the other side of the border) that connects Arkansas's capital with Shreveport. It became the best place to stop and refresh along the route, and many a weekend traveler would end up back in River City with a smoked turkey or some of that ham or even some smoked cheese. There was definitely a need for good smoked meat in Little Rock, right? And in 1977 Alden Burge opened the second location on R Street in Little Rock's Heights district.
The smoked turkey lunch plate comes with
two sides and a grilled cheese sandwich.
(Kat Robinson)
Now, if you're not an Arkansawyer, none of this might tick a memory box. But you might be familiar with the products offered at both restaurants, anyway. See, that smoked turkey is something that cannot be compared. The brine, the smoke, everything about the preparation of a Burge's smoked turkey is meticulous -- and the meat comes out so flavorful, it bears a resemblance to ham. Indeed, many people I know -- and I am one of them, imagine that -- take their post-Thanksgiving or post-Christmas turkey carcass and utilize it for the seasoning in New Year's Day peas. Salty, sweet, it's addictive.
As is the understated dish you'll find in the cooler at the restaurant. It's the turkey salad. It doesn't look like much -- chopped turkey and mayo and not much more. But trust me. It's more addictive than crack.
The Lewisville location is well known for burgers,
too. (Kat Robinson)
Thing is, turkey may be the overwhelming product Burge's has given us (the website is actually smokedturkeys.com, after all!) but there's so much more on the menu. I think the Lewisville location does the better burger, but that comes more from its dairyette roots. Likewise, I think the better ice cream is served in Lewisville. But the Little Rock location does pimento cheese in its cooler, and almost always has fried pies in the heated case.
The unsung delight: a smoked brisket
sandwich. (Kat Robinson)
And the Little Rock location always has whatever I am looking for to add to my immediate larder -- smoked meats, smoked cheeses, tubs of the pimento cheese and the turkey salad and even Mexican Coke for me to enjoy while I'm gnawing on a smoked beef brisket sandwich (enormously underrated, in my honest opinion). Plus, it is far closer.
However you slice it, two locations of Burge's are just close to being enough to make any Arkansawyer happy. Fifty years of restaurant success sure confirm that.
This is one in a series on historical restaurants in the state of Arkansas. For a look at the Arkansas restaurant timeline, click here.
Fordyce is known for three things – Paul “Bear” Bryant, the Redbugs and Klappenbach Bakery. They represent three ideals: determination, tenacity and community.
Well, the Redbugs are still playing, and Bear Bryant’s legacy is still held dear. But Klappenbach Bakery is now a delicious and fondly favored memory.
For 36 years, the red brick bakery stood sentinel along a stretch of pavement downtown, not far from the railroad tracks. It was a great spot for hot coffee, warm pastries and sweet conversations. Past the pastry cases in the foyer, one would enter a red-washed room decorated with gas station memorabilia and mismatched tables, often packed with the guys from down the street, or local farmers shooting the breeze, or the local civic club. There were lunches taken here, many – but it was breakfast where the place really shined, home to buttery Danish and tiny miniature doughnuts. And oh golly, the monkey bread.
The bakery’s story started 2000 miles away, in the burg of Walla Walla, WA. It began its Arkansas chapter in 1975, when Norman and Lee Klappenbach moved to Fordyce (Lee was originally from Dallas County). Their son Paul was still a kid, ten or eleven years old, when they started up the little bakery that grew a huge following. The family started baking up fresh pastries, bread and doughnuts in the area because fresh baked goods weren’t locally available. It didn’t take long for folks to find them… following the aroma of cinnamon rolls that would waft blocks away. By the time the Klappenbachs threw in the towel in 2011, they averaged 75 people each day for lunch – an impressive ratio for a town of just 5000 people.
Breakfast, lunch… a community can live on that. It can thrive on baked goods, though, and Klappenbach has plenty: miniature doughnuts for a quarter apiece, big fat fresh loaves of bread, the aforementioned monkey bread, fritters and cinnamon rolls, raisin bread, pies, brownies, cupcakes, pecan rolls, bear claws, cookies and cakes. In 1991 the bakery started doing mail-order, and the orders started rolling in from all over the country – first from ex-pats who wanted a taste of home, then from folks who were lucky enough to share in that bounty, then from people who’d never stepped foot in Arkansas but had read about the place in Southern Living.
It became tradition for travelers passing through town on Highway 167 to make it their pit shop – and for some, like myself, it became a culinary destination. I used to find reasons to divert up to an hour off my path just to pick up a moist cake or a box of brownies to take with me wherever I was going. Long before culinary tourism became a “thing,” there were so many practicing that art with their own paths through south central Arkansas.
When a fire shut down the bakery in 2009, we all feared the end had come and eulogized our happy spot in town. But we were treated to a coda, a little window of opportunity, when the place reopened a few months later. For one more year, there were tiny doughnuts and massive cinnamon rolls again.
And then it was over. Norman Klappenbach was 80, his wife Lee 77, and they were done. Son Paul was 47. He’d spent seven years working 65 hours a week to keep the bakery open, but it just wasn’t in him anymore. With no one else left to take up the reins of business, the bakery shut its doors October 1st of 2011.
There’s still no replacement for that heavenly scent that would sometimes waft as far as the bypass. But there are good memories… and I keep hoping one day I’ll see mention somewhere that I can order a box of bread (three loaves, or a loaf and a cake) through the mail. I sure miss that monkey bread.
This is one in a series on historical restaurants in the state of Arkansas. For a look at the Arkansas restaurant timeline, click here.
Brothers B-B-Q's barbecue beef sandwich with mayo slaw
and sauce, served under pickle with two sides. (Kat Robinson)
Sometimes fate puts you where you need to be. For Larry Cordell, that place was Heber Springs. And for Heber Springs, that’s a blessing paid out in barbecue and good will.
Larry runs a place called Brother’s B-B-Q. But he started out in aviation. After runs with an airline in Dallas and a similar aviation situation in Memphis, he ended up managing a tool store in Heber Springs. That didn’t work out so well.
But why Heber? Because the place had a hold on his heart. His family used to come to Heber Springs for vacations, for the beauty of the place and the excellent fishing. He jumped into that new career for the opportunity to spend more time there.
Pork ribs! (courtesy
Larry Cordell)
As I said, the tool franchise didn’t work out for Cordell, so he ended up taking another job at the Eden Isle marina. That job worked out all right for a while, and on the weekends he’d grill out with his fellow co-workers. Thing is, Larry Cordell had a gift for creating some gastronomic grilling goodness, and within a short time the folks that ran the Eden Isle resort started throwing money his way to help him supplement the pork butts and ribs he threw on the barbecue with shrimp, frog legs and crab.
Larry Cordell of Brothers B-B-Q. (Kat Robinson)
Cordell will tell you a couple of different things in conversation, if you get the chance to sit down with him in his restaurant today. One of those things would be how breathtaking the Heber Springs area happens to be – and I agree with him on that. The other would be just how hard it is to start a business in the community. Sure, for five months each year from spring to early fall, the town booms with folks coming in to fish and relax along Greers Ferry Lake and the Little Red River. But those other seven months can be harsh, with just the locals available to drop on in. He related to me during my visit how hard it was, and mentioned a running stream of individuals who had sold everything to come run a store or a shop in town, only to lose their shirts when winter came.
Strangely enough, that’s how Larry Cordell ended up back in Heber Springs. Word of his grilling and smoking expertise got around, and a couple of brothers who barbecued heard that word. They owned Brothers B-B-Q, and had not the success they had hoped for. They contacted Cordell and asked him if he’d like to buy their place. He refused – but they wouldn’t take no for an answer, and they showed up on his doorsteps with the keys and told him Brothers B-B-Q was his.
They were generous – they left him with enough money to get started, to keep the power on and to make his first food order. So in 1989, with no previous restaurant experience and a lot of goodwill from family and friends, Cordell took on the job and got started.
It's in the store. Ask Larry.
You know what? He did just fine. He was smart, too – playing to his constituency, which happened to be heavy on people who fished. He printed his menu on the back side of a map of the lake, and he’d share with his customers the best places on the lake to go, when to go and what to expect when they got out there. Add in the fact that he did a superb smoke on his meat, and never made up that ‘cue before it was ordered, and a fine reputation was born.
Brothers B-B-Q today. (Kat Robinson)
For 14 years, Cordell’s place did great business. But a fire took it down to the ground. That didn’t stop him. He got a trailer and continued selling barbecue for a couple of years, before finding the place the restaurant’s set up in now, along the bypass. Inside today, the place looks like a lot of other good old-fashioned barbecue joints – rustic, tin, photos on the wall and sauce on the table.
Sandwiches come with slaw or naked; add the sauce
of your choice at the table. (Kat Robinson)
It’s a good ‘cue, too. The pulled pork has notoriety around these parts, hickory smoked and delicious. The ribs are legendary, and the other offerings just as good. Some swear by the slaw – I found I really liked the mayo version, but the tart and vinegary version is also fantastic. Lots of sides are offered, including potato salad, baked beans, fries and corn on the cob. The menu hasn’t changed much in all that time. Cordell says the newest thing on the menu is nachos – tortilla chips piled high with shredded cheese and barbecue meat, sauce and sour cream. It’s popular.
Specials at the door. (Kat Robinson)
And he’s popular. Cordell makes time to offer the restaurant out for folks who need a place to meet, and gives barbecue out for good causes. He’s quiet and kind, and as I said, he knows a thing or two about fishing.
Smokehouse out back. (Kat Robinson)
Cordell shared the recipe for the coleslaw with ArkansasOnline a few years ago, and I offer the link for it here. But you should consider a drop-in if you are in the area. The tea is cold, the ‘cue is smoky and the sauce is packed with spices. Nearly 25 years down and heaven knows how many to go, Brother’s B-B-Q is like to stay on as a Heber Springs mainstay for years to come.
Brothers B-B-Q
301 Southridge
Heber Springs, AR 72543
(501) 362-5712 Also on Facebook
This is one in a series on historical restaurants in the state of Arkansas. For a look at the Arkansas restaurant timeline, click here.
The famed McClard's Bar-B-Q today. (Grav Weldon)
There’s another family restaurant of some renown out of Hot Springs… one of those places everyone’s heard of. Five generations of a single family have operated the little whitewashed building along Albert Pike… and the place goes back to the 1920s. That place… is McClard’s Bar-B-Q.
Before there was a McClard’s, there was the Westside Tourist Court, a motorcourt motel serving the needs of travelers coming to Hot Springs for the healing waters and the ponies. Travelers would come and go. Some would stay longer than others. There was one particular traveler who overstayed the contents of his wallet – and when he went to check out after two months, he didn’t have the $10 he owed on the bill. So he made an offer -- for a barbecue sauce recipe he said was the “best barbecue sauce in the world,” in exchange for his debt. The deal was struck, and soon the Westside Tourist Court became Westside Barbecue.
It wasn’t long before Alex and Gladys McClard had themselves a booming business. Folks came from all over to enjoy that sauce slathered on smoked… goat. No joke. After a while, the meat started to vary a bit, and pork and eventually beef were introduced.
In 1942 the whole operation moved three blocks down the road to the current location at 505 Albert Pike… and it became a drive-in, complete with carhops. Customers would pull up outside and honk and a ‘hop would come out and take the order.
Eventually the building was expanded, and by the time I was aware of the world around me, around the late 70s, there was a dining room with booths and stools lined up at the lunch counter. There was and still is one door for to-go orders and another, on the corner, to enter the dining room – both on the east side of the store. Another comes in from the parking lot on the west side.
Not much has changed in the past 85 years. A short while back, McClard’s started selling smoked chickens on Wednesdays… and they just disintegrate when you pick up a leg. There was also this patron that kept coming back all the time, a boy who went to school in town who, when he couldn’t make the drive after he moved away, would send folks to come get him some ‘cue. Some guy named Bill, you might have heard
Rib and Fries plate with tamale, sliced
beef sandwich and fries. (Grav Weldon)
about him.
The meat? It goes into the smoker naked – no spices or marinade. It’s all that hickory smoke flavor you get in the end. And of course the sauce – sweet, tomato-based, a little vinegary and a little spice and that’s it. Simple and just the same as it’s always been.
Ribs and Fries. (Kat Robinson)
And then there are the tamales… unlike most masa tamales or any tamales you might find in the Delta, these chopped beef and chopped pork blended and stuffed tamales look like some strange extrusion. They’re steamed up in paper that’s tied at the ends, rather than in corn shucks. They’re served one or two to a plate with saltines, the way Arkansas tamales are traditionally served. You really want to do up a good one – you need to have yourself a Tamale Spread – which is a bed of a tamale or two topped with Fritos and chopped beef and chili beans and cheese and onions and barbecue sauce on top. Woo-ee. The family says that spread was created by a guy who came in one day with a hangover.
Look at them ribs. (Kat Robinson)
But the iconic dish has to be the Ribs and Fries – which is a slab of ribs served under a pile of French fries. I’d suggest doing what my photographer did – and others around me have done – substitute a tamale for half those fries.
A sliced beef sandwich with plenty of sauce. (Kat Robinson)
Me? While I have oft been tempted by the burger on the menu, I have yet to order it. Depending on my mood, I will go for that beef sandwich, either chopped or sliced. And I am never disappointed by that pile of beef with the cabbage and mayo on it, drizzled in sauce on a Sunbeam bun.
Unless it’s Wednesday, and then I’m having chicken. It’s marinated a whole night before it goes on the smoker. I wish they did chicken every day.
They sure do a lot of barbecue… each week, some 7000 pounds-worth goes into the pit for smoking. They make up and sell 250 gallons of baked beans and 250 gallons of coleslaw, too – and it’s all made fresh in the wee hours of the morning each day.
I miss Ms. Wyona. (Kat Robinson)
Now, I did mention that nothing much has changed in 85 years. But I am wrong. Something significant has changed. Just here recently, Ms. Wyona Rowton has left the premises. Any Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday you could find her scooting about, taking orders and delivering them to the tables. Wonderful woman, always polite and happy. Ms. Wyona retired in May 2011 after 53 years at the restaurant.
Inside the restaurant. (Grav Weldon)
There are other folks who have been there a while – 10, 20, 30 years. And the family. The fifth generation of McClards are working the pit and the register these days. I expect by the time I hang up my hat there will be seventh and eighth generation McClards in the restaurant.
Some guy named Bill signed this photo for the wall. (Grav Weldon)
So… want to go? McClard’s Bar-B-Q is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Of course it’s packed around mealtime, but there’s usually a goodly number of people there even on off hours. I suggest 3 p.m. If you don’t want to wait, you can get a to-go but don’t you dare ask for a reservation. That right belongs solely to that one guy, Bill – you know, the one who’s been coming since his school days.
And if you can’t go at all, you can get some of that barbecue sauce from local grocery stores around these parts or on the McClard’s website, here. Call (501) 624-9586 if you need some more information.
Brown's Country Store and Restaurant. (Grav Weldon)
This is one in a series on historical restaurants in the state of Arkansas. For a look at the Arkansas restaurant timeline, click here.
It is very possible that I had my first real restaurant experience at a place in Benton. It’s likely, considering that’s where my parents lived in the early 70s, around the time that Brown’s Country Store and Restaurant was just starting to bud.
If you've driven that stretch of I-30 at any point in your life, chances are you've noticed the two story brown porch-wrapped building on the west side of the interstate. If that’s been in the past decade or so you've also likely seen the billboards advertising the 100 foot buffet, fried green tomatoes and an old fashioned country store experience. And that’s exactly what you get when you walk through the doors.
Phillip and Cissy Brown (photo taken
at Silver Dollar City in the early 1970s)
The country store experience was certainly something that sparked the imagination of Phillip Brown. He graduated in 1971 from Castle Heights Military Academy in Lebanon, Tennessee – in an area that had a plethora of country stores and country restaurants (including what would become the national chain known for that concept). After returning to Arkansas, Brown headed to UALR. He was mostly interested in pursuing an accounting degree – that is, until he noticed a sweet young co-ed by the name of Cissy Carttar. They were smitten with each other, and soon their dreams evolved into a new plan of action – to open a country store and restaurant, much like Phillip had seen out in mid-Tennessee – right in Central Arkansas.
Advertisements for
Schmand's Candyland.
Now, Phillip Brown’s dad, Calvin, had invested in a property along I-30. For a while it was rented out and known as Bud Schmand’s Candyland – where candies were made fresh daily. Being located on the access road on the main path to Hot Springs, Schmand’s was in an ideal location to draw in tourists looking for souvenirs. They found them – everything from those candies to hand blown glass, from Arkansas honey to jams and jellies and even pottery. Phillip Brown had even started working there at the age of 12, helping out in the candy kitchen for the grand rate of 50 cents an hour.
The original Brown's. (courtesy April Rye)
Well, he and Cissy had a place, and they had a dream. They took to renovating the old Candyland location while planning their wedding over a six month period of time. Just a week after they married on June 8th, 1973, Brown’s was opened.
Waitresses dressed in pinafores.
(courtesy April Rye)
Mind you, this wasn't the grand buffet we know today. It was primarily a made-to-order breakfast place that served up pancakes, country ham and biscuits with sawmill gravy. For lunch you could get a sandwich or a hot dog. It was a quaint and comfortable place where the waitresses wore long dresses and pinafores.
Pickle and cracker barrels and hoop cheese.
(courtesy April Rye)
There were the trappings of the country store about – including wooden barrels that contained crackers (hmm, sound familiar?) and big fat dill pickles. You could come in and cut your own slab from a 24 pound round of hoop cheddar cheese, or have that same cheese melted on your burger.
One of the old menus from Brown's Country Store. Check out the prices!
(courtesy April Rye, click to enlarge)
It wasn't long before the Browns were offering plate lunches, dipped sundaes and root beer floats. And soon they had their first buffet… a 10 foot long affair that, frankly, was a pretty popular concept to those travelers who hit the interstate. That includes my family, too.
Inside Brown's in the early 1980s. (courtesy April Rye)
Brown’s had it all – a growing family that was eager to listen to customers; a great location on the interstate access road; a great concept. Soon it was time to expand – since all those travelers coming in required that the original gift shop be converted into seating.
Brown's after the early 1980s expansion.
(courtesy April Rye)
The building was expanded outward and upward, and the Candyland idea of making candy on-site returned with the reintroduction of hand-dipped chocolates and cream-n-butter fudge made right in the store. Local crafts filled the space: everything from quilts to candles, dresses and caps and every manner of Arkansas souvenir were displayed, along with toys such as Raggedy Ann dolls and stick horses; inspirational figurines and everything Christmas.
Baked chicken. (Grav Weldon)
Fried chicken. (Grav Weldon)
Fried green tomatoes. (Grav Weldon)
Fried catfish. (Grav Weldon)
And that buffet, well, it grew. It grew a LOT – and today it boasts 100 feet of great Southern cooking.
There’s even a dish called Trace Creek Potatoes – which is a cheesy potato casserole topped with cornflakes and butter. The Benton Junior Auxiliary included the recipe in a cookbook some time back (you can still find copies here on Al Libris).
And when you get done eating, even today, you go into the gift shop and walk off some of those calories.
Inside the gift shop. (Kat Robinson)
It’s the only place around where you can find a lot of those products, including Chandler’s Chili Mix – which was started up by one of the Browns’ neighbors. The salt water taffy comes from the Old Smoky Candy Kitchen in Gatlinburg – and it’s still sold at the restaurant because it holds special memories of the Browns’ honeymoon there in 1973. And anything in the store can be shipped anywhere in the world.
Barrels of candy. (Kat Robinson)
Anytime I go, I have to get rock candy on a stick. I know, I’m a grown woman now, but I can remember from being very small asked what I might like from the gift shop – and that’s what I've always chose. I’m sure I’ll have another small brown bag full of the crystallized sugar on sticks next time I walk out that door.
Gift shop. (Kat Robinson)
Quilts for sale. (Kat Robinson)
I'm not the only one that keeps dropping back in. Over the years the restaurant has had more than its share of celebrities drop in -- from Hank Williams Jr. to Toby Keith, everyone from Vince Gill and Trace Adkins to George Jones, Tracy
Phillip and Cissy Brown with daughters
April and Melody (courtesy April Rye)
Lawrence, Brooks and Dunn and David Allan Coe. Miranda Lambert has even dropped in several times -- a while back, she told folks at a concert in Little Rock that it was where she often landed traveling between Nashville and Texas -- and that she grew up on the food!
It’s been just about 40 years now since Brown’s Country Store and Restaurant opened, and it’s still going strong. April Rye, one of Phillip and Cissy Brown’s daughters, shared with me the three secrets of business for the family:
Wonderful customers.
Dedicated and great employees.
God’s abundant blessings.
Phillip and Cissy Brown with granddaughters
Madison and Savannah today. (courtesy April Rye)
Brown’s Country Store and Restaurant is open every day. Lunch is still just $8.99 and the seafood buffet after 4 p.m. (and on the weekends) is $10.99 – still pretty dang cheap after all these years. To get there, take exit 118 on Interstate 30 in Benton. If you’re heading in from Little Rock, it’s immediately at the end of the ramp. If you’re coming from the other way, follow the one-way access road to the Highway 5 overpass, crossover and come back on the other access road to the restaurant.
Check out the website or give them a call at (501) 778-5033 if you’d like some more information.
