(mellow music) - "The Oxford Dictionary" defines a dairy bar as a snack bar that sells ice cream and other refreshments.

Here in Arkansas, it describes a whole selection of restaurants we love.

What makes a dairy bar different from other food establishments?

It's a location that serves ice cream, and sustenance other than ice cream, like burgers or hot dogs.

It serves these delights from a window at a permanent establishment.

Most of Arkansas's dairy bars have long roots into the past, some having been in existence 50 years or more.

There are a few younger joints here and there.

All of them fit into the category of being classic eateries.

Come travel with me to every corner of Arkansas to seek out delectable dishes and the stories behind the folks that make them on a culinary itinerary of Arkansas dairy bars.

(upbeat acoustic music) Our first stop on this trip around the state is Russellville, Arkansas, home to Arkansas Tech University, and to one of Arkansas's most famous dairy bars.

(upbeat acoustic music) Feltner's Whatta-Burger has served generation after generation of hungry customers from its location at the intersection of O Street and Arkansas Avenue.

Bob Feltner began his dairy bar in an A-frame edifice back in 1967.

- According to Missy Ellis, which is the current owner of Feltner's Whatta-Burger, she said her dad sat out here, and when this was pretty much a pasture with a road that ran through, he sat in a lawn chair and counted the cars that went by, and decided to put in a little burger place.

- [Kat] That little place grew.

Mr. Feltner built on the dining room in the 1980s, but kept the same standard menu and idea behind his tasty fare.

(mellow acoustic music) - Bob Feltner, he was known and loved by many.

They said back in the day, he used to keep a spoon in here, and if you were a college student, he would write, you know, your order on that, or let you charge on that spoon.

- He was also well-known for handing out business cards.

- Mr. And Mrs. Ellis still do that today, as well.

We'll have people come to the window with a little business card.

It'll say "Good for a meal or for you or your family" on the back of it.

- [Kat] Mr. Feltner told his family, if he ever made money in business, he would give as much as he could, because he remembered how it felt to do without.

Some folks have been coming for years.

What's your regular order?

- Oh, Whatta-Burgers.

- [Kat] (chuckles) Just a Whatta-Burger?

- Whatta-Burger, Whatta-Cheese.

- [Kat] Others have found Whatta-Burger more recently.

- I probably come about once a week.

- [Kat] Whatta-Burger General Manager Rhonda Moore says it's always been part of her life.

- And I grew up on Whatta-Burger.

My dad came here as a child, and then we, they raised us on it.

- [Kat] There are a lot of shake flavors.

- In my first semester here, they told me that Whatta-Burger has the best milkshakes, so I have to try it, and I have a class every Wednesday at 2:00 p.m., so I walk from my home to here to take a different flavor of a milkshake, and I can say that I tried, like, most of the milkshake here.

- This is a regular-sized order of fries.

It's big enough for an entire family.

Whenever I came up here to Tech for the first time, I was taught the secret.

Ketchup is fine for fries, but the best delicacy of all is to dip 'em in your chocolate malt.

(upbeat music) - [Rhonda] Our fried bologna sandwich is made from Petit Jean bologna.

We cut it and then it's grilled fresh for you.

It's usually about a quarter-inch cut.

(meat sizzles) - [Kat] You can ask for a thick cut, too, which will earn you a half-inch-thick slice of griddle-fried bologna.

- And another thing we have is a grilled cheese.

We will take the bun and flip it inside out and toast, like, the inside of it and put the butter on it and then flip it back over, and it gets about three pieces of cheese on it, so it's pretty good.

(Kat chuckles) - When somebody comes to the window, I ask them how they're doing, make sure they're good, see what they need, and go ahead and write it down on the bag.

Then I take it, bring it here, input it into the computer, then I put the bag up there for the grill person.

- Then it's placed on top of the grill and the person doing the buns, which is typically the manager, they will put the bun on, tell the meat count, fry count, or if the top bun is toast down to the people working the board, and then they will put the bases and the veggies on there, and then the grill guy will lay it off.

It's wrapped up and sent up to the front.

- Put the bag down at the end.

I go ahead and get the drinks, take the money, and the transaction's complete until the bag is ready, and then I call it out the window whenever it comes up.

- [Kat] So do you have any regulars?

- We have several, actually.

More regulars than what you would think.

We have this amazing customer named Chris.

He comes to us virtually every day.

If he does not show up in the morning, we know something's amiss.

- And a majority of the time, when we see his car pull up, if he, we're busy and distracted, we may not always see him, but usually, we just give him either a waive and give a thumbs up that we've got his order, and he'll just sit there 'til we call him.

- [Kat] So, just tell me Whatta-Burgers has Chris consumed.

- I guarantee you, it's probably approaching 10,000.

10 a week, that's 530, so 20 would be 20,000.

- [Kat] Holy cow.

You think, what do you get on your burger?

- I'm a plain, I'm a very finicky eater.

Real easy, just meat and bun.

- [Kat] And you say they're the best?

- By far.

- What do you think the future is for dairy bars?

- I think it's strong, because people still want that, they want a modern touch, but they still want the old-time feel with the modern touch.

They still like to, you know, be able to communicate with others and that one-on-one and good customer service.

- People tell me the stories of how they started coming here from Tech.

You know, they came over here and they looked forward to it every so often, once, twice a week, sometimes every day, depending on the person.

So I don't think there's any way that this would ever stop.

It's too much of history right here.

And Mr. Bob, he built something really amazing that founded such memories with people that they love it, and they don't want to give that up.

(upbeat acoustic music) - [Kat] Not all dairy bars are so lucky.

Whether it's customer drop-off, the family retiring out of the business, or a location losing its traffic, Arkansas highways are lined here and there with the ghosts of the dairy bar industry.

Franchises from out of state sometimes take up the difference, or even locate in a way that they draw business off from these beloved locations.

On the other hand, new dairy bars are starting to spring up, like the Delaware Ice Cream Shop & Deli, where, in addition to burgers and shakes, you can get pizza, deli sandwiches, and scooped ice cream.

In between, you'll find so many older restaurants, beloved spots in friendly communities, like in Charleston, where Sherry Stubblefield has taken on the legacy of the Dairy Diner.

(traffic hums) - Since 1961, it's kind of an icon, kind of, you know?

This was my first job when I was 14 years old.

I've come full circle.

They were gonna close it back up, and it had been closed for several years and they opened it, and then they just decided they just, it wasn't for them.

They were gonna close it back up, and I said, "No, you're not closing the Dairy Diner again," and the little girl at the time, she said, "So do you want to buy it?"

And I said, "Yeah, I do," (Kat chuckles) so I did, so here I am.

(traffic hums) We can't let it close.

It means too much to the community.

It's been here a long time.

(mellow acoustic music) - I'm in Hot Springs, where I'm on my way to Bailey's Dairy Treat.

It's been in operation in one form or another since 1952.

That's when Butchie's opened on this spot.

Over time, it first became the Polar Bar.

Then, the original location of Rocky's Corner.

In the 1990s, it came under the name Bailey's Dairy Treat, and under the ownership of Lien Morphew.

He and his wife still own and operate the location today.

And it's just the two of you?

- Yes, just the two of us.

(laughs) I came here from Vietnam, 1975.

I'm adopted by American family.

- Lien was just 18 at the time.

He graduated from Hot Springs High School.

He's grown a network of regulars who visit often, some weekly, some daily.

What keeps people coming back?

- We are friendly.

We treat anybody just like family.

- [Kat] It's also the quality of the product.

(meat sizzles) - I make my own very fresh hamburger meat.

- How many pounds of hamburger do you go through each day?

- About 30, 40 a day.

- [Kat] That's quite a lot.

- [Lien] Yes.

(meat sizzles) - [Kat] Bailey's is different from other dairy bars in several respects.

It's Art Deco building is on the Historic Register for its sleek, efficient, and gorgeous lines.

It also offers something I haven't found on other dairy bar menus.

- Real chicken fried rice and beef steak fried rice, and fried rice egg roll.

I'm only one to have it.

My fried rice is just for anybody to have a chance to try something new.

(machine hums) - [Kat] And then, there's the ice cream.

- We have vanilla ice cream only, but we have a, like, banana splits, sundae, and shake.

- [Kat] You make your banana splits different.

- Yes, ma'am, we make in a cup, not in a bowl.

Chocolate, strawberry, and pineapple, with banana.

(chuckles) - Yeah.

(chuckles) - These burgers are great.

Burgers are great, fries, good.

It's always been good.

I've seen it go through several owners, but it's always been Bailey's, you know what I mean?

- [Kat] Lien's customers adore him.

He knows them all by name.

(meat sizzles) - They say, "Hey, Lien!

"I want two cheeseburgers!"

Good?

I say, "Yes, we know what you want.

"Wait here."

(Kat laughs) I've known some so long, they give me finger like that, I know what they want.

(upbeat music) - (mumbles) Larry.

- [Kat] Hey, Larry!

- Hi, how are you?

- [Kat] I'm fine.

- [Lien] Larry's here.

- They have the best burger place in Hot Springs because it's homemade.

Everything's, you know, the patties, everything's just perfect.

Beautiful.

(meat sizzles) - [Kat] But his best customer is himself.

- I love my cook, so I eat everything.

People say, "Lien, why don't you go out to eat?"

I say, "Well, my food is good, too, "so why go to somewhere and eat?"

So I eat my own food here.

- [Kat] His most famous customer once helped out behind the counter.

- [Lien] Bill Clinton, after school, for family.

- So he worked with the family at this location?

- Yes, ma'am.

- Do you have any idea what his favorite dish was?

- Chili cheeseburger.

- [Kat] (laughs) There you go.

For Lien Morphew, there's just one secret to keeping Bailey's Dairy Treat going.

- [Lien] Okay!

Thank you!

See you again, now.

We work hard, and then, when they come, we smile and treat them just like family.

(woman mumbles) Okay!

(upbeat music) (traffic hums) - Hot Springs draws a crowd that loves dairy bars, and they have a choice for their ice cream.

The Frosty Treat on Highway 70 coming into town has a great twist cone, and over at the King Kone on Malvern Avenue, there's the legendary Nutty Buddy, a waffle-cone-borne version of the old-fashioned treat with chocolate shell and peanuts over vanilla soft serve.

(water rushes) Hot Springs is at the heart of the Diamond Lakes region, where three gorgeous lakes lie end to end on the Ouachita River.

The largest of these is the Ouachita, with its protected, wooded shorelines and water clear enough to see your toes when you're standing chest deep.

(upbeat music) Have you ever been crystal digging?

Well, Mount Ida, Arkansas, is the world's quartz crystal capital.

You should come here for that.

There's also hundreds of kids that come every year for Camp Ozark, and thousands who flock to Lake Ouachita for its pristine, clear waters and great fishing.

You know what else you can find in Mount Ida?

The Dairyette, home to magnificent burgers, creamy shakes, and wonderful memories.

(upbeat music) - George McClurkon and his wife built it in 1953, and they started selling food out of it in 1958.

It was passed down to Harley Ferguson.

He bought it in the '70s, and he ran it all the way into 1986.

They sold it to Abernathys, and Joyce had the opportunity to buy this, and this was her, I mean, this was her goal, was to own her own business and to own the Dairyette.

- [Kat] Adam O'Neal started at the Dairyette in 2012.

He became general manager in 2020.

His mom, Joyce, bought the restaurant in 2000.

She's pretty much made the tradition stronger than it ever has been.

My mom remembers when she was seven years old, coming up here and getting a banana split.

It's amazing to come as a child at that age and to think that, one day, you might be the owner of that.

- Yes, ma'am, you want fries and a drink with it?

- [Kat] The restaurant retains much of its original charm.

There are still handwritten signs for the flavors of shakes and sundaes that hail from the early days of the restaurant.

- [Adam] We don't want to lose that.

It's nice to roll through those doors and to kinda step back in time, a little bit.

It is still nice that there's places out there, even being in the little town of Mount Ida.

- The Dairyette sports an original facade and an iconic neon-lit ice cream cone.

- In 1976, Harley Ferguson, the ice cream outside, he had sold it.

His niece worked here.

She begged him and begged him, so Harley ended up having to go and pay more for the ice cream cone than actually sold it, just to get it back in the same day.

It's a lot of people that come in from different parts of the world with Camp, but also just people just traveling, you know, kinda living that American dream, and this is kinda part of it, and all the way from Germany, England, Czech Republic.

A lot of it is families coming through, you know, enjoying life, because this is a very outdoors community.

- [Kat] The Dairyette is open year-round, serving not just travelers in the warmer months, but a whole community.

The menu is vast.

- [Adam] We sell a lot of chicken.

- [Kat] Really?

- Yah, it's probably with chicken strips, our tenders, popcorn chicken.

We have chicken-fried steak.

We have chicken-fried chicken.

We sell a lot of wraps with our chicken.

We sell a lot of salad with our grilled chicken.

- And lots of dogs?

- Oh, like, yes.

(Kat laughs) Lots of dogs.

We do shakes, that's what we're known for, and we can make just about any shake, any topping we have.

We do sundaes, we do floats, we do blenders.

Just about any, mixers.

Shakes is by far, and probably the, you know, one of the signatures is probably just the, you know, the regular, just old-school ice cream cone.

Man, it don't get no better than that.

- [Kat] But when it comes to the classics, you can't beat a burger.

- [Adam] I would say it would be the cheeseburger, cheeseburger and probably shoestring fry.

(meat sizzles) That's been on the menu since this place has been here.

This isn't fast food, this is real food, and everything's hand-cut.

We cut this just for you.

It's real beef.

It's real onions.

It's butter leaf lettuce.

It's, and we pride ourselves off of it.

So, we think there's no shortcuts here, just hard work and dedication.

We don't have a Dairyette in every town or every state, but if we did, then it wouldn't be as, what it is today.

- [Kat] It wouldn't be special.

- It wouldn't be special, and you gotta come to my diner to get it.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to the Arkansas PBS studios.

Are you ready for a burger?

How about some ice cream?

(Kat laughs) I know those shakes were starting to get my attention.

I'm Karen Cooper, here with Kat Robinson, and we're giving you the opportunity to support programs just like this.

So whether you like "Masterpiece" or "Antiques Roadshow," or you want to see more local productions just like this, then this is why we come to you and ask you for your financial support, because you make it all possible.

We only interrupt at certain times of the year.

It maybe totals 45, maybe 50 days out of the entire year, so that the rest of the time, you get to watch your programs completely uninterrupted.

So I am so excited that we have writer, producer, and food historian Kat Robinson with us in the studio, and she's going to share all sorts of great information with us, and the first off, is, what inspired you to do this program?

- Well, with the pandemic, we had so many things that weren't happening out there.

People weren't going into restaurants, and it was hard to cover these stories.

Honestly, I went back to cookbook writing for a little while, but about this past January, I was dropping in at a restaurant that I loved from my childhood by the name of Mel's Dairy Bar down in Malvern, and this dairy bar, I was able to walk up to a window, place my order, and I don't have direct contact, and I thought about that and thought about it, and the next morning, I woke up, I'm like, I need to do a book on dairy bars in the state of Arkansas, and my partner agreed, so I took off and ran with it.

And when Arkansas PBS came to me and said, "Hey, let's do a program," I'm like, "Well, I'm in the middle of writing a book.

"Let's do it."

(Karen laughs) So, I have literally traveled to all 94 operating dairy bars in the state of Arkansas.

They've managed to hang on while so many of our other restaurants haven't been able to survive the pandemic.

Our dairy bars thrived because, hey, a dairy bar gives you that separation, so you're not worried about contact, and all that nostalgia.

Nostalgia is just- - That was it.

- Fantastic.

- Well, that's like what the gentleman said in that, the end of that segment.

You know, you could have a Dairyette, you know, all over the place, but then, it's not special.

- It wouldn't be special.

- It's not special, so you wouldn't have that reason for, let's go take that road trip and go do something like that.

Now, because we are asking for your support so that we can continue to bring these kind of local productions your way, we have some thank you gifts that Kat has put together that I think are pretty awesome.

- Well, of course, you have "Arkansas Dairy Bars: Neat Eats & Cool Treats," the program that you're watching right now.

You can actually have a copy of this to keep for yourself for $72.

- [Karen] $72, as an annual gift, or become a Sustainer at $6 a month, ongoing.

- [Kat] And- - [Karen] I love this.

- If you want to help us out just a little bit more and get us some more miles (mumbles), you can get this very own Arkansas food map shirt.

Now, this shirt, I designed it myself.

- [Karen] Yay!

(Kat laughs) Yup.

- And so, literally, it is the entire state of Arkansas defined by all the things that we eat and all the places we eat.

So, everything from rice to cheese dip, bacon, pasta, coon, that would be down in Gillett.

(Karen laughs) Anything, things that we don't think about so much anymore like gar or pig sandwiches, which we're gonna talk about later on here in dairy bars.

You know, the, I've got trout pate up there from the DeVito family.

- [Karen] Yup.

- [Kat] There's so many things that are so cool about this shirt, and it could be yours, if you become a Sustaining member for $8 a month or- - [Karen] And, we have sizes small to 2XL.

- [Kat] Yes, so it'll fit anybody.

- [Karen] Yeah.

(Kat laughs) There you go.

- [Kat] And then, of course, there is the exclusive.

This is the book.

This is the book that's both inspired, and is the result of this program right here.

This is "Arkansas Dairy Bars: Neat Eats & Cool Treats," the book, and it's 220 pages, including all of the dairy bars that are mentioned in our show, plus every other mom-and-pop across the entire state of Arkansas, and you can find them with the corner index down here with all eight of our regions.

So, the River Valley, the Ozarks, North Central section of the state, Upper and Lower Delta, Lower Arkansas, Southwest and Central Arkansas.

You can find all the dairy bars right here.

- And, of course, if you can't decide, (Kat chuckles) we have the options so that you can get all of those for your gift of $240, or choose to be a Sustainer at $20 a month, ongoing.

Give us a call, 1-800-662-2386.

- [Announcer] Sustaining membership is an easy, convenient, and affordable way for you to support the programs you love on Arkansas PBS.

Sustaining members make an ongoing monthly contribution from either their checking account or credit card.

Simply choose the monthly amount that fits your budget and then call or go online and we'll set it up for you.

Your donation will happen automatically each month, so your support will always be current.

Need to make a change to your monthly gift?

Just call (phone rings) or email us.

You're always in control.

Knowing we can count on a certain amount of revenue each month helps Arkansas PBS better plan for the future.

Call or go online to start your Sustaining membership right now.

- Options, options, options.

We love to provide you options, because we know that different people are different places in their life, and maybe you want to support.

Well, one of the easiest ways you can do that is by becoming a Sustainer.

You decide on the amount that you want to give on a monthly basis.

You can set it up off of your credit card or from your checking account, and once it's set up, it automatically happens every month, renews month after month, year after year, but you are in control.

So if you need to make a change, all you have to do is give us an email, give us a call, and we will fix it to whatever it is that you need.

So, think about one of these great thank you gifts, if you're enjoying "Arkansas Dairy Bars," because, remember, your support goes to the programming that you watch, and if you would like to see continuing more focus on what's, you know, great and wonderful about Arkansas, and I can't imagine much greater than the dairy bars.

I want ice cream so bad, it's not even funny.

So I am very much looking forward to this next segment, and more of what is going to be coming up with only 13 out of how many?

- Out of 94.

- Okay, so with just a small smattering of what's out there that you can road-trip your way to, so give us a call at 1-800-662-2386, or go online at myarkansaspbs.org.

(mellow music) ♪ La-la, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la-la ♪ ♪ La-la, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la-la ♪ ♪ La-la, la, la ♪ ♪ La, la, la-la ♪ ♪ La-la-la, la-la-la, la ♪ (upbeat acoustic music) - The 1950s and 1960s were the heyday of dairy bars in the United States, and around Arkansas, you see plenty from this time that still persist to this day, but none quite captured the aesthetic of the 1960s than the Susie Q Malt Shop right here in Rogers, Arkansas.

♪ Ooh, ah, ah ♪ - It was established in June of 1960.

Mildred had ran it for awhile, and then her son J.B. took it over.

That's who I worked for, was J.B. and Patty, and then I worked for them for six years and left for a few years, and then I'm back, I'm home.

I'm back home.

- [Kat] Sheila Edmondson runs the Suzy Q Malt Shop, or, as she says- - They call me Boss Lady or Ms. Pinky.

- And why do they call you Ms. Pinky?

- Because I lost my dad 17 years ago to cancer, and I wear pink because of him.

- [Kat] She says the history of this place goes way back.

- It used to be a fruit stand before June of 1960, when mom had, Ms. Mildred had decided to turn it into a malt shop.

it got the name because, back in the day, they used to have a French fry cutter, and it was called Suzi-Q, and when you put your potato in there, it would do the curlicue fries.

- Oh, wow.

- And when I came back to take it over, the machine was gone.

- [Kat] Aw!

- But we still have Suzi-Q fries.

(laughs) I worked here, then I left for a little while.

I went to work at the Bentonville public school system.

Oh, I was a lunch lady, 'cause I could be with the kids.

I love kids.

And then I went and talked to the lady who bought the Susie Q property and asked her if she wanted to sell the grill and fryer so I could open up a restaurant out at Rocky Branch, and she said, "No, why don't you just come take Susie Q over?"

And so, here I am.

I kept the menu the same as what J.B. and Patty had it as.

The malts and the hand-pressed hamburger patties every day.

Anywhere from 40, or 60 to 80 pounds, and then during the summer, it's 120 pounds a day.

- [Kat] Do you use your own special seasoning?

- Yes, we do.

- [Kat] And are you gonna tell me what that is?

- No, ma'am, I can't.

(Kat laughs) That's a secret recipe!

(laughs) - [Kat] Fair enough.

- We toast our buns.

Hamburger patties, weighed in the back and pressed, and then they are stacked and the girl on the cook, the grill girl, she gets to pull 'em out.

So they're already round- - [Kat] Wow!

- And we just put 'em on the grill and put our special seasoning on 'em.

It comes with toasted mustard on the bun, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and onion, unless you tell us otherwise.

(meat sizzles) Yeah, I always tell 'em, if you don't like mustard, at least try it.

If you don't like it, bring it back and I'll buy you another one, because it tastes so much different.

You can't taste the mustard, as long as it's toasted in there really good.

(upbeat music) - [Kat] Burgers aren't all that come mustard-toasted.

- [Sheila] Toast mustard into the bun, and then you put your hot dog on it, and then you go over and get your chili fixings, and if they want cheese and ketchup and onions and relish on top.

- [Kat] Wow!

- [Sheila] That's a footlong chili dog.

The Big Daddy is a double cheeseburger with a quarter pound of smoked shaved ham and bacon, three pieces of cheese.

That is a Big Daddy.

We've added the Cock-a-Doodle Piggy, which is a big chicken breast with a quarter pound of smoked shaved ham.

We've added portobello mushrooms, fries, sweet corn nuggets, and cheese sticks.

Little things, but nothing major, but the customers like it, so that's why we keep 'em coming back in.

We try 'em out.

We can make any flavor malt you want.

Chocolate, strawberry, cherry, blueberry, raspberry, butterscotch, hot fudge, peanut butter, Oreo, Butterfinger, cheesecake, and pumpkin spice.

The shakes are really thick and if you don't, if you use, these straws, they won't collapse, but the other straws do.

I made a shake the other day for some customers that live in Grove, Oklahoma.

They drove down here for lunch.

Their shake made 'em all the way back to Grove, it was still thick.

Yeah, we can tip 'em upside down.

If you want a thick shake, I can tip it upside down and shake it and it won't fall out.

Lucky number 38, we have your order ready.

Lucky number 38, please.

Everybody gets a lucky number, and we call out the lucky number and say, we hit the microphone and say, "Your, whatever the lucky number is, "your order is ready."

And they come up here and if they have a call-in, this is a put-out window.

So they come up here and get their food, too.

- [Kat] So, what makes that number so lucky?

'Cause they're eating here?

- 'Cause they're eating here, and everybody's gotta get lucky once in awhile.

(upbeat music) That's a customer.

That's Mr. Marty.

- [Cashier] Hi, Marty!

- Yeah, Marty with the city.

He comes almost every other day.

We have some people that come from out by Holiday Island that come in every day.

A cheeseburger, and he orders a cheeseburger for his dog with no bun.

(siren wails) We have fire department.

A lot of military people come up here.

A lot of officers, you know?

I mean, it's just, they're all regulars.

They're all looking forward to us coming back.

Okay, Mr. Marty.

- [Mr. Marty] Fine, how are you?

- I'm good, young man.

- [Cashier] That's 42.

- [Kat] How does an eatery like this manage to keep a staff functioning in such a small space?

- Everybody knows their spots.

We all know what to say.

"I'm behind you," "I'm to your right," "I'm to your left," "Squeezing through," touching everybody and moving through.

Yeah, I mean, it's just, we've been doing it for so many years that we all know where our spots are at.

The Susie Q gives me energy.

It is all due to this place.

It's kind of, like, an energized place to work at.

The Big Pigs, the Big Chickens, homemade potato salad, homemade coleslaw, that is all done in our house.

In this building, yeah.

It's from J.B. and Patty.

They're the original recipes, 'cause when I took it back, I told 'em I wanted to do everything like they did it so we could get this place back up to like it used to be when J.B. had it.

So everything's the same.

We still use Hershey's Syrup.

We don't cheat on anything.

Everything's the original.

So, it makes it better.

That's why people keep coming back.

They know when they come back, they're gonna get the same burger they had two days ago, they're gonna get the same kinda fries they got two days ago.

Their shakes are gonna be the same.

So, that's how we do things.

I mean, whatever customers want, we can do.

Give me a minute.

- [Kat] Sure.

- What can I get for ya, young man?

- [Man] Call-in for Tammy Jo.

- It's family oriented.

Our hamburgers are hand-pressed every day.

We always see a smiling face.

We love our community.

I mean, we love our customers.

If it wasn't for the customers, we wouldn't be here.

(upbeat acoustic music) - The Ozarks are full of dairy bar gems such as Barnett's Dairyette in Siloam Springs with its featured seasonal shakes.

(upbeat acoustic music) The Hiwasse Hilton, a dairy bar that features prime rib dinners to go on Saturday nights.

(upbeat music) (traffic hums) Garner's Drive In with soft serve and Irish fries.

(upbeat music) Jim's Drive-In of Green Forest, featuring a number of oversized sundaes.

(upbeat music) The Top Rock Drive-In of Alpena and its legendary Leopard Burger.

(upbeat music) (traffic hums) And even the Dairy Queen Hi-Boy.

That's a Hi-Boy right there.

(upbeat music) So much to explore throughout The Natural State.

(upbeat music) (traffic hums) We're headed to Lewisville, Arkansas, for one of the most iconic dairy bars in the state.

It's been open since 1962, and it started with a guy smoking turkeys in his backyard.

(upbeat music) Alden Burge came to Lewisville in 1953 out of Shreveport.

In 1962, he made a big decision and bought this place.

- The front half of it is the original half, and then as they grew, obviously, they had to keep adding on, so it kinda gives it a little odd shape to it, but it's very unique and everybody recognizes it when they pass by.

- [Kat] Deanna Porter manages the Lewisville location of Burge's Hickory Smoked Turkeys & Hams.

- Not just turkeys and hams.

Barbecue, fish.

Well, believe it or not, we have people drive from all over to eat our fish.

There's Shreveport, Hope, from all over for our fish, as well, which kinda surprises people.

We have a large menu, is what everyone says.

(chuckles) The smoked turkey sandwich and the smoked turkey melt is probably the number one, number two.

Hamburgers and cheeseburgers is always good.

Turkey sandwich, probably, I would say is the number one sandwich.

It's not your everyday, you know, run-of-the-mill grocery store deli-sliced turkey.

It's, you know, it's a premium meat.

So, and it makes a difference in the taste.

- I get the turkey and cheese.

I get a peach pie, and I get some large root beer.

Every time I come, same thing.

- I get the turkey and cheese with every piece of cheese they have.

I like a lot of cheese, and get some potato chips with a little Tabasco.

That's my favorite style.

- Turkey and cheese with Cajun fries, every time.

- I'm 39 years old today.

My whole life, I live in Texarkana, Arkansas.

We come up here and we fish and deer hunt up this way.

We stop by every chance we get.

(phone rings) - [Kat] You don't have to give away your age, but how long do you think you've been coming to Burge's?

- 50 years.

- [Kat] 50 years?

- Yes, I'm 56 years old, and like I said, we used to come up here every Sunday after church, and used to be a playground right over that hill by the church, and we used to play at the playground and come to Burge's and get our lunch.

- [Kat] Has it changed much?

- [Lesa] It's still the same.

- We'll see 'em, you know, four or five times a week.

They'll come in and get their burgers, fries and shakes, and, you know, a day or so later, here, they gotta get their fish.

You know, "It's Friday night, I gotta get my fish."

You know, or we'll see 'em getting their barbecue on the weekend, and, you know, and we sell the stuff by the pounds, as well.

So they'll come and, you know, buy pounds of barbecue, beef, pork, whatever, you know, coleslaw, and they're going camping, they're going to the lake or fishing, (phone rings) and they gotta take their Burge's with 'em.

The soft-serve ice cream has a lot to do with it.

You know, a lot of places you go don't have that soft serve anymore.

You know, and we have the, you know, the vanilla, the chocolate, the twist.

So we make the milkshakes, the banana splits, you know, all the frosted drinks.

All that that everybody remembers from years ago, we still do today.

- Ice cream, my sister, Bunny, loves it.

I can't eat ice cream, but she always, as a kid, I would get a cone and she would get cone.

She would eat mine and then eat hers, so, (Kat laughs) Bunny loves ice cream from Burge's.

(Kat laughs) - We sell a lot of ice cream, a lot.

Just about every order has a shake or an ice cream cone, yes.

Yeah, the summertime is very popular here, but November and December is, just for shipping alone, we'll ship around 10,000 or more packages in about six weeks.

- 10,000?

- Yes, that doesn't count for what we sell in our restaurants.

Everybody really appreciates the history and that it hasn't changed.

So when they come here, they know what they're getting.

It, you know, we try to make sure everything tastes the same as it did 20 years ago if they stopped in here.

You know, and they'll tell you that.

"Nothing has changed, "it's exactly the way I remember "when I come with my, you know, "my grandmother and my grandfather, you know, years ago," and that's nice to hear.

People come out of the way to come here from all over the United States.

- If this place wants to leave, it'll be the last, the last (mumbles) in the whole town.

It's really the last true business to stay.

Yes, it is.

(upbeat music) - LA, or Lower Arkansas, has its own trail of dairy bars.

Once you've dined at Burge's, you can head down the road to Stamps to enjoy a sloppy beef barbecue sandwich at Jimmy's.

You can go find Waldo, that's Waldo, Arkansas, and dive into a juicy burger and fried pickles at Jeff's Dairy Treet, (upbeat music) and further down the road in El Dorado, there's the excellent Betty's Old Fashion, which opened in 1934 and is currently the state's longest continuously operating dairy bar.

$3 hand-pattied burgers and classic dip cones keep people coming in droves.

(upbeat music) We're on our way to Monticello where burgers, barbecue, catfish, and more can be found at an establishment that's been around almost 60 years and continues to thrive at the crossroads of 278 and 425.

(upbeat music) - My name's Chris Ray.

I've been here at Ray's since 1992.

I have been part-owner and the manager since 1997.

The restaurant's been open since 1964.

My grandfather's name was C.L.

Ray.

He started, he came to Monticello in 1951 and got in the restaurant business.

My father is Mark Ray, who is still a silent partner in this business, and he took over in mid '70s, and I started running the place in about '97.

Our top sellers would be our barbecue, burgers, and catfish.

Those are our three main items, but we've got a very diverse menu.

Salads, fried shrimp, chicken tenders, everything to tacos.

So, and with milkshakes, fried pies, all that kinda stuff, as well.

So we have a lot of different items, and everybody can find something to eat here.

We still home-make a lot of items here.

We smoke our barbecue.

We make our own barbecue sauce, our baked beans, hand-bread onion rings every day, press out fresh hamburger meat every day, and make our coleslaw and tartar sauce, as well.

But I have a longtime employee back here by the name of Ms. Pearl Jones.

- [Kat] How long have you been working here at Ray's?

- About, how many, Chris, about 40 years?

- [Chris] Off and on, probably 40 years, that's right.

- Well, I remember Chris when he wasn't but two years old.

I started working here when he was a little bitty boy, and I'm still working here now and he's a big old man.

(laughs) I'll be 75 years old, me and Bill Clinton got the same birthday.

I was 19, 1946.

- [Kat] Have you ever seen him before?

- Yeah, I've seen him.

I'll tell you, he's been down here.

You know, when he first got, I mean- - [Chris] Governor.

- Governor.

He's all right.

- [Kat] He didn't come in here to have cheeseburgers?

- I don't know.

Has he been here?

- He has.

Bill Clinton told my dad that those were the best baked beans that he's ever eaten.

- [Pearl] Bill Clinton said that?

- [Chris] Yeah.

- [Pearl] Well, wonder if it wasn't something I made.

- [Chris] It probably was.

- Yeah!

I learned how to, my momma learned me how to cook.

We had to do it.

I'm making the stuff up to roll the onion rings.

You gotta put, he want me to make three buckets, and I put two eggs in the buckets, so I gotta beat them up.

(upbeat music) We put 'em in the flour, put 'em in the milk, the egg, (upbeat music) back in the flour, just the cracker meal, like I said.

(mumbles) - [Kat] Why would you use cracker meal instead of something like cornmeal?

- I don't know.

That's what Mark, his daddy, taught me.

(mumbles) His grandpa.

- Yeah, we used farm-raised American catfish.

It's a little more expensive to go that route, but we have a big following on fish.

We used to have some fish buffets in town and they've fallen by the wayside, and so we kinda became the fish place here.

We go through a lot of catfish.

Approaching, like, 60 cases a week.

- I come here because they serve good food.

I love their shrimp, number one.

Their waitresses are very good hospitality.

(upbeat music) - A lot of guys eat lunch in here every weekday, it seems like, and it's kind of a spot to come in and, you know, visit with other guys around town on the lunch break, and it's a popular hangout at lunch, I would say.

It gets tough sometimes, but it's really been good to us and our family over the years, and I'm grateful I made the decision to get into the restaurant business.

(upbeat music) (traffic hums) - Garry's Sling Blade at Edison and Cox in Benton has been around since 1961 when Leon and Louise Patterson opened it up as Leon's Whopper Burger.

Garry and Peggy Wilson took it over in the 1980s.

So this place here was the home of the Whopper before a national chain took that name away.

It's been Garry's for as long as I can remember, but when the popular movie "Sling Blade" got all sorts of notice for the town of Benton, they named it again to Garry's Sling Blade, which makes, in my opinion, the best strawberry shake in the state.

(upbeat music) What is the quintessential Arkansas dairy bar?

We've seen a lot of great examples, but, to me, there's one that stands out above the rest, and it's probably because I've been going there since I was a kid.

(upbeat music) (traffic hums) - We've seen customers have their children, and now their children have had their children.

We've had it that long.

- [Kat] Lucy Begley has been the owner of the Salem Dairy Bar for more than 25 years.

- Mr. Baxley and Mrs. Baxley built it around 50 years ago.

We bought the property and building and stuff all from Mr. Baxley.

May Miller ran it for years.

Her niece still works for us, is, was working here.

Willy Fletcher was working here when we bought it.

So my husband was the one who wanted a restaurant.

I didn't even like cooking.

He was the one who wanted a restaurant, so we bought it.

I worked in insurance before this and he was a welder, and neither one of us knew anything about running a restaurant.

(traffic hums) But we bought it, and it's been good to us.

- [Man] Don't touch it again.

(chuckles) - Our son's been raised in it.

He's still working here right now, but just helping the new people.

We have rented it out to one of my employees.

She has taken it over and is gonna continue with the way it is.

The hamburgers are still the very same, and cheeseburgers, hot dogs, chicken strips, chicken sandwiches.

We've made a few changes through the years, added some things, dropped some things.

We make our own fried pies.

We make the dough and everything.

We have a little machine that presses 'em out where they're all uniform, and they're selling very well.

Hot fudge, we just say chocolate, but it's hot fudge, peach and apple, and when I was here the other day, I found out they've added, they're trying out coconut now.

- [Kat] About how often do you come?

- I have to come by at least once every couple of weeks for my mother, who has to have the hamburger.

- [Kat] Really?

- [Woman] The best hamburger around.

- It's great, it's an old-timey cheeseburger that, it's the taste you don't get anywhere else.

- [Kat] Wilma Fletcher has been making great burgers at the Salem Dairy Bar since at least the early '90s.

- I don't know, I've just, I've always done it, and it's just something I love to do.

So, I love to cook, and I've been here forever.

- [Kat] And it's not just the burgers that keep people coming.

- I love it!

Best cheeseburger, and the onion rings, god, you gotta get the onion rings.

(traffic hums) They're killer.

The batter they use is just killer.

I mean, it is, there's no way, nobody else has batter like this place.

- [Kat] There's a special ingredient in that batter, which is used for both the onion rings and the frying pickles.

The batter is partially constructed from a special mix by Fordyce-based HNO Blending, a couple of other dry ingredients, and then, as Lucy son's Brian Begley shares- - What we do is we take, whenever we put vanilla in the machine, vanilla ice cream in, we'll leave about that much left in the bowl and we'll fill it up with water, and that'll be the sugar that, when we put it into the bowl, that's where the sugars come from.

It's coming straight from the vanilla mix.

(upbeat music) (oil hisses) - [Kat] The result is a fluffy, somewhat sweet batter.

Salem Dairy Bar has a really great following.

Okay, but you came here from somewhere else.

- Yes, that's right.

- [Kat] You came from Pennsylvania to come and eat at the Salem Dairy Bar?

(all laugh) - Yes, we did!

- [Kat] I mean, that is- - Yeah.

- Ostensibly, that's what happened.

(chuckles) - [Kat] Okay, fair enough!

You're from, where are you from?

- We live in Colorado now.

- [Kat] Okay.

- I'm originally from right here in Salem, Arkansas.

- [Kat] What's your favorite dish that you get when you come here?

- Ice cream sundaes.

(laughs) Chocolate, preferably, but it's just- - [Kat] Really?

- I mean, you can see, it's a popular spot, and they have good food.

- You've got people who will come here and say, "Oh, my husband proposed to me here."

Things like that.

But as far as being hard, it's not that stressful, really, except when everybody shows up at one time for their food and then you have a dead spot for two hours, and then you, sometimes you get swamped and it gets frustrating.

- [Kat] So you have to have a passion for you to go on?

- Yes, you have to enjoy it.

(upbeat music) (both chuckle) - I am, I'm so hungry.

(Kat laughs) I'm so hungry right now.

It is making me want to go out to one of these fabulous places.

Welcome to the Arkansas PBS studios.

I'm Karen Cooper, here along with Kat Robinson.

We're so glad to have her here in the studios, and Kat, we are loving your show.

- Oh, my goodness.

Well, when you have good material, you can't go wrong, and Arkansas has so much good material when it comes to dairy bars.

- I know!

- Now, you know you go to other states and people don't even know what a dairy bar is.

They're like, "Well, that sounds kinda weird.

"Do they serve milk there?"

And I guess, well, in a way, they do.

- Well, yeah.

- But these restaurants have been around for so very long.

Salem Dairy Bar, of course, has been around for decades, and Ray's since 1964, and Burge's since 1966, and the Susie Q, which you saw, that started off as a fruit stand.

These are great places, and they matter.

They're very important, because they become the hub of their community.

All of these people that you see that are enjoying their meals in these different shows, in these different segments that you're seeing right here, they have been coming back for generations.

And, as you can see, there's good reasons why.

The food is great, the communion is wonderful, and the idea of being able to step back to someplace that's still the same after all these years is absolutely priceless.

And, of course, the hand-pattied burgers don't hurt.

- Well, not at all, and I just, I love when people were telling their stories about what they remember, and, you know, when they were growing up and coming to that place, and I think we can all relate to those types of things.

- Yeah.

- You know, that special place that you went to, that you remembered when you were a kid, and to be able to go back as an adult, and to be able to have that same kind of experience.

- And not just the place to see it, or to smell it, or to taste those same flavors that haven't changed over all of that time.

They're part of our culinary legacy, and they absolutely deserve to be documented and shared, and I hope that y'all go out and enjoy every one of these dairy bars that we are sharing tonight.

- Plus, we have- - We have!

(laughs) - As she's doing that, we have a bunch of wonderful thank you gifts, including a book that is not even on sale yet.

- This isn't even on shelves.

- Kat has put it together, and it's available to you right now.

- This book, which is "Arkansas Dairy Bars: "Neat Eats & Cool Treats," consists of all 94 of the Arkansas dairy bars, every mom-and-pop place in the state of Arkansas.

Okay, so if you don't see your favorite here tonight, well, chances are, it's probably in the pages.

Like, right here, we have the Mountainburger featured from the Dairy Dream in Mountainburg, Arkansas.

These restaurants like this, you can't just go and, go to a chain operation and have something that is this wonderful.

Every page of this book is full color of photography, historical images, and, as you see right there, that's the Mountainburger.

That's a loose meat burger.

There's all sorts of fantastic restaurants.

Like we talked about in the first segment, this is the Dairy Diner in Charleston, Arkansas, with the maltiest malt ever.

So you, and, of course, there's, once again, a chili cheese dog.

I love being able to share these with everybody, and this is the way to do it.

This is your Arkansas culinary travel guide to dairy bars- - Definitely.

- With an edge index that'll take you to all the different regions from around the state, and it is our gift to you.

(both laugh) - I think that would be a fabulous way to kind of start, oh, where do we want to go on just, road trip adventures for the summer?

- Absolutely.

- Like, make it a several year process where I'm, we're gonna go to several here, and then you're gonna go to several there, but not only do we have that book available, but we also have the DVD of the program you're watching.

That is for a gift of $72, or being a Sustainer at $6 a month.

We have the fabulous food map designed by Kat Robinson, herself, that is available in small to 2XL for a gift of $96, or being a Sustainer at $8 a month, or, heck, why choose?

- [Kat] Yeah, you could have all of these.

- A Sustaining gift of $20 a month or a one-time gift of $240, and the best, since it includes all of that.

You can wear the T-shirt, show your Arkansas pride, and go around to all the dairy bars.

I think that, in itself, is just the thing right there.

- It's a book you can read twice.

Once, and then put it in your glove compartment and take it with you.

- And I know it was shown on the screen, but that's for a Sustaining gift of $10 a month, ongoing, or a one-time gift of $120, and it's 1-800-662-2386 or you can go online to myarkansaspbs.org.

I hope this is bringing back great memories and helping you look forward to new memories that you can make, and we're going to go back.

Nope, we're not going to both go back yet.

We're gonna keep going on, (Kat laughs) in just a minute.

We will go back eventually.

- Hello, I'm Paula Kerger, president of PBS.

I'd like to tell you about a wonderful membership benefit called Passport.

With Passport, you can watch your favorite programs anytime, anywhere.

Thought-provoking documentaries, insightful science programs, news and public affairs that you can trust, and award-winning dramas.

With your qualifying donation, Passport brings more than 1,000 hours of great PBS and local programming to your computer, phone, or digital media player.

You can catch up on shows that you may have missed or revisit some of your old favorites.

I know that you're going to enjoy the many benefits of Passport, so please, make that donation right now, and thank you so much for your support.

- You know, Passport is this great little benefit that we add on to what you can receive from what broadcast programs, so that you can watch programs anytime that you want to on any, just about any device that you want to.

So, iPhone, iPad, tablet, computer, those are available, and Passport, if you decide to do any of the thank you gift levels, would be available to you.

So, you know, $60 and up, being a Sustainer at $5 and up, ask for one of these great "Arkansas Dairy Bars" thank you gifts.

Passport's part of what happens.

You can stream local productions, you can stream "Masterpiece" drama, Ken Burns documentaries, there's (stammers), excuse me, pledge specials that you can watch that don't have us gracing your TV at the same time, and hundreds of new are going to be added starting September 1st.

So it really is a wonderful benefit when you make your gift of support for programs just like this.

It's 1-800-662-2386, online at myarkansaspbs.org.

- And there's so much.

I cannot thank enough, Arkansas PBS, for helping get this project off the ground and running so that we could bring these stories to you.

There was so much amazing out there, especially considering what everybody has been going through this past year and a half, to be able to go out into the communities and actually get to meet with individuals and break bread together, outdoors, where we all felt safe.

While doing dairy bars, cinematographer Jeff Dailey and I traveled to these different locations and saw a lot of the impact that was going on in those communities.

We saw just how much they meant to every person that came through.

There were people that were coming through and they would stick their head through the window, into the dairy bar and say, "What, are y'all taking pictures for television?"

And then they would tell us just how important those locations were.

It was really heartening, and you find this.

You see locations like this, like the ones you see.

Other places, you know, these are the locations that are named after the high school mascot or a beloved member of the community, and they stick around for 60, 70, 80, even 90 years.

They are precious to us, and we are so glad to be able to feature them in this program and in this book.

I hope that each and every one of you enjoys what you're watching tonight, and be sure to call into that number.

1-800-662-2386.

Your gift helps programs like "Arkansas Dairy Bar" make it on the air, and, if nothing else, you should be really happy about how hungry it's making you so you get an opportunity to try each and every one of these places by yourself.

Thank you so much.

Enjoy the show.

(orchestral music) (upbeat music) (traffic hums) ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ - Blytheville, Arkansas, sits just below the Missouri Bootheel.

Its culinary contribution to Arkansas is the pig sandwich, and we're about to go to where you can get some of the very best.

(upbeat music) ♪ Ooh, ooh, ooh ♪ - 1953.

My father started out with ice cream, and then he went to hot dogs.

- [Kat] Suzanne Johns Wallace is the daughter of Steven Johns, the man who first opened the Kream Kastle as a milk bar.

She quite literally grew up in the restaurant.

- Oh, it was fun.

You know, we got all the ice cream we wanted.

Got, my daddy would fix whatever we wanted, any way we wanted.

My name's in the concrete on the, over on that side.

- [Kat] She and her husband, Jeff, own the business today.

- In the beginning, it was just hamburger and barbecues and French fries and shakes.

- My father's slogan was, "Kream Kastle, home of the Kastle Burger."

He just had a dream, and it started out with ice cream, and then he added the hot dogs, six for $1, at one time, and hamburgers.

And then, 1955, he added the barbecue, and it just kept growing from there.

(upbeat music) - [Kat] Steven Johns was the first restaurant owner in Blytheville to drop the "Whites Only" signs and fully integrate his establishment after the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

- Well, because we all need to eat, and everybody was the same to him.

(upbeat music) (meat cleaver thuds) - [Kat] Jeff came on in the mid 1980s.

(meat cleaver thuds) - It's been my whole life, since I was 26 years old.

I'm 63 today.

We got married first.

- And a month later, right?

- And her mother put me to work.

(Suzanne laughs) I was already working, don't get me wrong.

- I told him, I said, "Jeff, that's a lot of hard work."

He said, "I'm ready."

Jeff kept the original dishes, but added a few of his own.

- Kastle Burger, chili cheeseburger, onion rings, French fries, steak sandwich, chicken basket, fish basket.

- Salads.

- And on and on.

- Salads.

- Salads, pig salads.

(upbeat music) - [Kat] The star of the menu, without a doubt, is the pig sandwich.

- Well, it's a pork shoulder cooked with hickory charcoal wood for 12 to 13 hours, and we chop it, or pull it, or slice it.

Oh, I'll sell anywhere from 10 to 12 shoulders a day.

That would be probably 200 pounds a day.

- 200 pounds?

- A lot of work.

A lot of smoke, but it takes meat, a bun, hot sauce, and slaw.

And cheese, sometimes, and mayonnaise, sometimes.

- Chili, sometimes.

- Chili, sometimes, (meat sizzles) and some hot sauce.

(upbeat music) - What goes in it?

- Vinegar, pepper.

- It's a secret, that's enough.

- That's it.

- (laughs) That's all!

- I think it's just really special for people that have grown up here eating it, and people that travel and come through, they like it, too, but it is a special sauce.

- We have many customers that will stop and buy the, you know, we bottle it now, and they will stop and, taking it to family elsewhere.

It's really neat meeting all the people that still remember us.

- [Kat] Kream Kastle has a lot of regulars.

- Well, they just, they've been here all their lives, most of 'em.

They just push up and push the button or they walk through the door.

- I was born and raised here in '58, and we've been coming here forever.

The best barbecue in the whole tristate area, as far as I'm concerned.

(traffic hums) - [Kat] So what do you like on your pig sandwich?

- Just the regular, a little bit of the slaw, and the hot sauce.

You know, you can't beat it.

If I'm not in a barbecue mood, Kastle Burger is to die for, too.

You know, when, back in the day, this was the little circuit, as far as driving.

You drive around here, go back, go down to, by the high school, circle back, sometimes to stop in here and grab you a drink or a burger.

It's just been a part of Blytheville forever.

(Suzanne laughs) - Well, everybody's welcome here.

They're welcome.

It doesn't matter if you have any money, you can pay me the next time, or you don't pay me.

I don't turn anybody away.

- Yes, we have a lot that, when they're traveling, they'll get off at exit 63.

You know, if they grew up here, especially, and they'll have to stop here, and they'll always let Jeff know.

One lady said she met her husband on one side and they got engaged on the other side.

(meat sizzles) - [Kat] Some of those travelers are pretty well-known.

- Al Roker!

- [Jeff] Al Roker.

- (laughs) Yes, Al Roker.

The governor has been here a few times.

We always enjoy his visit.

- Okay, thank you, (mumbles) come get it.

- [Kat] Kream Kastle used to be open seven days a week, but with changing times and grandbabies to see, Jeff and Suzanne have cut the hours back to five days a week.

Those hours are busy ones.

- You get up every morning about 6:30, and you come to work, and you stay until the day's done, whether it's at 7:00 or 10:00.

You have to have people.

- [Suzanne] That's right, it's just- - [Jeff] You can't do it by yourself.

- [Suzanne] You just walk along, do it together.

And we love it, we do love it.

(chuckles) - [Kat] The building is the original.

The awnings were added a few years later.

Those menu boards were added in 1987, and are still used by folks who want the traditional push button service.

- [Cashier] Hello, can I help you?

- Yeah, give me a regular pig sandwich, a large fry and a Dr Pepper, please.

- [Cashier] Your order will be right out, thank you.

- Thank you.

- Well, it's the last of the mom-and-pop eating place, you know, that you can come and feel welcome, and everybody knows your name.

If you ever walk through that door, I may not remember your name, but I know who you are, and I'm gonna make you welcome, and you don't get that.

You know, that's gone by the wayside.

- I guess, you know, I guess because it was my daddy's dream, and then Jeff's worked so hard, well, you know, we just want it to continue on.

- Blytheville's a good place to live.

A lot of good people here.

They've all been good to me.

They've helped me keep my doors open.

I've made 'em welcome, they come every day, you know.

- We love Blytheville.

- Love Blytheville, and the people here.

(upbeat music) - In Marion, Tacker's Shake Shack originally opened in 1977.

Big John Tacker and his wife, Loretta, served everything from pizza to catfish.

Today, their son, Mark, is in charge, creating some of the Delta's most incredible burgers, including The Sultana Burger, a four patty, chili, bacon, egg, and hash brown monstrosity that'll earn you a photo on the wall if you manage to consume it all.

(upbeat music) Get over to Marked Tree where you'll find Walker's Dairy Freeze.

The restaurant has stood for more than 60 years.

It became Walker's in 1981 and still serves the Pizza Burger, a spiced, cheesed, and breaded patty served with lettuce on a seedless button.

(upbeat music) Bald Knob is this great crossroads in the Upper Arkansas Delta.

If you're crossing over on 64 or 67 to Memphis to Heber Springs, Little Rock to Jonesboro, Walnut Ridge, this is the perfect middle spot to grab a bite to eat, and that's great because, since 1978, The Bulldog Restaurant has been in operation.

Bob Miller and Lece Miller ran it for years, but here a few years ago, they handed it off to a couple of sisters who have brought their entire family into the operation.

(patrons murmur) Meet Jennifer Muckelberg and Julie Roberts, the proud owners of the Bulldog.

- Well, I was in college, and decided that I needed a part-time job, so I come to apply at the Bulldog in 1994, and been here ever since, and since I was going to college to be a coach and a teacher, and decided that I was gonna take a year off, and during that time, Bob and Lece, the previous owners, offered me a position of assistant manager.

And so I thought, well, I'll try that out.

- I started in high school, I was 15, and it was when she was here.

So my mom and I both came at the same time, and been here ever since, and that's what we've been doing 20 something, 21 years, I'll be here.

I have a, she's 15 and she's working, and then I have a nine year, going on 18.

She's the boss.

I mean, she just comes in, you know, and tells everybody what to do.

- I've got a set of twins that are 17, and they're both here, and then I have a 20-year-old that's in college, and any chance she gets, she's here working.

And then our mom, she works here also.

And then our dad comes in on Sundays and he fries the fish.

- [Jennifer] He fries the fish for us.

- [Julie] And both of our husbands, they have full-time jobs, so they're a tremendous help, also.

- [Jennifer] And then we've got some great employees that have been here, you know- - [Julie] For a very long time.

We're like a big family, you know?

We're more than just, they're more than just our employees.

We consider 'em family and, 'cause it's just, we're so close.

- [Kat] The customers come in by season, though not what you might consider a typical season.

- Well, in the summertime, when the temperatures, you know, are pretty, and, you know, and good, we get the Memphis crowd, because they're going to the lake at Heber Springs, Greers Ferry.

- [Kat] Wow.

There's also sports season.

- [Julie] Small teams that are traveling to their games, they'll stop in.

- [Kat] And camp season.

- [Julie] We also get a lot of the, that Camp Quality and Camp Dakota, and, as they're going and as they're coming home, so that's something that we look forward to, also, is seeing them come in every summer.

- What's your busiest time of the year?

- Well, it's our- - [Julie] Shortcake season.

- [Jennifer] Yeah, and that starts April 1st and goes through Labor Day, 'cause everyone is anxious for that time to start.

We have Lucille Miller, which is Bob's mother, actually make the shortbread at home and bring it up here.

- [Kat] Neat!

- [Jennifer] In the beginning, she would teach a few people how to make it.

You know, you had to be special to learn how to make it.

- [Kat] So it's, that's a trade secret?

- [Jennifer] Yes, absolutely.

Yeah, our barbecue is a big hit.

- [Kat] Really?

- Yeah, it's, we're well-known for that, 'cause we have our own special sauce recipe, barbecue sauce, so it's homemade.

- [Julie] Yes, and we have pork and chicken.

We smoke it daily.

- [Jennifer] And then our footlongs, everyone loves our footlongs, 'cause we have homemade chili and- - [Julie] It's just huge.

- [Jennifer] Huge.

- [Julie] And our ice cream, we have Flavorbursts.

It's the vanilla ice cream with the strawberry or raspberry or pina colada, the flavor mixed through it that the kids just really, really love.

- And then we have our daily pies.

That's every day.

Our coconut, chocolate, pecan, and then we have a lemon ice box.

It's part of it.

- Yes!

With the big homemade meringue on top of it, yes.

- [Kat] And then, of course, there are the burgers.

- They're fresh black Angus patties.

They're never frozen.

Cook 'em by order.

- [Jennifer] Fresh.

- [Julie] They're fresh, and they come on a, you know, you can get a single burger or a double burger, and then they come with all the fixings on top.

Mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion.

- [Kat] The restaurant opens at eight every morning.

There's a breakfast sandwich on the menu, or you have the option of ordering a burger or anything else at all.

- The Bulldogs, there's not very many Bulldogs around.

You can get your McDonald's in every town.

- Sonic.

- Sonic's, you know, Taco Bells, but you don't get your Bulldogs in every town.

(machine hisses) - You know, the usual customers, they always, you know, come back and make sure that they're supporting us, also, so... (upbeat music) - [Kat] Originally opened by Hettie and Terry Presley in a former Dairy Queen along Jonesboro's Gee Street in 1977, the red-roofed Presley's Drive-In continues to offer diner-style breakfast and lunches, dipped cones, and a great patty-melt-style Reuben sandwich.

(upbeat music) Don Hamacher and Jim Griggs opened the first Dog 'n Suds restaurant in Champagne, Illinois, in 1953.

The franchise grew through to the 1970s with, at one time, 650 locations across the United States.

Those included spots in Conway, Searcy, Jonesboro, and Paragould.

The last one in Arkansas and the southernmost of the 15 remaining locations, the restaurant still features burgers, hot dogs, creamy root beer, and pupusas.

(upbeat music) It's in Paragould where our next destination can be found downtown inside a Texaco station listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

That's where you'll find this guy.

- Bert Daggett, grease jockey and head bottle washer.

(Kat laughs) I bought it in 1998 from two friends of my mom and dad who weren't ready to sell, but they were thinking about it, and they came to Marianna for a golf tournament and they made some comment and I said, "Well, tell me about."

- [Kat] The structure was purpose-built as a Texaco station in 1924.

Dottie Biddick and Marky Collum started the Hamburger Station in the historic building.

- They started it in 1985.

- And you just thought, this is a cool idea, and you'll come up here?

- Yeah.

- That's a little insane.

- Yeah.

- Did you expect to be up here for 22, 23 years now?

- No, it's, you start doing it and you really like it, and there's times where you just want to, you know, you'll just, you want to throw things away and run for the hills, but you get, somebody tells you, "That's the best burger I've ever had," and it doesn't matter.

It just goes on to, okay.

I keep on going.

Dottie Biddick grew up in Oklahoma, and they were famous in some part of Oklahoma for onion burgers.

She said, "Well, no one does something like that in Arkansas."

So they did it, and they started calling it the Onion Burger, but then, they thought that was just not cool enough, so they said the Hum-Burger, 'cause when you're eating it, you're going, "Mm," you start humming.

(meat sizzles) What sets us apart on just the burger, itself, is we do ground beef, 73/27.

It's fresh and never frozen.

We do patties every day.

I mean, people are, my guys come in, and they start five-ounce patties, and everything is just done on the meat, and the only thing we put on it's salt and pepper, and, but when you go to the onions, the Hum-Burger with the onions, we do the jumbo Texas sweet onions, and we have a mandolin that shaves 'em down to where they're almost paper thin.

So when you put 'em on the meat after you salt and peppered it, and they cook down and the juices go into the meat, and then, when you flip it over, you cook the onions and char 'em, and the steam from that goes up into the burger, so that they just kinda just melt into the burger.

So you have to toast the buns, 'cause if you put, like, a pile of hot onions and mustard and pickles on a bun, it's just gonna just melt apart.

- [Kat] The Hum-Burgers come dressed with kosher pickle chips and mustard, but you can ask for them any way you want.

- A lot of people, you know, they go for slaw, and that is probably the, one of the, it's mustard, pickles, onions, slaw on a Hum-Burger.

- [Kat] That's right, coleslaw.

- We do ours with Miracle Whip and a little bit of sugar.

That's, it, you go, "Slaw?

"Okay, yeah."

You'd be surprised what people put on a hamburger.

(both laugh) Carole is, it was already on the menu before I got it.

A girl that was from here was Miss Arkansas, and her father was a surgeon here, and so that was his favorite burger, but the ladies wanted to do something for her when she won Miss Arkansas, so they named it the Carole Burger, and I was friends with Carole in college, and when she came in to eat a burger, I was like, "Hey, yeah, I know," and she goes, "That's my father.

"I hate, hate mayonnaise!"

(both laugh) The Cheddy, I named that after a buddy of mine.

Double meat, double cheese, and double slaw.

We put on chili cheese fries with a, like, Loaded Gazaway is the, our chili cheese fries, it's probably, we sell about maybe 10 a day, and it's just something that, you're like, "Okay, chili cheese fries."

- You cannot get turkey half the time because everybody wants their turkey salad or their turkey club.

It's delicious.

- I don't know if he's got caller ID, 'cause sometimes, when I call in a lunch order, he'll go, "We're out of turkey."

So that's how popular their turkey sandwich is.

- That's how he answers the phone.

(laughs) - Yes, yes, yes.

- [Kat] What, did you add a lot to the menu, or did you- - No, hell no!

I would get in trouble if I did that.

I switched to the ranch dressing that I liked, and thought, well, heck, you know, what's the big deal?

And there's a beauty shop here, Lucille's, and I got a couple phone calls one day, and they read me the Riot Act, then I got another call from Dottie and Marky saying, "What were you doing?

"We told you, don't mess with anything."

(Kat laughs) So I had to go back to that ranch dressing.

You have a good reputation, and you don't want to mess it up.

Keep doing the same thing.

(upbeat music) - When I was a kid, I would come down here and get a cherry milkshake, fries, and the Hum-Burger, and then if I was a, if I started getting, putting a little too many pounds on, I would try to go a diet, I would eat chicken strips, 'cause I thought chicken was healthier.

(laughs) - [Kat] Are you tackling the Double Hum-Burger with cheese?

- [Woman] I am.

It's a challenge I have not faced yet, but I'm about halfway done.

- [Kat] Wow!

(women chuckle) (slow acoustic music) - Kim, yeah, my future wife, she's been able to step in with the helping out, and then she started just taking on little jobs and little projects, and then I just told her, I said, "Hey, look, you know, "it's free reign, do what you want to do," and I'm blessed to have her in my life, and, 'cause, you know, I didn't know how to work on Facebook or do a Facebook page, or post things, she takes pictures, you know, and so that's what she is, loves doing, and she's great at it, and I cannot express how much she's helped make me realize that I'm missing out on certain things, like, you know, we just took cash and checks.

She said, "You'd be surprised when you take a credit card," and, but she was right and I was wrong, which I don't like to say it out loud.

- Order for Brandon!

- And being a, you know, on that grill and everything else, when you're doing it all by yourself, it's a chore.

But, yeah, I love doing the grill, and so, it's about, I just, that's my thing.

I just love, you know, I said the grease jockey, and it's, when someone sticks their head in the window, you know, and just says, "Man, that's the greatest burger I ever had," and that is what, you know, that puts the icing on the cake every day.

(slow acoustic music) - [Kat] Whether it's the third-generation family-owned Johnson's Fish House, which has evolved from its days as the Johnson Freeze Inn back in 1972, or Kennon's Drive-In in Fair Oaks, where you can still get the all-meat burger and a thick shake at the intersection of Highways 49 and 64, (slow acoustic music) (traffic hums) or the D-Shack in Waldenburg, known for burgers and fried bologna sandwiches, the Delta is home to a great many of our oldest dairy bars.

(slow acoustic music) - Welcome back to the Arkansas PBS studios.

Oh, my gosh.

You know, viewer donations make local programs like this possible, so I'm asking you right now, we've just seen another great section of "Arkansas Dairy Bars," I'm asking you to go to the phone or go online and make your commitment, your pledge of financial support, because your dollars help us be able to create and bring to you more local programs just like this, as well as the other programs that you enjoy throughout the rest of the year.

So, 1-800-662-2386, or myarkansaspbs.org, and I've got Kat Robinson here.

So glad that she's in the studio with us.

You know, you've met a lot of wonderful folks while you were doing this.

- I really have.

We just were talking to Bert Daggett, and his love story out of Paragould, Arkansas, and those Hum-Burgers, I crave those burgers, and the sisters at the Bulldog Restaurant, and the Wallaces up in Blytheville with the Kream Kastle.

These stories aren't just about food that you can eat, but about the relationships between these individuals, the found families of their employees, their real families that go to work by them every single day.

This is carried over into the book, "Arkansas Dairy Bars: Neat Eats & Cool Treats," including with stories like that of the Dairy Dream up in Mountainburg.

The Willroth family has been offering these Mountainburgers and these big cones and Purple Cows and Silver Saddles for ages.

Or, say we talk about the Dairy Queen, or sorry, the Daisy Queen Hi-Boy.

This is up just south of Harrison, Arkansas.

Oh, the southernmost of the Hi-Boy chain that existed in the '50s and '60s, and it still holds on today.

That right there is a Hi-Boy Burger, and that's the exact same kind of burger you would have gotten all those years ago.

Or, say we're gonna talk about the Delaware Ice Cream Shop & Deli in Delaware, Arkansas.

It's just off of Lake Dardanelle.

This place opened up just a couple of years ago, and they're carrying on the dairy bar tradition not only with burgers, but with deli sandwiches, pizza, and hand-scooped ice cream in handmade waffle cones that are just fabulous.

Or, say, up in Berryville at Garner's Drive In, which is the old-fashioned everything, including that big old twist cone there, and burgers and fries, and they will batter and deep-fry almost any vegetable for you.

It's an old Dari-Delite that the Gardner family bought and has been operating for decades.

Of course, places like these mean something.

They're very important.

They are elements of our culinary identity as Arkansas folks.

You can get this at the book, "Arkansas Dairy Bars: Neat Eats & Cool Treats," just by becoming a Sustainer at $10 a month, or a pledge of $120.

This is the culinary travel guide you've got to keep, especially in these pandemic times.

This is the perfect restaurant for you to visit at any point.

(mumbles) (chuckles) - I know.

I mean, what, that to me is like, the premium thing.

But if you'd like to share a slice of Arkansas, no pun intended on the slice of pie before, but, you know, you can always get the DVD of the program, which is available for your gift of $72, or a $6 a month as a Sustainer, and I love, love, love, now, we're gonna show, this is the T-shirt that was designed by our very own Kat.

It's the, travel the foods of Arkansas.

- I mean, all sorts of foods, and these shirts are created, the, it's my design with Rock City Outfitters, which happens to be a local Arkansas company, and they make these amazing, soft shirts that are all just the kinda thing that you need if you want to travel all of Arkansas.

This one here, of course, talks about everything from fried chicken and spaghetti in the North to chocolate gravy and tamales and pie in the South.

It's, this is the perfect shirt for you to wear as you travel the state of Arkansas with your dairy bar culinary guide that you can get as your gift when you become a member of the Arkansas PBS family.

- And you can get it in small all the way through to 2XL.

And, of course, if you can't make up your mind, you want it all, how about a gift of $240, or becoming an ongoing Sustainer at $20 a month, and know that your dollars go to support great local programs like this and the other programs you enjoy on Arkansas PBS throughout the entire year.

(Kat chuckles) It's fabulous.

I mean, I can't tell you, I hope you are kind of like me, looking at your watch going, "Um, when this is done, "let's see, what might be open that I can get to, "that could, I could get me something like that?"

1-800-662-2386.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This month in Passport, your on-demand library of the best of PBS.

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- Stop!

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- [Woman] In my head, it was a vision.

- [Man] People really hadn't seen anything like Mae West before.

- You better come up and see me.

- I'm exploring the secrets of three most extraordinary queens.

It's some of history's biggest myths.

- [Announcer] These and other shows are available with Passport.

Go to pbs.org/watchpassport and find out how you can start streaming today.

- Okay, when you make your pledge for any one of these particular thank you gifts, Passport is this lovely, extra benefit that we can provide to you.

It's our streaming service.

There are hundreds of hours of programming that you can access on just about any device, any time that you choose.

So, stream local productions, stream "Masterpiece" dramas, Ken Burns documentaries, enjoy pledge specials without the pledge breaks.

Hundreds of new programs are going to be added coming up in September, by September 1st, so just a wonderful, extra way of us saying thank you for you providing a gift of support so that we can continue to bring you the programs that you love.

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Myarkansaspbs.org.

Remember, any of these gift levels, or if you wanted to just do $60 as an annual gift, become a Sustainer at $5 a month, ongoing, Passport is part of that.

So don't let this time go by.

We still have more of "Arkansas Dairy Barns" to go, but, you know, you want to call.

We're only giving that book out to y'all early, just for a short time.

(slow rock music) - Programs like "Arkansas Dairy Bars" only come to you thanks to viewers like you that help us fund these projects.

I couldn't put gas in my tank or hit the road to provide these kind of programs without your help.

And let me tell you what, programs like this don't come along like this every day.

In fact, there's no other program that you can find, no other show that's going to celebrate Arkansas food culture quite the way that "Arkansas Dairy Bars" do, and I'm thrilled to be able to share this with you.

Having "Arkansas Dairy Bars," having programs we've done before like "Make Room For Pie," that's because you've been willing to help us keep this mission going.

So call 1-800-662-2386 right now and let them know that you want more of this.

You want to find out more about Arkansas's culinary traditions, places to go whenever you want to get out on the road, and food that you want to be able to share with your family.

Our culinary traditions are incredible here, and I'm glad to be able to bring them to you, because no other station can give you a full-length program like this.

This is unique, and it's because of you that we are able to make it happen, only on Arkansas PBS.

So call in and become a Sustaining member now, or go to our secure site, myarkansaspbs.org, and become an instant member.

It's time.

Come and celebrate.

Show that you really want to see more programs just like "Arkansas Dairy Bars," and be sure to let them know that you want a gift of the "Arkansas Dairy Bars" DVD, or perhaps the lovely Arkansas food shirt, and be the first in your family to get a copy of the "Arkansas Dairy Bars" book only through Arkansas PBS.

We're so glad that you've enjoyed this so far.

I'm bouncing all my leg off now 'cause I'm so hungry.

I want to share more with you.

Here's more of "Arkansas Dairy Bars."

(upbeat music) (traffic hums) - Next stop, DeWitt, where, in the heart of the Grand Prairie, one woman has taken on a family's established restaurant and made it all her own.

(traffic hums) - When my business partner and I bought it, the people that had it before us had it for 37 years straight.

- And were they the ones that named it Troy's?

- They are the ones that named it Troy's.

It comes from the husband, yes.

- [Kat] And so you decided you were not gonna change the name?

- There was no need.

(Kat laughs) There was no need.

It was gonna always be Troy's.

(upbeat music) - Stephanie Williams purchased the longstanding Troy's Drive-In in DeWitt.

It had originally been built as the DeWitt Dairy Bar before being purchased in 1973 and renamed Troy's Drive-In.

- I was just a regular customer.

(Kat laughs) That's it, I was just a regular customer.

It was always the favorite place to eat.

You can look back in yearbooks in DeWitt High School and Troy's will always be the favorite place to eat in this town.

Every fast food restaurant, which we only have two in this town, (Kat laughs) I was there to open both of 'em.

- Okay.

- Sonic, and then Subway.

The guy that was my business partner, he owned the Subway.

He brought it to DeWitt.

I managed it for him for eight years before we came over here.

He owns a flying service here.

He's a pilot, crop-dusting pilot, and he just decided one day that he, it was done.

You know, he was done.

- Okay.

- So, and I was like, "Hey, I don't want to sell out.

"Let me buy you out."

And then that's kinda how I got it.

(upbeat music) (machine hums) - So why would you want to take on the operation of a dairy bar like this?

- Because I love it.

I love what I do.

I love what I do.

Food has always been my life, so, and then when I got here and I could bring some of my own flavor to the menu, so, hey, it was great, and I loved it, and we just took off and it's been going ever since.

It's a great, great business.

- Has the menu here always been pretty much the same?

- We have almost everything that Nadja and Troy had.

We added, like, the chicken wings, and we added barbecue nachos.

We added stuff like that, so, to bring just a little bit more of us into it.

We just added the chicken wings about a year and a half.

We fry 'em to order.

We, every time I go to a food show, if I see something I like, I'm bringing it back.

(laughs) - But people come here for a particular specialty?

- Oh yes, that's the grilled burger.

(Kat laughs) It's the flame-broiled burger.

It's the burger made with love.

- [Kat] So it's your love burger?

- It's my love burger.

(both laugh) Fresh hamburger meat.

We do not use anything frozen when it comes to our burger.

The grill seasons our burgers.

We won't add any salt, we won't add any pepper.

We put, weigh 'em out, eight ounces for a large, four ounces for a regular, and we pat 'em out with our burger smasher, and, hey, we flame broil 'em.

- [Kat] Sometimes those flames get pretty high.

- [Stephanie] Oh, they get high.

Yes, they get high.

They get real high.

- [Kat] Does it get hot in there?

- It gets really hot in there.

- [Kat] I mean, just, like, right now.

(laughs) It's real hot, here come the flames!

- [Stephanie] Hey, we have people that drive up just to see the flames.

- [Kat] Dinner and a show.

- [Stephanie] Dinner and a show.

(Kat laughs) - People know.

People, what people like about it is the flame broil.

It's the way we flip 'em on this grill, this gas grill.

We got four burners that run down there, and it's gas, and we cook 'em just like if you were to have a charcoal grill outside.

So, yeah, that's what they like about 'em.

Four or 500 pounds.

- [Kat] What, what?

- Yeah, like, on, I get two deliveries, so I get in 240 pounds every delivery, and I get two deliveries, so, you see that?

That's what they like.

Burgers are made every morning, 120 burgers every morning before we open up.

- [Kat] Wow.

- [Stephanie] Whatever we sell at lunch, we replace it, because we're probably gonna sell another 120 before 7:00.

- [Kat] Wow.

- [Stephanie] That's a lot of burgers for a little town, but they get double, triple meat, single meat, double burger with barbecue meat on it and an onion ring.

- [Kat] Barbecue?

- Yeah, they get a half a pound of barbecue meat put on top of a jumbo, double meat cheeseburger, so, and one big onion, 'cause, of course, our onion rings are so big.

- One onion ring?

- Yeah.

So you sit the onion ring on top of there, and don't forget the mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato.

- [Kat] Oh, my goodness.

- But, yeah, we'll top a burger with pretty much anything.

If you want fried mushrooms, fried pickles on your burger, jalapeno, we'll do same for a footlong.

We'll do the same for tater tots.

We'll do same for French fries.

- Come on in here.

You're, yeah.

Oh, then turn that way.

- That camera get 'em a little shy.

- You should see right now, this is the hoppingest place in town.

We've got people that are already lined up to get through this drive-through.

Y'all can come through the window, too, if you like.

It's okay.

- Come on.

- If you want to just pull up.

- That's Steel, that's one of my favorites.

You can pull up right here.

- Yeah, come on.

Hey, there!

- He want to get out and get in front of the camera?

- [Man] Yeah.

- (laughs) I knew it!

- That wasn't the only time we were interrupted.

I take it these are all your regulars.

- Yeah, pretty much, especially him.

Steel, he is definitely a regular.

- You come every day?

- I try to, if I can afford it.

(Stephanie laughs) - [Cinematographer] What do you like about this place?

- Everything.

(Stephanie laughs) The tartar, this handmade tartar sauce.

- There you go!

- Thank you!

- [Kat] So does it ever stop?

- Not until seven.

We close at seven, and it stops at seven.

There he is!

- [Kat] Oh, hi!

- He got out of that van.

- Y'all coming out?

(Stephanie laughs) You gonna get your order?

What's your favorite thing to eat here?

- [Both] Burgers.

- [Kat] Burgers?

Are they the best burgers you've ever had in your life?

Yeah?

- Oh, thank you.

- Everybody, everybody in DeWitt comes to Troy's.

- Yes.

- Without a doubt.

- Without a doubt.

- [Kat] I mean.

- [Stephanie] I have people that come here that's moved away from here and been gone 30 or 40 years, and they come back and tell me they worked here for 25 cents an hour and, when they were teenagers.

- [Kat] Oh, my gosh.

- And they cannot believe that it looks the same and that it's still here and it's still in operation.

They can't, they just can't believe it.

Yes, I love this place.

Can they put you on camera, Courtney?

She's like, "Yes."

(laughs) If somebody's from out of town and they get my number or look us up on Facebook and they want a burger, "I'll be there in 10 minutes."

It's, "No, this is a love burger.

"You've gotta be here in 15," because we're not gonna run it through a conveyor belt.

We're gonna cook your burger.

It's gonna be hot, it's gonna be juicy, and it's gonna be fresh.

It's gonna be good for you.

Yeah, DeWitt loves Troy's.

DeWitt means everything to Troy's.

It means community.

It means people coming together all the time, and not forgetting where you came from, and falling in love with something and being able to be in love with it for many years.

I'm happy to be a part of that.

I really am.

I am.

(slow rock music) (birds chirp) (upbeat music) - [Kat] When it comes to tiny burgers in a bag, you can't beat these little 95-cent hamburgers from Rich's.

Richard Warriner, Sr. opened the stand in downtown Pine Bluff in 1961.

There is always a lunch crowd.

(train rail hums) Inspired by the Frank E. Pohl Giant Orange Cafes in California, Ernestine Bradshaw opened the Mammoth Orange Cafe along the Dollarway in Redfield.

Her grandson, Jock Carter, has assembled a crew to carry on the tradition of burgers and sundaes, along with daily lunch specials served both inside and outside the definitive edifice.

(upbeat music) Through our journey, I've taken you to all sorts of magnificent restaurants with great pasts.

The one we're going to now is truly a sign of the future.

(upbeat music) - Scoop is the vanilla custard, the dogs are our hot dogs, and ScoopDog is a beagle, (laughs) or a wiener dog.

Some people want to call him a wiener dog, but he's actually a beagle, and he was one of our dogs that passed away a few years ago.

We started naming our sundaes after dogs, like the Poodle, the Golden Retriever, the Chocolate Lab, and some of our customers, one of our customers, actually, came up with the Chocolate Lab.

So we've named all the ice creams after a dog.

- [Kat] Joe Yanosick and his wife, Kim, opened The Original ScoopDog along JFK Boulevard in North Little Rock in 1999.

The distinctive sign-covered building is a homegrown favorite for a city once known as Dogtown.

- Well, my wife and my daughter paint most of the signs, but each sign represents a sundae or a type of concrete, and that's really about all there is to it.

Like, our banana split, our fudge brownie concrete.

- But there seem to be, I mean, there's so many, and it's just very artistic.

It gives this place a look like no other.

- Well, (chuckles) we offer so many different items to choose from, so the signs represent different concretes and different sundaes, and we have that many selections here.

There's not enough signs to represent what all we serve.

We have a custard machine.

Our, my inspiration was Leon's Frozen Custard in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

In 1929, he built our machine, and we have two machines, and we have one that we keep in our garage, just in case, but he doesn't even make these machines anymore.

So our custard is made specifically for us from a dairy in Illinois, and so we get the custard product in weekly and we run it fresh.

We run our custard fresh.

Probably every 15 to 30 minutes, we're turning our machine on to run our custard fresh.

- The product ended up being extraordinarily creamy.

I mean, you're not going to get a creamier ice cream dessert in Central Arkansas, much less, most of rest of Arkansas, because that custard is so thick and so- - Eggs, cream, and sugar.

- Eggs, cream, and sugar.

So that's what does separate it from a traditional, say, a soft serve that you might get at other places.

It's a great product.

- Okay, so we pour our custard mix in here, and then there's a flow back here that determines how thick the custard will come out, and then, we'll be getting ready to start our machine in just a minute to run some fresh frozen custard.

(metal clatters) (machine rattles) This machine's 20, 21 years old.

It'll take three to four minutes before it starts to firm up.

So, see, as this gets colder, you could turn that flow up a little more to push more ice cream through, but, again, that flow is what controls how, if you run it too soft, you can't dump it over.

Yeah, it's gotta have enough liquid in there or otherwise it gets really loud.

The blades are metal, so they, it maintains a perfect temperature throughout the cylinder.

And then, we don't have to overwhip it, so therefore, it's a lot denser than products where they pump air or overwhip it.

We're, like, the filet mignon (chuckles) of ice cream.

(Kat laughs) It's a, the Chicago Dog and The Good Ole Beagle sundae, those are our two most popular items.

Yeah, we get our hot dogs, and our buns are made for us in Chicago, and we get our deliveries twice a week, as a matter of fact, and we're the real deal.

Pure beef, authentic Chicago-style hot dog.

We use a skinless hot dog, but it still has the snap, and we're proud to serve a real Chicago Dog.

You really can't get it, one, anywhere in the state now.

We're about the only one left.

- With the honest-to-goodness poppy seed bun and the sport peppers.

- Sports peppers, then you have the relish, yellow mustard, the pickles.

We take pride in making our Chicago Dog the way you would get if you were in the street of Chicago.

We've ended up going around the country and picking the most famous cities and the most famous hot dogs from the city.

A Detroit Dog, mustard, chili, cheese, and onion, is authentic to Detroit.

The Kansas City-style hot dog is a Swiss cheese with sauerkraut, which is, it is different.

A New York Dog is a, it's onions in a tomato-based sauce with a spicy mustard on it.

It's just like what you would get if you went to the street of New York.

So, yes, all of our city dogs are authentic to the city that they represent.

(upbeat music) We laugh because my kids have all grown up at this store, and I told my children, now that they're all old, and I said, "I wanted to spend more time with you."

And they, "Oh, you've achieved that."

(laughs) Maybe too much time together, but we're still close family, so it must've worked out.

When we opened this store, we, people laughed 'cause they didn't know what frozen custard was, and we just, we worked it when we got 10 cars a day, and now, we do three, 400.

- All right, let me get that without the onions.

(upbeat music) - All right, Sooey, no onion.

- If we treat the customers the way Arkansans expect to be treated, friendly, fast, and, again, we know what they want, and that, people in Arkansas, and especially North Little Rock, are very picky.

They want what they want.

Don't mess with their hot dogs or frozen custard.

Give 'em what they want.

(Kat laughs) - It's a slice of Americana.

You know, you can pull in for a chili dog and a shake, and just, you know, it's definitely old-school.

- I like all of it, really.

You know, all put together, it just, it's great.

It's lovely, it's beautiful.

(Kat giggles) - People come here when they want a snack.

They come here for lunch, come here for dinner, a late-night snack.

So we, around the clock, we could probably open earlier and close later.

(laughs) - I really like it, 'cause there's an ice cream layer on top and you can see below the ice cream, all the strawberries and the cherries.

Lots of cherries.

It tastes really good, and the blend of it, too, is just, (smacks lips) spectacular.

- I feel very, very blessed and lucky.

Yeah, to get to work with my children every day, and, again, see all the happy customers, it's a very rewarding experience, and it's not easy owning a business.

It isn't for everyone.

You have your ups and downs, but I feel very lucky, very lucky.

Great, great customers.

We have the best.

Just having a successful small business that makes customers happy is, that's everything.

(upbeat music) - My mom and dad started it in 1966.

Took it over in '89.

When they actually retired, I purchased it in 2002.

- So you were born into this business?

- I was, I was three months old when they took this and bought it.

It was either '61 or '60 when it was actually built.

- Okay.

- It went through four owners.

- Four?

- Four owners, couldn't make it, and so my dad went deer hunting, and while he was gone deer hunting, the owner of the Daisy Queen called my mom and said, "I'm done, I'm gonna get out of this.

"Do you want to buy it?"

And my mom said, "Well, how much?"

She told her.

My dad comes back from deer hunting, and then she says, "Well, we gotta go down to the bank."

And he said, "How come?"

And she said, "Well, we just bought the Daisy Queen, "so we gotta go borrow some money."

(both laugh) Dad said- - Just like that?

- Dad said, "Okay."

- So dad didn't really have a say in it?

- No, no.

(Kat laughs) It's, you know, my mom.

(both laugh) You know, she's always taught me, you know, pennies make dimes, dimes make dollars, and dollars is what you take to the bank.

- [Kat] I came here with my family whenever I was still in my single digits, and I've seen that menu grow just in my time.

So why is that?

- Well, we operate under the philosophy, Kat, that if we have a wide variety, we can hopefully feed everybody in the family that comes through that door, and everybody will be satisfied.

We want to offer a variety.

- And it certainly is a variety.

Not just your traditional dairy bar staples like burgers and hot dogs, and, of course, all sorts of ice cream varieties, but you have a ton of different offerings.

You walk in and the menu boards go on and on and on, and that's just, it's so remarkable and so cool, and there's some in there that I don't see other places, like, you have the Hot Rise sandwich.

- [Robin] Yes, mm-hmm, we do.

Buttered and grilled hoagie bun, and then we have various types of meats that we will put on it and serve it out.

It's really good.

- That bread is actually made by Turani breads out of Chicago.

It's got just the right amount of density to where it will hold, you know, it won't crumble, but then, the softness, too, that, yeah, I really like that, and you butter it up and grill it before you serve it.

That really makes a good sandwich.

So Jeff's Bigmouth Burger, they came out with this brand-new, eight-ounce Certified Angus Beef patty, and I was like, "Oh, I want to put that on my menu, "I want to put that on my menu."

Robin was saying, "I can't get my mouth around it."

I said, "Well, I can get my mouth around it "because I got a big mouth," (Kat laughs) and then, I said, hey, Jeff's Bigmouth Burger.

That's right, you gotta have a big mouth to get your mouth around it, so that's where I got that.

(Kat laughs) - For those that aren't big meat eaters, we offer the four-ounce Angus burger that we sell, either in a hamburger or a cheeseburger, or a double or a triple.

We make those in-house every morning.

They're hand-pattied.

We don't buy them frozen, coming in a box, and we're known for those, as well.

Now, our coleslaw is something that we make in-house.

We make that twice a week, and it's really good.

- It's simple, and I tell people the recipe is cabbage, carrots, sugar, and Miracle Whip, not mayonnaise.

The key is the mixture, mixing it and then letting it set for a day.

You have to be patient and let that separation, the water separation from the cabbage occur, and then you remix it up, and that's what makes it so good.

We do about 150 to 200 pounds of cabbage a week.

- We have a tartar sauce that we make- - Oh, okay.

- In-house, and we serve that with all of our baskets, and we do have our local customers that request it in, with their French fries.

Dip their fries in it.

- In tartar sauce?

- Yes.

(Kat laughs) Yes.

- What's the connection between the Daisy Queen and the Kenda Drive-In?

- Well, we're both the same age.

They were opened in 1966, the same year that my in-laws bought this restaurant.

People come, drive as far as Little Rock, and come up and eat dinner here, and then go into the drive-in.

- It's a nice, symbiotic relationship.

- Yes, it is.

(Kat laughs) It really is.

- So you grew up in this business?

- I did.

- Did you always know that you would be taking this over?

- No.

I went off to college.

I had a job at Anheuser-Busch being a cereal chemist, and so, with my food science degree, and what, me and my wife were married.

And so, she was gonna be a science teacher.

In November of 1989, my dad called me and he said, "Did you take the job with Anheuser-Busch?"

And I said, "Well, not yet, "but they told me to come and find an apartment."

- Wow.

- And he said, "Well, I'm proud of you.

"I think I've sold the Daisy Queen."

And I said, "What?"

And a guy moved in here from out West and offered dad a chunk of money.

He said, "I'm gonna sell it."

And I said, "Okay."

So I hung up, and the hair stood up on the back of my neck.

And I looked at Robin, my wife, and she said, "What's wrong with you?"

I said, "I want to move back to Marshall."

And I told her what happened.

I said, "I don't want to raise my family in a big city.

"I want to raise my family like I was raised, "where everybody knows their name, "where they know every back road."

I said, "I don't want to raise my kids in a big city."

And she said, "Well, call your dad and see what," you know?

So I called him back, and he tried to talk me out of it, and, but then he was proud I did, and I was proud I did.

I have no regrets.

Hey, I got a great college education, and I'm actually using that education.

I feel like I did all the right, I think I made all of the right moves.

This is my retirement plan.

I have two girls, 26 and 21, Catherine and Sarah, and neither one of 'em say they're gonna come back.

I said the same thing.

(Kat laughs) So, we'll wait and see.

I know this, that as long as I'm alive, I'm gonna own the Daisy Queen.

I can never imagine driving by this place and not being able to walk in the back door, make myself a double cheeseburger with mustard and onions only and a large strawberry shake, and then have to pay for it.

I just, (Kat laughs) I just, I don't want to ever know that day, so- - People stop by here and have been stopping by, the same families stop by here for years and years and years on their way to Branson or on their way to float from the Buffalo, or on their way back from the Buffalo, and they'll tell me, we've been stopping in here for x amount of years.

We appreciate their business, but we're a small family-owned restaurant that serves wholesome American food, and we do so with great pride.

(upbeat music) When I started on this mission to document Arkansas dairy bar culture, I began by defining a dairy bar as a place that served ice cream and things other than ice cream, a permanent establishment that delivered its fine culinary offerings through a window.

But there's more to it than that.

(traffic hums) A true dairy bar offers nostalgia, novelty, delicious and comforting food prepared by dedicated individuals working with their families.

Whether those families are related by blood, by circumstance, by love, or by choice, they are hallmarks of their communities.

And, as long as we remain hungry for neat eats, tasty treats, and good fellowship, Arkansas's dairy bars should continue to thrive.

So let's go out there and find ourselves a good dairy bar to share.

(upbeat music) - Oh my heavens, you know, we're all in the studios here trying to figure out where we can go for a really good burger and some ice cream right now.

I would like to know if you all are now trying to plan out your trips for all the different dairy bars that you're going to try to get to, oh, pretty soon, you know, in the next few weeks or whatever?

And there's one of the greatest ways that you can figure out where you're going to go, and that's by making sure that you make a pledge of financial support to Arkansas PBS, and maybe choose a Sustaining gift of $10 a month, because we have that not-released-anywhere-yet companion book, the "Arkansas Dairy Bars," which lists all 94 of the Arkansas dairy bars in Arkansas, and where they're located at, and it's, and geographically, as- - Geographically.

- Yes, that has, it's separated by color at the bottom so you know what area of Arkansas it's in.

- Got that little rainbow right there.

(laughs) - You can make a one-time gift of $120, and know that you're doing more than just making yourself have this book available.

You're making sure that Arkansas PBS can continue to bring these kinds of great Arkansas-focused programs your way, where you can kind of sit back and go, "Yeah, that's the Arkansas I know," or, "Yeah, I remember a place like that," and have that sense of community.

And it also helps support the rest of the programs that you enjoy on Arkansas PBS.

But right now, we're here talking about "Arkansas Dairy Bars."

So, let's talk about the, beyond the book, or if you want to keep talking about the book, there's other gifts, as well.

- There's other gifts, as well.

The book, of course, I mention because, well, it's the book.

This is the guide.

(Karen chuckles) And, as you see right there, right before the credits, like this Burrito Deluxe at Bonnie's Dairy Freeze up in Fort Smith, you also saw the Triple, which is a triple chili dog, at the Jackrabbit Drive-In over in Lonoke, which used to be Tidwell's.

It used to be a lot of different places, but it's always been a marvelous dairy bar out there.

But, in addition to the book, of course, you have the T-shirt from Rock, sorry, it's from Rock City Outfitters here, with my Arkansas food map design that, this is the perfect attire for you when, as you go around the state discovering our dairy bars, to celebrate all of the great bounty of food that you can find here in the Natural State.

And, of course, you've seen the program, but I'm sure you're gonna want to investigate it and watch it second by second.

So, of course, you should consider becoming a Sustainer at $6 a month, or, for a pledge of $72, you get the DVD of the program you just saw of "Arkansas Dairy Bars: Neat Eats & Cool Treats," and you get to delve in, again, to the story, like the Morphews of Bailey's Dairy Treat in Hot Springs, or go in and seeing the Mays up there at the Daisy Queen in Marshall.

All of these stories, here for you to have forever from, just from becoming a Sustaining member.

- Well, and I always talk about the DVDs of these local shows because I, you know, I'm a transplant to Arkansas, and having discovered all of the beautiful things that are available here in Arkansas, and, you know, when you have family and friends from not Arkansas and they go, "Why?

"Why are you in Arkansas?"

(Kat giggles) I like to share some of these things, because I don't think you're going to find this extensive of a presence of dairy bars, this kind of nostalgia, in a lot of other places.

I think it's so unique.

So you want to continue to share with your family and friends the things that make Arkansas so special and so unique.

So, you know, isn't it, oh, my gosh!

How did you manage to get all of that in?

It's incredible.

- (exhales) It was a fight to get it all into the program.

And what I couldn't get into the program is, of course, in the "Arkansas Dairy Bars" book.

There's so many stories to share.

I could talk your ear off for days and still have plenty of material, because we have a treasure trove of great stories to share about Arkansas dairy bars.

There's all sorts of neat things that you'll find in the, but you won't find at a similar restaurant somewhere else.

Like in South Arkansas, Polish, which is a Polish sausage sandwich that is similar to a hot dog, that they serve all across what we call LA, Lower Arkansas, or chicken gizzards.

Now, have you gone to someplace else and had chicken gizzards from a dairy bar?

Well, you've missed out.

Or, strangely enough, prime rib, going up to Hiwasse, Arkansas, and getting yourself a prime rib dinner through a dairy bar window, and it's just as good as what you'd get in a fancy steakhouse somewhere.

It's affordable.

It's a great story to share.

Not just your adventure, but the families that have brought these to us, and, hey, you'd like to be the first person to say, "Hey, I found this really cool place."

Well, this is the guide to do it.

Be sure, tonight, you can become one of the first people to own this book, "Arkansas Dairy Bars: Neat Eats & Cool Treats," by becoming a $10 a month Sustainer, or for a pledge of $120.

This is our gift to you, making sure you're the first to get out on our highways and enjoy all of these magnificent eats.

Call 1-800-662-2386 right now.

We have folks standing by who would love to make sure that this gift comes to your doorstep real soon.

- [Announcer] Sustaining membership is an easy, convenient, and affordable way for you to support the programs you love on Arkansas PBS.

Sustaining members make an ongoing monthly contribution from either their checking account or credit card.

Simply choose the monthly amount that fits your budget, and then call or go online and we'll set it up for you.

Your donation will happen automatically each month, so your support will always be current.

Need to make a change to your monthly gift?

Just call, (phone rings) or email us.

You're always in control.

Knowing we can count on a certain amount of revenue each month helps Arkansas PBS better plan for the future.

Call or go online to start your Sustaining membership right now.

- If you've been thinking about making a gift to Arkansas PBS and maybe it just hasn't seemed like the right time, or maybe you're a little short on funds, well, choosing to become a Sustainer is like when you pay your bills on a monthly basis, only we're not a bill.

We're something that you want to support because we're bringing these great programs your way, and it's so much easier to look at it on a monthly basis.

So, whether you choose it to be $5 or $15 or $30, or any of the levels that we have associated with these wonderful "Arkansas Dairy Bar" thank you gifts, you can set that up, have it done out of your credit card, done from your checking account.

It's set, gets set up.

It's done month by month.

It goes year by year, but you're always in control, and all you have to do is give us a call or send us an email if you need to have it changed somehow.

It's 1-800-662-2386, or myarkansaspbs.org.

It is so simple to do it that way.

But, of course, if you're already a Sustainer, thank you so much.

If you're in a major gift, thank you so much.

But could you raise your Sustainer gift, or maybe do an additional gift?

You know, it's now back to us, again.

- Yes, yes.

- So here we are.

We are coming, oh, we're coming to the end of our time together.

I'm like, oh, but we want to thank everyone who's taken the time to call in or going online and made a pledge.

But if you haven't- - You know, (Karen sighs) I don't know about you, but whenever my partner and I are trying to figure out dinner, we're driving around the state, and it's like, "Well, where are we gonna eat?"

This is the answer to that question.

Divided by region with our colored tabs on here.

You're not gonna get another book like this.

It's gonna take you to the nearest dairy bar so you can celebrate all the great foods you can get through a window.

A unique contribution to Arkansas culinary history thanks to your contribution to My Arkansas PBS.

Go to myarkansaspbs.org right now and become an instant member, become a subscriber, or, you know, if you want to go ahead, just jump right in and make your pledge tonight.

You could have, be one of the first to receive this very book right here.

There's the Arkansas food T-shirt, there's the DVD, but most of all, we are happy, we are so happy that you've been able to join us tonight for this, and we couldn't do it without you.

I could not have done "Arkansas Dairy Bars" without your assistance.

- I was just looking at that.

It just says, Arkansas PBS tells Arkansas stories.

- Yes.

- So if you like "Arkansas Dairy Bars," if you like knowing the history of Hot Springs, if you like to, knowing how the creation of Crystal Bridges Museum got started, how about Arkansas's involvement through the Civil War?

The best pies in the state?

- Best pies.

- This is what you help support, along with the other programs that you see throughout the year.

But this is special.

This is focused on Arkansas.

Won't you help us continue to be able to tell these stories?

1-800-662-2386, or myarkansaspbs.org.

It's simple.

It's easy, and we thank you for calling in and providing your support.

(mellow music)