The Dixie Pig: A Near Century Of BBQ In Blytheville

Editor’s note: This article appears in the latest magazine edition of Talk Business & Politics, which you can read here.

The Halsell family has sold barbecue in some form or another in Mississippi County for more than 90 years, with Buddy Halsell working at the restaurant for 60 years.

Buddy Halsell said the “pig” and “ham” sandwiches sold every day at the Dixie Pig restaurant in Blytheville have kept people coming back year after year.

Halsell’s father, Ernest Halsell, started the restaurant in 1923 after moving to Blytheville from Pontotoc, Miss. After trying his hand at several things, Buddy Halsell said his father decided to enter the barbecue business.

“He bought a log cabin with a sawdust floor at Main and Division Streets,” Halsell said. “It was called the Rustic Inn. He eventually moved to where Kream Kastle is (on Division Street), then across the street where Pizza Hut is. His barbecue was well-known in the South.”

Ernest Halsell eventually sold the business in 1946 to go into farming, his son said.

However, the lure and smell of barbecue brought him back.

“In 1950, he decided to get back into the barbecue business. He got a building on the land [on North 6th Street] where it is now. In 1954, I was discharged from the military and went to work for him. I’ve been here ever since.”

The restaurant, down the street from Blytheville High School, was a happening place in the 1950s and 1960s, Halsell said. “The high school had just opened up and we had three carhops. And the place was hopping.”

Today, the restaurant gets visitors from people throughout Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri. Halsell said a lot of the customers are former residents of Blytheville.

“They come back for something they remember. We got people from Cooter, Mo., Steele, Mo., Manila, Osceola and Leachville. Also, we are pretty well known throughout the country. Memphis claims to be the barbecue capital of the world. I got news for them. Blytheville is,” Halsell said.

The 1948 Blytheville High School graduate, who turns 85 this month, said he gets to the restaurant each day around 8:30 a.m.

The work then begins.

“We usually put the meat on at 8:30 a.m. and by 3 p.m., it is usually done. We open at 9:30 a.m. for a lot of the coffee drinkers here. We usually start serving about 11 a.m.,” Halsell said.

As for cooking, Halsell said the meat is prepared over a hot fire with the heat working its way through the meat. The menu is simple, with the restaurant serving mostly either “pig” or “ham” sandwiches.

A 1938 menu still hangs on the wall at the restaurant. A T-bone steak for two people cost $1.50 then, while a sirloin steak was 75 cents and tenderloin was 45 cents.

Halsell has gotten a lot of help from his son, Bob Halsell, and his daughter, Becky Westbrook, in running the restaurant. The three have kept on with the family tradition.

The restaurant is also a history museum for Blytheville and the Halsell family, with pictures and other items on display. Among the pictures is a photo of another Dixie Pig restaurant.

“I had a younger brother, Johnny, who had the Dixie Pig in North Little Rock for many years,” Halsell said.

The restaurant also has a “Pig Room” dedicated to Halsell’s favorite sports team, the Arkansas Razorbacks.

“I like football,” Halsell said simply.

There are several newspaper clippings on display about the 1964 Arkansas Razorbacks football team as well as photos of Blytheville native and football coach Fred Akers and former USC and now Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll.

So, what is Halsell’s secret to longevity?

“I have been here for 60 years. This restaurant has been in the family. I will be 85 years in November,” Halsell said. “To do something, you really have to enjoy it.”