Rivertowne BBQ

For 26 years, Kevin and Pamela Doyle were cross-country truckers, moving their clients’ possessions to their new homes and hauling groceries for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. That’s a lot of miles and a lot of meals — and many of the latter weren’t especially memorable.
“We figured we had eaten at every bad place in the country,” Kevin Doyle said. “We were kind of getting tired of the trucking industry after 26 years of travel, and we were ready to stick around the house for a while.”
So the Doyles took the off-ramp from life on the road to pursue a new career in the restaurant industry. They sold their truck and bought a rustic, cedar-lined building in downtown Ozark in 1999. In 2000, they opened Rivertowne BBQ Inc.
“I remember telling my wife, ‘Once we get the place done, I believe maybe me and you and two or three good employees can run this whole business,'” he said. “And now we have anywhere from 26 to 28 employees.”
While the barbecue business has been more involved than the Doyles originally anticipated, it has also provided them some great opportunities and earned many accolades along the way.
In 2008, Rivertowne won the Best Business Commitment to Downtown award from Main Street Arkansas, which is an affiliate of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program. The restaurant has also received several awards from the Ozark Chamber of Commerce.
Rivertowne has been a sponsor at the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena and the Riverfront Blues Festival in Fort Smith, serving up barbecue to the blues-loving throngs.
In addition to serving fresh, homemade food, the Doyles’ success is the result of a customer service focus that goes back to their moving and trucking days, Kevin Doyle said.
“That was a business where being late or not showing up for a job was not in the picture. When you were moving CEOs and executives of major corporations, telling them that you can’t be there or do this was not going to happen. You were just going to do it,” he said. “I believe me and my wife brought that with us to this business, and that’s what has made us successful.”

Previous Honorees