Grampa’s Catfish House in Sherwood closed in September 2011, reopened in March 2012 and then closed for good in September 2012. The restaurant couldn’t make a go of it after its parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
And that seemed to be the end of Grampa’s in central Arkansas.
Seemed to be.
Because on May 7, 26-year-old Tyson Allen opened his version of Grampa’s, Grampa’s Southern Catfish at 9219 Stagecoach Road in Little Rock.
Allen, originally from Southaven, Miss., is a graduate of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and was a Grampa’s customer. He said he has invested $250,000 in his Grampa’s, which has a slightly different name — Grampa’s Southern Catfish instead of Grampa’s Catfish House — because of the financial problems experienced by the previous owner, Nate Townsend.
Allen said, however, that Townsend had given him a good deal on the Grampa’s recipes: “It was basically a gift,” Allen said.
Business has been “awesome,” Allen said. Tax receipts from the Little Rock Advertising & Promotion Commission show that Grampa’s reported taxable receipts of $34,645 in November, the latest month available, and a total of $252,215 for May through November 2013.
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