Hog City Diner Ousted from Old Post Office

Ronald Bumpass changed the lock on the front door of Fayetteville’s historic Old Post Office building on the morning of June 1, effectively evicting Hog City Diner from the premises.

“I had given him June 1 as a deadline,” Bumpass said of Michael O’Brien, who is affiliated with The Cafe Co. of Tulsa and was operating Hog City. “He didn’t put up a fight at all.”

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office posted a note on the front door of the Old Post Office instructing the restaurant owners to remove their belongs from the building no later than June 3. They missed that deadline.

Bumpass, a Fayetteville lawyer, said the company leasing the building was several months behind on the rent and couldn’t raise the capital to pay up. Bumpass said he is looking for a new tenant.

Bumpass’ mother, Edna Bumpass, owns the 91-year-old building, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Edna Bumpass and her husband Dr. Donald E. Bumpass, who died four years ago, purchased the building from the federal government in 1978.

Hog City Diner was also behind on its sales tax payments to the state and lost its liquor license in February as a result. A lawyer with the state Alcoholic Beverage Control division said the amount owed is privileged information and wouldn’t be released to the press.

Since losing the liquor license, signs in the restaurant’s windows have urged customers to be patient while the owners worked out the snafu to get the liquor license back.

Bumpass said he got tired of waiting, so he changed the locks on the door with Hog City’s equipment still inside the building.

The restaurant is 10,000 SF in size, which includes a 4,500-SF basement with a second kitchen. The restaurant also has seating outside.

Located in the center of Fayetteville’s downtown square, the building is one of the most famous in Northwest Arkansas.

From 1837 to 1904, the center of the square was home to the Washington County Courthouse. But the courthouse moved to a new building on College Avenue, and the old structure was torn down to make way for a new post office on the square.

Designed by James Knox Taylor, supervising architect for the U.S. Treasury Department, work began on the post office in 1909 and was completed in 1911. Cost of the initial building was $60,000, Bumpass said. The building served as a post office until a new post office was constructed on Dickson Street in the 1970s.

“Urban renewal planners” wanted to tear the Old Post Office building down in 1974, according to a plaque on the building. But the public objected, and the Bumpasses purchased the building. Developers Keith Cearley and Ronald Bumpass renovated the building and reopened it in 1979 as a fine-dining restaurant with a disco in the basement.

Jimmy Rapert, who owns JR’s Pizzeria and Lightbulb Club in Fayetteville, bought the Old Post Office Restaurant in 1995 and sold it to The Cafe Co., doing business as Hog City Diner Co., in August 1997. (The Bumpass family remained owners of the building.)

Hog City Diner opened on April Fools Day, 1998.

From the beginning, Hog City met with a considerably amount of resistance. The Cafe Co. had converted the upscale restaurant into an “American grill.” There were stories about distinguished elderly women (i.e. “little old ladies”) who were accustomed to the refined “Old P.O.” showing up for lunch and being shocked to find a sports bar specializing in hamburgers and beer.

“We are planning to build on the historical importance of the landmark establishment while broadening the customer base through a more relaxed, accessible atmosphere,” O’Brien said back in 1997.

“We had a lot of the little old ladies back in here before it was over,” Bumpass said. “There was also this objection to the name Hog City, which kind of went away as their business was conducted. Houston Nutt ate here every Thursday and brought all sorts of people in here.”

The Cafe Co. purchases historic buildings in the South and converts them to restaurants. O’Brien and his partner, Michael Watkins, implemented the same menu at Hog City Diner that they used at The Brook Restaurant & Bar, a restaurant The Cafe Co. owns that is housed in a renovated Tulsa movie theater.

We were unable to reach O’Brien or Watkins for a comment.

Stogie’s, a cigar shop in the Old Post Office building, remains open and is accessed through a door on the east side.