Schweik Buys Cool Water and Chili’s Increasas Sales

Richard Schweik took over as owner of Fayetteville’s Cool Water Village Cafe on Feb. 1.

Schweik said his business partner, Will Garrison of Harrison, bought the 37,000-SF building at 2223 N. College Ave. for $3.25 million from Tracy and Celest Hoskins. Garrison retired in 2002 as chief operating officer of American Freightways Inc.

Schweik said he bought the restaurant business (but not the real estate) in a separate deal with Garrison for an undisclosed price.

Tracy Hoskins has six months to find a new location for Metro Collision Center, an auto body repair shop he operates in the north end of the building. The Hoskinses opened the restaurant in April 2001 after renovating the building.

Schweik has owned the Old Rockhouse Restaurant in Harrison for the past eight years. A native of Chicago, he was also part owner of a chain of restaurants called Razzoos Cajun Cafe in Texas. The chain grew from two to six restaurants before Schweik left that endeavor and moved to Arkansas.

Schweik said he plans to resume lunch service at Cool Water and improve the efficiency and speed of service in general. There also may be a couple of minor changes to the menu.

Cool Water has a dining room, bar with pool tables and cigar room. The restaurant, which can seat 450 diners, features waterfalls and fountains. Schweik said the area that currently houses Metro Collision may be converted into another part of the restaurant complex but with a different theme such as karaoke or a piano bar.

Chili’s Takes No. 2

Spot In Fayetteville

Chili’s overtook Jose Inc. by $2,728 to become Fayetteville’s No. 2 restaurant in gross sales for 2002.

From 2001 to 2002, Chili’s had a modest increase in sales of 0.5 percent to $2.88 million, but Jose dropped by 10.3 percent during the same time period. Jose has been ranked No. 1 or No. 2 in the city since we began monitoring restaurant sales in 1997.

Red Lobster continued to lead the pack with sales of $3.79 million, a 6.9 percent increase over 2001.

The McDonald’s restaurant on Joyce Boulevard and Shorty Small’s, which is located nearby, both made a strong showing in their first year on the list.

McDonald’s, which opened in May 2001, was No. 7 in 2002 with gross sales of $1.83 million. Shorty Small’s, which opened in September 2001, came in at No. 8 in 2002 with sales of $1.81 million.

The sales figures were gleaned from city hotel-motel-restaurant tax figures. The city’s fiscal year for collecting the tax goes from December 2001 through November 2002.

Three of the restaurants in the top 10 are locally owned, and all three suffered a decline in sales from 2001 to 2002. (See chart.) Jose Inc. is owned by Joe Fennel. Ozark Brewing Co. is owned by John Gilliam. And Powerhouse Seafood is owned by Layne Caudle and Trish Heckathorn.

All of the chain restaurants on the top 10 list showed an increase in sales from 2001 except for Applebee’s, which had a 4.9 percent drop to $1.93 million.

Bill Bowden can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].