Good Gravy Group opens barbecue restaurant in Bentonville

Good Gravy Group, a Bentonville-based food and beverage company, recently opened barbecue restaurant Brothers Meethouse at Southeast Fifth and Southeast E streets in Bentonville.

The restaurant features wood-fired and charcoal-finished barbecue, smoked bread, beer and live music in a renovated space at 405 S.E. Fifth St. The company declined to provide investment costs to launch the business.

“We are not aiming to be fancy,” said AJ Baird, president of Good Gravy Group. “This is a sauce on your shirt, ‘coldest beer in town’ kind of place. With 6,000 square feet and the perfect layout for audiences, Brothers will allow us to feature local and regional artists in a comfortable atmosphere with amazing food. It’s dreamy if you love community, blues guitars and fall-off-the-bone barbecue.”

April Seggebruch, managing partner of Good Gravy Group, highlighted the importance of the restaurant’s food quality.

“We aim to help define Arkansas barbecue or, as we call it, OZQ,” Seggebruch said. “There are multiple great barbecue concepts in Northwest Arkansas, and collectively, we can reshape how the world sees our culinary position between Memphis, Texas and [Kansas City].”

Brothers Meethouse will be operated by a team of more than 40 staff, including pitmaster Alex Glass, who was born in Alabama and raised in Arkansas. Glass promised consistency and a lot of smoke.

“We love a cloth napkin dinner as much as anyone, but this place is different,” Seggebruch said. “It has soul. It’s about the innate collection we all have to fire, smoke and rhythm guitars. If we do our jobs, every person who comes in will leave as a friend.”

The Good Gravy Group was also behind other establishments, including Tusk and Trotter, Trash Ice Cream, The Leroy, The Bend and Butcher and Pint.