Walmart’s new corporate campus in Bentonville will include Wright’s Barbecue restaurant
by April 22, 2024 3:30 pm 4,680 views
Arkansas restaurant chain Wright’s Barbecue will have a new location incorporated into the Walmart corporate campus under construction in Bentonville.
Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart’s senior vice president for corporate real estate, announced the news in an online video discussing the culinary aspects of the new 350-acre campus.
“Your barbecue dreams are going to come true with the addition of another local favorite,” she said. “[Wright’s Barbecue] will be located on 8th Street and open to the community.”
The timeline for the restaurant opening is still being determined.
Jordan Wright opened his first restaurant in October 2017 inside a small, unassuming white house at 2212 Main Drive in Johnson. In the summer of 2017, he left a corporate career with Tyson Foods to give his full attention to the restaurant, which began as a food truck the previous year and still maintains a robust catering division.
With a menu specializing in Texas-style brisket, ribs, sausage, pulled pork and smoked chicken, the restaurant has gained legs as a go-to destination for nationally recognized barbecue.
Wright’s opened a second location in downtown Bentonville in 2020, just across the street from a trailhead for the Slaughter Pen trail system. There are additional locations in Rogers’ Pinnacle Hills area and Little Rock.
CAMPUS UPDATE
In addition to Wright’s, Marsiglio said the campus has food and beverage partnerships lined up with Onyx, Heroes and Airship coffee roasters and a “global array of made-from-scratch delights” at 8th & Plate, the campus food hall that will offer various unique restaurant concepts for employees.
“Built atop an underground kitchen, 8th & Plate will cater to all our business meetings and catering campus events,” Marsiglio said.
Hospitality company LifeWorks Restaurant Group will manage the campus culinary operations.
Marsiglio said each office building on campus will have a “Grab & Go” market, and each office floor will have a community kitchen with self-serve coffee and SodaStream machines.
“More restaurants, menus and details are coming soon,” she said.
Click here to watch the video.
Walmart’s campus construction is nearing the finish line, and most campus buildings are expected to open in 2025. The project is a massive campus build that encompasses roughly nine city blocks, 12 office buildings and 10 community buildings with outdoor and indoor recreation areas.
Click here to take a virtual tour of the new campus.
A 360,000-square-foot campus fitness center opened earlier this year on Southeast Fifth Street. It is the first amenity building to open on Walmart’s new campus since the project’s initial announcement in September 2017.
A second amenity building, the 73,000-square-foot childcare center known as Little Squiggles Children’s Enrichment Center, will open on May 6 at 310 S.E. P St. It has room for over 500 children, ranging in ages from six weeks to pre-K, of campus-based Walmart employees in Northwest Arkansas.
According to a news release, Little Squiggles will offer a research-based curriculum, enhanced nutritional program, and outdoor exploration to foster learning, growth and play.
According to Walmart, Little Squiggles Children’s Enrichment Center is the largest childcare center in Arkansas and one of the top five largest Bright Horizons childcare facilities in the country.