2020 Arkansas Food Hall of Fame winners are announced

The Department of Arkansas Heritage has announced the winners for the 2020 class of the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame.

The Arkansas Food Hall of Fame was launched by Arkansas Heritage in 2016 to recognize Arkansas’ iconic restaurants, proprietors and food-themed events.

“We are thrilled with the statewide representation in this program, seen both in the nominees and winners,” said Stacy Hurst, secretary of the Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism. “Arkansas food is an important part of our shared culture and we are honored to be telling its story.”

Nominations were accepted from the public in five categories: Food Hall of Fame, Proprietor of the Year, Food-Themed Event, Gone But Not Forgotten and People’s Choice. This year, there were more than 1,450 nominations.

The Arkansas Food Hall of Fame Committee chose the finalists in each category and the winners were announced at a reception and induction ceremony at Ron Robinson Theater in Little Rock on Monday (Feb. 24).

The winners are:

Arkansas Food Hall of Fame
Cattleman’s Steak House of Texarkana (Miller County)
Ed Walker’s Drive-In & Restaurant of Fort Smith (Sebastian County)
Murry’s Restaurant of Hazen (Prairie County)

Proprietor of the Year
Scott McGehee of Little Rock (Pulaski County)

Food-Themed Events
International Greek Food Festival (Pulaski County)

Gone But Not Forgotten
Shadden’s BBQ of Marvell (Phillips County)

People’s Choice
The Ohio Club of Hot Springs (Garland County)

The selection committee included Paul S. Austin, Swannee Bennett, Evette Brady, Julienne Crawford, C.C. (Chip) Culpepper, Cindy Grisham, Stacy Hurst, Montine McNulty, Tim Morton, Rex Nelson, Tim Nutt, Kat Robinson and Christina Shutt.

Visit ArkFoodHOF.com for more on the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame.