Meatin’ Place food truck to open soon
GRAVETTE — Roger and Christina Bush will be opening their food truck, the Meatin’ Place, soon. They are just awaiting final inspections before opening for business at 605 First Ave. N.W., in the side yard at Blended Ends hair salon. They are looking forward to opening day as Christina says it will be the fulfillment of a longheld dream.
The Meatin’ Place will offer a variety of smoked meats, brisket, baby back ribs, pulled pork, chicken leg quarters and sausage links. Several “Southern sides” will include macaroni and cheese, baked beans, loaded potato salad, corn on the cob, green beans, coleslaw, French fries and onion strings. Bread choices will include mini-loaves of cornbread and dinner rolls. Banana pudding, chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake will always be offered, with other desserts available on occasion. Different specials will be offered each month.
Open hours for the business will be noon to 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 7 a.m. until 11 a.m. on Sunday. The Sunday breakfast menu will feature a BYOB (build your own breakfast) item with a wide variety of breads, fixings, and a choice of a hashbrown patty or diced potatoes. For a sweet breakfast treat, they will offer blueberry and cinnamon roll muffins and biscuit bombs. Biscuits and gravy will be available with a choice of either white sausage or chocolate gravy.
The Bushes stress that they plan to place an emphasis on quality food and all dishes will be prepared from scratch onsite. They have spent hundreds of hours planning their menu, researching foodstuffs and cooking methods, and have developed their own barbecue sauces. Roger has a special interest in smoking meats and Christina specializes in baked goods, and the menu will reflect these areas of expertise. Both say they “just like to feed people and make them happy.”
Both Bushes are northwest Arkansas natives, with Roger growing up in Springdale and Christina in nearby Bentonville. They moved to Gravette in 2018 where they own a home on Deer Ridge Road. Both have a background in food service. Roger has spent over a decade in restaurant management with an area fast-food chain and Christina has been operating her own catering business, Nitro Catering.
Christina has a culinary arts degree in baking and the pastry arts from Brightwater, where she studied under renowned local chef Vince Pianalto and Phil Dresh field, of Springfield, who specializes in artisan baked goods. She reminisces about
family meals in the home of her maternal grandmother at Garfield, who was an excellent cook and fed several generations of family members and whatever neighbors happened to drop by. She says her grandmother, Florence Poe, was the hardest working woman she’s known, worked an acre of garden and said good meals were made with three ingredients, “hard work, love and bacon drippings.”
Christina regrets her grandmother didn’t live to see the opening of the food truck but says the rest of the family is very excited about her and Roger’s new venture.
When Christina was a child, her mother made “the best doughnuts,” cut out from regular biscuit dough and coated in powdered sugar. The Meatin’ Place breakfast menu will feature “biscuit bombs,” balls of fried biscuit dough rolled in powdered sugar, reminiscent of those doughnuts. Christina says they will be served with a side of chocolate gravy or cinnamon roll icing for dipping and she predicts they will be a big hit with the youngsters. The Bushes hope to offer other Southern-inspired dishes that will bring back memories for area diners.
The Meatin’ Place web page has a link where customers can place orders online and set up a pickup time for their meal, so the food truck will be a very safe, sanitary eating place, the Bushes say. They hope to expand their days of operation in the future and will do so as the business grows. They can be contacted on the Meatin’ Place Facebook page or by telephone at 479-8025885. A ribbon-cutting and grand opening are planned at the Meatin’ Place soon after opening. Every order placed during the grand-opening week will earn the buyer a chance to win a whole smoked brisket.