This restaurant is cash only.

It’s not often, at sixty, that we walk into a restaurant and bring down the average age, but I think we succeeded at Murry’s.  Everyone in the place seemed to knows everybody else and I think we were the only people that a waitress didn’t hug and greet by name… It turns out, that was only because we hadn’t been there before.

For the last 13 years, Murry’s has been on “the list”, thanks to a Garden & Gun article that listed it among the 50 best southern foods.  According to them, the catfish fillets (hand breaded in corn meal), emerge from the fryer “with a crisp, beautifully golden, but not greasy crust, perfect with only a drop of lemon juice.”  I later found out that Syd Evans, editor of Southern Living said that it was the best catfish in America.

Sometimes you go out for dinner and end up having an experience – tonight was one of those.  Murry’s restaurant opened in 1955 and Olden Murry was a legend for his fried catfish.  Then, more than 40 years ago Stanley Young took over, making the same catfish.  Their limited hours, Friday and Saturday 5:00-9:00, have made getting there a challenge for us on previous trips through Arkansas.  Tonight, with Arkansas a destination, for the eclipse, was our time to give it a try.  We were there for the catfish. While I’m not a catfish fan, my beloved is, so this one was for her.

Once we’ve looked over the menu, I asked our server, Gaylen, what, other than catfish, was good on the menu.  She recommended the fried shrimp and the chicken fried steak.  And then she said “my daddy hand batters it”.  “White gravy?”, I ask.  She nods and I’m sold.  So I had that and the baked potato, while my wife had the half catfish, which was three pieces with hush puppies, a baked potato and a house salad.

Then they came around with the bread.  Anybody who puts a loaf of bread like this in front of me, “had-me-at-hello”.  This was like one giant Parker house roll, sliced and then slathered in butter.  The salad, steak and potato arrived first. 

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Followed by the catfish plate – steaming.  As I said, I’m not a catfish fan, but the bite I tried might change my opinion.  As we ate, we talked about how friendly everyone seemed, working in the restaurant.  Then Gaylen came by and told us to save room for dessert, there was bourbon bread pudding.   And when it arrived, I became a bread pudding fan – perfectly sweet, with just a hit of bourbon smoke, the bowl was the perfect size. 

As we finished, she came back and said, “Hang on – I want y’all to meet my daddy.”  And a few minutes later, we did – she introduced us to Mr. Stanley, as he was breading catfish.  As we talked and my beloved complimented him on the quality of the food and the friendliness of the staff, I told him how that Garden & Gun article had inspired us to eat there.   And he recounted how when Garden & Gun called, he’d never heard of the magazine, but did hunt alot (back then) and thought he had won a hunting trip.  Then he remembered the challenge the author had the day he came to see him with an accident and a car fire, and how he’d spent half a day with him.  He was more than courteous and kind – he seemed generally happy that we (and every other person in the place) liked his food.  It’s obvious the Youngs love what they do.  Next time, I’ll have the rib-eye, just because.