Bring Back the Minute Man.

Arkansas has its share of chain restaurants where one can go to get a burger, fries or a shake. But there’s a homegrown chain that took off here from 1948 that still holds a dear place in the taste memories of thousands of Arkansawyers. Kat Robinson shares why it’s time to bring back the Minute Man.

What would Wendy’s be like without the slogan “Old-Fashioned Hamburgers?” Would fast food restaurants be the same without product giveaways? And would those chains be so popular without special meals for kids?

These sort of developments were part of the marketing genius of an Arkansas-based hamburger chain that’s almost faded from history. Almost. Of course, with a little luck and a lot of participation, it could come back.

Of course, I am talking about the Minute Man. Wes Hall’s original concept restaurant came out of a 24 hour coffee shop he owned with two other partners at 407 Broadway in Little Rock, way back in 1948. Eight years into the operation, he bought out his partners and converted the place into a hamburger joint. Soon, he had franchised out the Minute Man name and product across the state and even further – to seven states and 57 locations.

Hall’s first restaurant was one of three in the nation to receive brand new microwave “Radar Ranges” from Raytheon to try out – and Minute Man pioneered microwave usage in fast food. If you ever had the chance to savor a Radar Deep Dish Pie (if you were smart enough to let it cool, of course, and didn't singe off your taste buds), you had a microwaved food item – a disc of doughy crust atop the bubbling magma of the filling – in cherry, peach, apple or strawberry.

He understood marketing before marketing was a big buzz word in Arkansas. He figured out what people wanted and got them to buy those things from his store. And he knew how to cross-promote. Back in 1975, he teamed up with the Coca-Cola company to do something revolutionary – offer a real glass with the Minute Man logo with a drink purchase. You’ll still see those bold red, white and blue bi-centennial glasses in homes and on the shelves of local flea markets.

1975 was also the year the Magic Meal was patented. It may be hard for some of you younger folks to believe, but used to be if you wanted to order something for your kid, it came off the same menu as the adults used. Here’s a link to the patent – which includes the idea of “PREPARING A HAMBURGER SANDWICH WITH FRENCH FRIED POTATOES SOLD IN A SPECIAL CONTAINER WHICH CONTAINS A MAGIC TRICK, SOLD AS PART OF A RESTAURANT OPERATION.” Minute Man sold Magic Meals two years before McDonald’s recognizes the birth of the Happy Meal. Eventually Minute Man sold the rights to sell Magic Meals (including the name) to Burger King – which did so in 1982 and 1983.

Minute Man also beat McDonald’s to the punch on a signature sandwich. The “Big M” was a double full-sized patty burger that came with cheese, chopped onion, lettuce, tomato and a relish sauce which debuted in 1966. The Big Mac, McDonald’s signature burger, debuted in 1967 at a single location in Pennsylvania.

Wes Hall was an innovator, for sure – and Minute Man became part of the fabric of Arkansas food culture. If you were to ask someone from around here which restaurant would survive to today, Minute Man or McDonald’s, back in 1977 – chances are they’d guess Minute Man. Of course, in 1977, they’d also have likely guessed that Breaker Drive-Ins would be around, rather than Sonic – but that’s a story for a different time.

When I wrote this blog back in March of 2013, I had no idea how many people were about to come out of the woodwork to reminisce with me. THV 11 did a piece in the time I was doing my research… and Monica Madey Mylonas followed in May with a feature in the third edition of Arkansauce. The UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture debuted a new Character Collection piece on Wes Hall and Minute Man. And talk got around.

Someone even gave me a copy of the old relish sauce recipe from the Minute Man… but I’m not quite ready to share it. I’m still looking to make sure I’m not stepping on any toes!

But there seems to be a real desire to revisit those flavors. As I've mentioned in some of my recent talks here and there, some of our restaurant flavors can easily be saved and shared at other restaurants. In particular, what Local Lime in Little Rock is doing with its Taco Kid Tuesdays, offering dishes from the original Taco Kid the first Tuesday of each month, is a possibility. I’d love to see a restaurant offer up a Big M, a #2 (that’s the hickory burger with smoke sauce) or a Radar Deep Dish Pie as a call-back to a great era.

More than that, there have been rumors for years that the Minute Man chain could be franchised out. Wouldn’t that be neat? Here’s a great chance for a nostalgia trip. I could see one going up all decked out in 1960s-style décor – the hipsters would love it.

But for those of us who have missed relish sauce and such, there is a single location of the Minute Man left. It’s in El Dorado on Main Street, a few blocks from the downtown square. It’s a little odd – it serves Mexican food, too, or a facsimile thereof – but it does have that relish sauce and it is in one of the original Minute Man buildings. Patronize it if you are in the area, and think back to the days of Wes Hall and his innovative ideas.

You’ll find the El Dorado Minute Man at 318 West Main Street – the phone number is (870) 862-7995.

Minute Man: Smoke on the Burger.

This is one in a series on historical restaurants in the state of Arkansas. For a look at the Arkansas restaurant timeline, click here.

At the end of 56th Street, the cut-through to University Avenue, there was a Minute Man restaurant. It was on the south side of the intersection, across from Zimmerman’s gas station, and from time to time if we could afford it I could have a nice, mean and hot burger on a toasted bun. And if I was really good, I got ice cream.

There was also a Minute Man on Broadway, and it was there through my high school years. I recall going in as a little girl with my mom. They had just introduced their first kids meal called the Magic Meal (this is the late 70s) and my first one had come with a little green army man. The second one, my mom pulled out the burger and I took a bite and started to cry. There was a piece of gristle inside, or maybe some hard cheese or something – and I thought they’d put the little green army man on the burger and it had melted.

My memories of Minute Man come from childhood. Today they’re all gone, save for one lone holdout in El Dorado – too far for me to grab a #2 on my lunch break. You remember the #2, right? The smoke burger? Char-grilled and dolloped with a liquid smoke goo, never equaled by Sonic (funny, I don’t think they offer a smoke burger any more, either). I can still recall that exact slightly woody flavor.

UALR Center for Arkansas
History and Culture

Vernon Rodgers and Wes Hall.
(UALR Center for Arkansas
History and Culture)

The original location at 407 South Broadway in Little Rock was a low-slung building sitting out back of a parking lot. Raymond Merritt remembers it was originally the Lido Minute Man, but I was born significantly later and only remember it as Wes Hall’s Minute Man. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas says Hall opened the place on May 26th of 1948 as a 24-hour coffee shop with three partners that he

Courtesy Raymond Merritt

eventually bought out before franchising the operation.

It grew, first to Hayes Street (named University Avenue by my time) and then onwards and outwards, eventually spreading to seven states with 57 different restaurants. And the ideas it seeded out spread through the fast food industry. That Magic Meal? It came along before McDonald’s Happy Meal. The #12, known as the “Big M,” was a great double-pattied burger that came along

The #12, or Big M. UALR Center for
Arkansas History and Culture)

before the Big Mac. And about half the burgers if you ordered them as they came (which really was the deal before Burger King started telling people to “have it your way” in the 80s), came with a smattering of “relish sauce” on the bun instead of mustard or mayo – relish sauce being very close to the Thousand Island-type sauce slathered on the Big Mac today. Oh, and if you wanted the lettuce and tomato on a burger like they’re all about served today, you had to order the #6 – the salad burger.

Minute Man was also one of the three restaurants to receive Raytheon’s experimental Radar Ranges. We’re talking a microwave oven – in 1948. While McDonald’s chain restaurants had their fried pies back then (IMHO superior to the baked pies offered today), Minute Man had the Radar Deep Dish Pie – a pot pie that if you were smart you ordered when you got your food so it had enough time to cool on the inside as to not burn your mouth. I only ever remember apple being offered, though the menu Merritt has on his website also shows peach, cherry and strawberry – “Served with Real Butter CREAM 5 cents Extra.”’

Courtesy Raymond Merritt

My mom and I moved to Little Rock in the mid-70s, and I grew up half a mile away from one of the University Avenue locations. It was absolutely as far as I dared to walk from the house, being on the other side of Geyer Springs Elementary by about three blocks. One of those most poignant childhood “fails” I recall was when the place started serving hard-scoop ice cream out the window. I was thrilled to get an ice cream cone with two scoops, side by side in what I believe was called a Sweetheart Cone. I remember going up to the window and waiting while my mom sat in the car. I paid for the treat (I think it was a dollar), turned around and promptly faceplanted on the concrete. Saved most of the cone – except for the very bottom. There was a rush to finish the ice cream before it melted out onto my lap, I remember.

Courtesy Raymond Merritt

By the time I was driving, the Minute Man still open in Little Rock was a block up from the original at 311 South Broadway. The building, if I recall correctly, was painted a pungent green. The interior was dark, and it was often quiet… unless you went at the lunch hour, when generations of traditionalists and Boomers squeezed in for a pick-up order or to quickly manage to consume a burger and fries. It closed for good in June of 2002 to make way for the new Federal Courthouse expansion. By that point, most of the other franchised restaurants had also met their demise – with the exception of that lone El Dorado holdout. Wes Hall didn’t live to see the end of that dream – he passed away a month beforehand.

The El Dorado Minute Man location. (Roadfood.com)

Will the Minute Man ever come back again? According to a posting on Roadfood.com’s forums, the El Dorado restaurant is still serving the same recipes up (I know it also serves cheese dip and burritos, which I don’t recall from the original) – and there was as of December 2012 someone considering opening a new Minute Man in Little Rock. I’m sure if the recipes are followed, that old smoke sauce is brought back and the prices are reasonable, the crowds will follow.

One more note. There's a man who's claimed to have raised me... that'd be the newscaster known as Craig O'Neill. One of these days I'll tell you why. For now, here's a link to the report he did for THV 11 (my old station) about Minute Man and its place in Arkansas history.