Cracker Barrel Off to Booming Start in Bentonville

The Bentonville location of restaurant chain Cracker Barrel Old Country Store has yet to celebrate its first birthday, but one thing is already clear — Benton County loves its Cracker Barrel.

Despite being open just eight months, sales at the restaurant at 2307 S.E. Walton Blvd. near Interstate 49 totaled $2.55 million in 2014, ranking second on the list of Bentonville’s top 10 restaurants.

That’s according to the 1 percent hotel-motel-restaurant, or “hamburger,” tax collected by the Bentonville Advertising & Promotion Commission. The tax is collected on prepared foods and non-alcoholic beverages.

The Bentonville location opened its doors to customers on April 28. And it’s important to note the tax collection totals do not reflect any items sold in the retail “general store” side of the business.

“We’re very pleased with our sales,” said Charlie Brown, the manager of the Cracker Barrel in Bentonville. “Certainly we have some room to grow with that, and I think we will.”

The Northwest Arkansas Business Journal used the A&P commission’s data to calculate revenue for restaurants in Bentonville and identify the top 30 in terms of sales last year.

Bentonville’s top 30 restaurants had combined sales of $57.03 million in 2014, a 16.7 percent increase from $48.88 million in 2013.

The 2014 sales total of $7.45 million by Eurest Dining Services, the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. home office cafeteria, is intentionally excluded from the ranking. Also excluded are Sam’s Club and Walmart Supercenter delis.

For a list of Bentonville’s top 30 restaurants, click here.

 

Good Food, Affordable Prices

With a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu based on traditional Southern fare of “down-home,” country cooking, Cracker Barrel is known for its home-style menu items such as meatloaf, chicken fried steak, grilled pork chops and homemade chicken ’n’ dumplins, as well as its signature biscuits using an old family recipe.

“Our food is of a very high quality with good ingredients and that is something that makes me proud of the company I work for,” Brown said. “We have good food at affordable prices.”

Cracker Barrel was established in 1969 in Lebanon, Tennessee, and operates 634 company-owned locations in 42 states. All of them are open seven days a week with hours Sunday through Thursday from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Brown has worked for the company for a little over a decade but has worked in the restaurant industry for almost 30 years. He said his personal philosophy of operating a restaurant is simple — be a people-pleaser.

“I am an avid fan of taking care of people,” he explained. “At the end of the day, I want each of our guests to leave happy and want to come back. In a sense, they are guests in my house, and if I have a guest, I want to make sure I have done everything I can for them.”

Brown, who was born in Missouri, was living in Arizona when he was assigned to open Cracker Barrel’s Bentonville location.

Relocating to the area, he said, has not been a disappointment.

“The community has given us such a warm reception,” he said. “Whether it’s the mayor or anyone who has come into the restaurant, they’ve all been so friendly.”

Brown said, like any business, the popularity of Cracker Barrel has leveled off in the months that followed its grand opening. But, as evidenced by the A&P data, business has remained strong, especially on weekends.

 “It’s nice to see a full restaurant on Saturday morning and Sunday morning,” he said. “The hustle and bustle we have every weekend is a great feeling. We have a wait [to be seated] in the mornings on weekends, which is very normal for us.”

Brown said the restaurant can seat 177 customers, and it is staffed by more than 100 employees.

 

The Top Five

Sales at the Chick-fil-A restaurant at 209 S. Walton Blvd. continue to top all other restaurants. The Georgia-based chain had sales of $3.77 million at its only Bentonville location, up 11.5 percent from 2013, and more than $800,000 more than Cracker Barrel.

Chick-fil-A’s first full year in business in Bentonville was in 2009, and it has topped the list of the city’s top-performing restaurants each year since, despite being open just six days a week.

The reason for the closure on Sunday, according to the company’s website, is as much practical as spiritual. Company founder Truett Cathy, who died in September at age 93, made the decision to close on Sundays in 1946 when he opened his first restaurant in Hapeville, Georgia. He believed all franchised Chick-fil-A operators and their restaurant employees should have an opportunity to rest, spend time with family and friends and worship if they choose to do so.

“It’s possibly the best decision I’ve ever made,” Cathey told the Macon (Georgia) Telegraph in 2005.

Panera Bread Co. ranked third on the list with $2.52 million, followed by The Hive, the trendy restaurant inside the 21c Museum Hotel on the downtown square. It had sales of $2.41 million in 2014, up 33 percent from the previous year, the largest increase on the list, other than Taziki’s Mediterranean Café. The Alabama-based chain opened in December 2013, thus had a substantial increase of 3,325 percent with 2014 sales of $1.37 million.

Sushi House, a business locally owned by John Wei, rounded out the top five with $2.29 million, a 15.7 percent increase from the previous year.

 

Other Numbers

A number of restaurants that are staples of Bentonville’s food scene but were not among the top 30 in sales last year were: Tusk & Trotter American Brasserie ($1.12 million), The Pressroom ($993,700), River Grille ($860,600) and Doe’s Eat Place ($760,600).

That’s not to say they aren’t without their own successes. Tusk & Trotter, located just off the downtown square and owned by Chef Rob Nelson, topped $1 million in sales for the first time since opening in June 2011, and has increased sales by 45 percent since 2012 sales of $771,000.

And, in year-over-year comparisons from 2013 to 2014, sales were up 38.5 percent at The Pressroom, 10.3 percent at River Grille and 5.5 percent at Doe’s.

Fred’s Hickory Inn, which opened in 1970 and is one of the oldest sit-down restaurants in Benton County, had sales of $808,600 last year, despite closing on Oct. 23 because of an overnight fire that caused significant interior damage.

The iconic hillside restaurant on North Walton Boulevard — known for its hickory smoked pit barbecue meals, hand-cut steaks, smoked meats, pastas and homemade desserts — remains closed, but a reconstruction project recently got underway, putting the business in line for a summer re-opening.