Fort Smith restaurants packed with Hog fans

The phrase ‛capacity crowd’ best described the turn out at three area sports bars on Friday night as the Hogs successfully challenged the Wildcats in the 76th Cotton Bowl.

Demian Gardner, general manager of Hooters, said the crowd was what he expected and then some. The warm weather contributed by allowing patrons who are not polar bears to fill up the patio space at the restaurant and watch the game from two 42-inch TVs.

Gardner said people began arriving at about 6 p.m.. Hooters seats 213 people and was full by game time. The Chandler family and friends were not so lucky. The party of six arrived at game time and was still waiting for a table an hour later. Gardner said the wait time for a seat was pushing two hours.

Varsity Sports Grill in downtown Fort Smith faced the same situation. Manager Reno Trosper said the restaurant was booked solid with reservations by 3 p.m. on game day. Extra tables and chairs were pulled from the Adelaide Ballroom upstairs to provide people a place to sit while they waited for regular seating. Although the tables and bar were full, the game room was virtually empty so there was space if standing accommodations were acceptable.

"If you ever plan on doing that, make sure you do it a week ahead of time," Trosper said in reference to making reservations at Varsity for a major public event.

Beef ‘O’ Brady's handled demand a bit differently. Kim Didier, co-owner, said she puts a cap on reservations at 40 percent of the restaurants available seating. This allows for walk-in customers, especially families, to come on a spur of the moment decision and still have a good chance of being seated. Didier said by 5 p.m. the seating capacity of 300 was reached although the crowd thinned at halftime.

"Definitely around halftime people start heading home. They know they can hurry up and get home and catch the second half. And we're a family friendly place to watch it so typically people that come here to hang out and watch the game; they know they're cool to bring their kids…we're really not known as one of those wild hangouts," Didier said.

Beef ‘O’ Brady's was one of the few places that offered specials as an incentive. Hats, hog noses, t-shirts, Koozies and coffee mugs were given out by way of a drawing throughout the evening. The bar also discounted all of the microbrews by $1.