Patrons Tap Into Maxine’s for 50 years of ‘Miller Time’

In 1950, University of Arkansas students started visiting Maxine’s Tap Room to drink cold beer, play dominoes and plug change into the arcade bowling machine known as “Ding Ding.” Nearly 50 years later, they still do.

Maxine Miller’s dimly lit pub at 107 N. Block Ave. is believed to be the longest running woman-owned business in Fayetteville. But to patrons, Maxine’s is more than just a popular tavern – it’s a temple.

Sandy Thompson attended the UA from 1985-90 and is now the statewide sales manager of Oklahoma for Lucent Technologies of Trenton, N.J. He says Maxine’s is as much a part of the UA experience as Old Main and Razorbacks football.

“There’s so much tradition surrounding Maxine’s,” Thompson says. “You always heard about it at school, and you couldn’t wait until you were 21 so you could go there. The place just becomes a part of you, and Maxine has never strayed from what’s made her business successful.

“It’s like McDonald’s. You know what to expect when you get there.”

Maxine’s, just 1 1/2 blocks south of Dickson Street, has a capacity of 113 people. But Miller’s capacity for turning her patrons into lifelong pals is far greater. Customers say the T-shirts she sells for $16 each say it best: “It was your parent’s bar. Now it’s yours. A Fayetteville tradition for 49 years.”

The next generation of shirts won’t be printed until around March 18, 2000, which will mark Miller’s 50th year in business. But the success of Maxine’s keeps her memorabilia in demand year-round.

“All I know is everyone wants a shirt,” Miller says. “And most of them are buying them for their parents.”

A favorite watering hole of UA law school students, Maxine’s is not without its share of noteworthy alumni.

President Bill Clinton was a regular when he taught at the law school from 1974-75. The late Fred Spies, a popular UA law professor, frequented Maxine’s in the 1950s with Robert Wright, a now retired UA and University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Over the years, dozens of educators and future judges have held court at one time or another in Maxine’s green leather booths.

“I bet I played that bowling machine of hers 500 times,” says Fayetteville lawyer Woody Bassett, who attended the UA and its law school from 1970-77.

“There are probably very few people who have been through law school up here in the last 30 years who haven’t spent a little time in Maxine’s.”

The same goes for the rest of the student population. Former Razorbacks basketball center and NBA veteran Joe Kleine says Miller’s humor and smile still keep him coming back whenever he’s in town.

“Maxine is a smart business lady,” Kleine says. “She’s got ‘Ding Ding,’ a juke box that plays good music and cold beer. What more could you want? I love walking in and seeing her always sitting there in her same spot.

“Going to Maxine’s is one of my fondest memories of going to school at Arkansas.”

Kleine says the best way to find out why Miller has been in business so long is to ask her how much money it would take to buy the Tap Room. Miller isn’t quoting prices just yet, but she admits the prospect of her 50th year in business has her thinking more seriously about retirement.

“I’ve thought about getting out over the years,” Miller says. “But I didn’t know what I’d do if I did. I love my place. I wish I could stay 50 more years. You have to love people to run one of these places. My health will be the only thing that’ll get me out of here.”

Old times

Miller was 24 when she bought the wood-framed Tap Room building from Clyde Walters with money borrowed from her parents, Robert and Margie Elliott Rickert. Growing up on her family’s farm along the Muddy Fork River in Prairie Grove, Miller developed a love for the Ozarks.

She left Arkansas only for a brief period in 1943, to pursue a series of West Coast retail jobs with Sears, J.C. Penney’s and Montgomery Ward. Miller has had only five jobs in her life, and the fourth came in the late 1940s when she returned to Northwest Arkansas to manage two Fayetteville restaurants.

The experience convinced Miller to go into business for herself.

“The owners were making all the money and I wasn’t getting anything,” Miller says. “It wasn’t any harder being a businesswoman back in the 1950s. This was a booming business right from the start. It changes all the time, but we just worked hard and everyone was always good to me.”

Maxine’s originally served hand-tossed pizzas and sandwiches and draft beers were 25 cents each. They’re only $1 today.

Although Miller was usually everything from the Tap Room’s CEO to bouncer, from time to time her siblings would help pour beer or wait tables. The late Bun Thomas, Helen Braucher and Andrew Rickert are all still part of Maxine’s lore.

From 1951-54, Miller owned and operated Mayo’s Bar & Brill on College Avenue. She served steak and seafood but got out of the restaurant business because it was so demanding.

Miller gained another helpful hand in Jim Miller when she married him in December of 1960 on his birthday. Jim, who died in 1983, started the law school’s longstanding romance with Maxine’s by taking his classmates there.

“Maxine and Jim were a great pair,” says Bob McBride, president of McBride Distributing Co. of Fayetteville, which distributes Anheuser-Busch products.

“He was a big asset to her, and she always had the perfect business sense for running an establishment like the Tap Room. I’ve done business with her for 40 years, and she’ll give you the shirt off her back. At the same time, if you thought you were going to tell Maxine Miller how to run her business, you are in the wrong place.”

In 1963, Miller bulldozed the old Tap Room building because, as she laughs, “the termites and woodpeckers had eaten it all up.” Two months later, the final work was still being done on the new brick building on Nov. 23, 1963.

“That was the day President [John] Kennedy was shot,” Miller says. “The TVs had just been installed the day before, and all of the carpenters just stopped. They all sat down here and watched it with me. I put them back to work that night, though.”

Life to ‘The Max’

As notorious as she is for being a hard-nosed businesswoman, Miller’s passion for horse racing is just as well known. She used to close down regularly to visit Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs. State Sen. David Malone, D-Fayetteville, says he knew his age had caught up with him seven years ago when his son, Mike, requested a couple of Oaklawn passes for his friend, “Maxine.”

“She used to carry her winnings in her pantyhose because she didn’t carry a purse to the races,” says Carol Walker, vice president of retail banking at McIlroy Bank & Trust in Fayetteville.

“Maxine could always pick a winner, and she usually brought home something to back it up. I’ve known her for 27 years, and she’s just a shrewd, shrewd lady.”

Miller has in recent years spent less time recreating at the horse track and more going to casinos in Tunica, Miss., or visiting her sister, Lula Bell, 80, in St. Helen’s, Ore. She spends her spare time growing an impressive personal portfolio that was developed by investments in land, stocks and bonds.

The bulk of Miller’s energy, however, is still spent on people. Former Maxine’s bartender Mary Jarrett of Sherwood, a retired teacher who worked at the Tap Room from 1970-72, says Miller’s knack for making customers feel “special and comfortable” is what’s given the business its longevity.

“We’d have the construction workers in at four,” Jarrett says. “Then we’d have the lawyers and law students in from five to six. Then the rest of the students came. She treated them all the same, and they all called her momma. I was visiting my daughter in Fayetteville recently and went by to see Maxine. It’s still the same.”

Miller’s motto is, “Anyone who behaves themselves is welcome at Maxine’s.” She says treating good customers right and getting rid of the bad ones are both important. Scott Hardin, a partner with the law firm of Jones, Jackson & Moll PLC in Fort Smith, says Miller never had a problem with either.

“I never saw a fight or had a bad time in Maxine’s,” says Hardin, who frequented the tavern while attending UA law school. “After we lost the 1990 Texas A&M football game, there were a lot of rowdy A&M fans in there. But everyone got along fine. There’s just something about Maxine that smoothes everything over.”

As hard as it is for Miller to see students go, the ones who get to know her best say it’s even more difficult to tell her “goodbye.” She’s employed scores of students over the years and given countless more job leads after they graduate.

Engineering student Jeffrey Callahan of Forrest City has tended bar there the last three years. He plans to graduate in December.

“Maxine is like my mom,” Callahan says. “She always brings me food and takes care of me. She gets so sad every semester when people leave because she gets so close to her customers. I’m going to hate to go, too.”