Several weeks ago, Roby Brock, the Little Rock business journalist and entrepreneur, asked me if I would take on a delightful assignment.
Roby was wanting to add a regular feature to his excellent magazine, Talk Business Quarterly. He would call it “Arkansas Institutions.”
He told me that he wanted to focus on “things, people, places that make Arkansas what it is — things you need to do or experience to really get your Arkansas bona fides. These could be well-known places like McClard’s, Cotham’s, a Razorback football game or floating the Buffalo, or they could be more obscure gems.”
How could I resist the invitation to be a part of a project such as that?
The most recent issue of Talk Business Quarterly can now be found at www.talkbusiness.net. It includes my story on the first Arkansas Institution we chose, Pine Bluff’s Sno-White Grill.
Across this state, there are restaurants where the locals gather to drink coffee, catch up on the town’s gossip, discuss the previous day’s sports events and talk politics. But few of those gathering spots have the longevity of Sno-White, which was founded in 1936, one year before Walt Disney produced his first full-length animated classic, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
Bobby Garner, who purchased the Sno-White Grill in February 1970, is still there six mornings a week at 5:30 a.m. to open up. At age 73, Garner shows no signs of slowing down.
I hope you will read the story and let me know what you think.
We’re already getting nominations for future installments of “Arkansas Institutions.” For instance, I heard from Brian Crowne, the owner of George’s Majestic Lounge in Fayetteville. George’s has been around since 1927 and is indeed an institution.
Please send me a couple of things:
1. Your nominations for future institutions I should write about. These could be stores, streams, restaurants, sports rivalries, you name it.
2. Your memories of restaurants like the Sno-White Grill that are no longer with us. Bobby lamented the loss of places in Pine Bluff such as John Noah’s Restaruant over by the Norton Lumber Mill and the Wonderland.
You have the floor.