The ending of an era

This is a love letter to a passing icon. In 1975, legendary Arkansas restaurateur Bruce Anderson stunned all of Arkansas by opening a new kind of restaurant on the Arkansas River. Cajun’s Wharf was opened, having the feel of a true Cajun’s wharf on the river. It featured Anderson’s terrific and legendary seafood and fish as well as other items, but also had a fabulous bar and sported nightly live entertainment that quickly became legendary. The restaurant was so good and so successful that it spawned imitators in such places as Memphis, Nashville and Knoxville, Tenn.

After a few years, unfortunately, Bruce ultimately succumbed to cancer and Cajun’s Wharf passed into the hands of a national restaurant chain which badly neglected it, causing quality and patronage to fall off. To the rescue came a former Cajun’s employee, Mary Beth Ringgold, who in short order restored it to its former glory and resulted in Cajun’s Wharf ranking as the No. 1 night spot for entertainment and dining in all of Central Arkansas.

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that change is the only true constant and, after some 44 years, change inevitably came. Younger generations of people didn’t seem to want the sort of experience that Cajun’s offered, and a hard decision was eventually made to close down this iconic spot. While Mary Beth still owns and operates two other successful restaurants in the Little Rock area, Capers and the Copper Grill, the fact is that the announcement of the closing of this true Arkansas icon for almost half a century came as a complete and utter shock to two generations of Arkansans who now must mourn its passing.

Thank you, Mary Beth and staff, for your years of first-class service, entertainment, food and just plain being first-class everything. Arkansas will not be the same with the passing of this icon. Godspeed, Cajun’s Wharf!

JOSEPH H. PURVIS

Little Rock