Searcy restaurant with Alaskan flair hits 6-year mark
SEARCY — There are always reservations in taking a risk and jumping into a new business.
For Slader Marshall, the owner of Slader’s Alaskan Dumpling Co., believing in one’s self and hoping that “you’ve done enough preparation that you are comfortable going forward,” has been the groundwork for the success of his restaurant.
“I’ve got a good head on my shoulders, and I did my research, invested time in it, and we did a good job,” Marshall said. “I was a little bit nervous, but I did have confidence — unwavering confidence — in myself.
“Some doubted me — you’ll always have that in life — but it always comes down to, ‘Are you going to be a doer or a talker?’”
The restaurant, which is at 301 E. Center Ave. in Searcy, recently celebrated its sixyear anniversary. Marshall also owns a food truck that services Little Rock and the central-Arkansas area. He said he has had the food truck for about five years.
Marshall said the restaurant serves just one menu item — dumplings — but with three different fillings.
“They are about golf-ball size pasta shells with filling inside,” he said. “It is just the dumplings themselves, with three different options, and that keeps our business going.”
He said the establishment also serves Heritage Coffee, which is native to Alaska, as well as a couple of desserts.
Marshall is originally from Juneau, Alaska, and he grew up eating similar versions of what he called an Eastern European dish.
“It was my favorite food,” said Marshall, 28. “And there aren’t too many places you can find it.
“We are one of a kind in Searcy and Arkansas. There really isn’t any place that serves anything remotely like what we have here.”
Marshall came to Searcy in 2009 to attend Harding University, graduating in 2013 with a degree in finance. It was while he was in school that he met his future wife, Aubrey.
“I had a business interest from the get-go, and I grew up eating this food,” Marshall said. “I just wanted to put a different flair on it. … I just got tired of waiting to go home for the summer. And at the time, there were not a lot of places in Searcy that had a local-type feel to them and not a lot of options that were super unique.
“I was trying to bring a little piece of home. What we were trying to do in Arkansas was take all the things that I’ve gathered up or owned personally, and put them into a business.”
He said he chose to attend Harding because his parents wanted him to get a Christian education.
“And it is something I value,” Marshall said. “I went on one visit to Harding, and I had a couple of acquaintances who live in the area, and my grandparents actually live in Little Rock.
“I have roots in Arkansas, but really, I just liked the college, and honestly, as an 18-year-old kid, I was too lazy to look at other schools. Harding felt right at the time. I met my wife there and started my business in the town — it definitely provided a lot for me.”
Marshall and his wife got married in January 2015. She is a speech therapist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.
“She gets forced to work in the food truck a good amount,” Marshall said. “When I need help, she will fill in and help me with it.
“I have a manager at the store who does the majority of the work. Most of my day-to-day is driving to Little Rock, Hot Springs or Conway because I do a lot of stuff with the food truck.”
Marshall said he couldn’t have kept the business going without his wife’s support.
“We both made sacrifices,” Marshall said. “It is still hard to run a small business. It is really hard to run, and there is not a lot of money in it. But we do it for love of doing, not for the money.
“When you have someone else involved, you really have to be on the same page, and it is a lot on me and on her. … It is definitely a partnership, whether she is there 40 hours a week or not.”
He said he has been very fortunate to be successful with the business and to be in magazines and on television.
“If you have a good product and good people working for you, it kind of sells itself,” Marshall said.
He said one reason he has been successful was a result of the following that he had at Harding.
“We were kind of before the explosion of unique food, including Vietnamese, ramen and poke places — which are more prevalent now than before,” Marshall said. “A lot of people who would come try our food attended Harding.
“There weren’t a lot of places — restaurants or businesses — that were catering to students. That would be a great niche for us to fulfill. … For us, it was easy to distinguish ourselves and be a very unique place.” For more information, visit sadcoak.com/home or call (501) 203-4070. Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.