Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Chef Specializes In Cooking Catfish
Menu To Please All Age Groups
FARMINGTON — The owner of a new restaurant in Farmington has been cooking catfish for 25 years and owned a restaurant called The Rails in Waldo, Texarkana and Magnolia.
Jim Broom and his wife, Sharion Broom, moved from Magnolia to West Fork last fall and decided to take the plunge and go into the restaurant business again. They looked around northwest Arkansas for a suitable building and the space in Farmington met their needs.
Their new restaurant is called Coldwater Catfish and is located at 56 Yukon Way, Suite 4. They will have a soft opening today and then open the next day for regular customers. Hours will be 4:30-9 p.m., Thursday-Saturday.
The restaurant has about 2,300-square-feet and includes a family room with tables that will seat eight people per table.
Jim Broom said he makes everything from scratch, including the tartar sauce, breading for the fish and pies.
“We buy very little pre- prepared,” Broom said. “We’re kinda old school. Hopefully, it will show in the plate.”
The menu will include boneless
catfish, rib eye and sirloin steak, grilled chicken breast and Monterey chicken, chicken tenders, chicken- fried steak and pork cutlet. Sides include baked or mashed potatoes, fries, sweet potato, fried okra and a grilled vegetable medley.
The restaurant also will serve homemade pies, such as chocolate and coconut, and soft serve ice cream.
Sharion Broom has been helping her husband in the restaurant business for more than 11 years and she said Coldwater Catfish is a smaller restaurant than The Rails, which served an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet plus more. She said they wanted a smaller restaurant and will have a more limited menu because of space.
Broom’s restaurant in Magnolia could seat 200 people and he said he was feeding 400-500 people a night. Their Farmington restaurant will seat 98.
“We’re trying to please all age groups with a limited menu,” Jim Broom said. “I’ve researched a menu to find one that a 3-year-old to an 80-year-old and all in between would like.”
He said he wants input from his customers on what they like and suggestions for the menu. He also said he is asking the public to be patient while he and his staff work out the kinks. The restaurant will have six employees and for most, this is their first time to work in a restaurant.
Broom said he has received many compliments about his catfish and hush puppies and said he can boast that they will be the best ones around.
Broom cooked in the military and then was in the construction business. He lost an eye during an accident and decided to change careers. While cooking in the military, he said he was able to change people’s opinions about the quality of a military meal.
At age 43, he said he decided he would give the restaurant business a try to see if he could succeed.
“Everything took off,” Broom said.
They are looking forward to providing a sit- down restaurant in Farmington and said people in the community have been very nice to them.