Mark Abernathy
Owner and Executive Chef of Loca Luna and the Red Door restaurants in Little Rock
Mark Abernathy has 49 years of experience in the restaurant industry as a chef, owner, manager, consultant and developer.
In addition to Loca Luna and the Red Door, he has been the creator, owner or executive chef of award-winning restaurants that include Abernathy’s, The Bijou, Juanita’s, Blue Mesa Grill and Bene Vita. He has been featured in newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Bon Appetit and Southern Living.
Abernathy represented Arkansas and Oaklawn Park as featured chef at the 2013 and 2014 Kentucky Derby’s Taste of Derby and was chosen again for 2020. He co-chaired the successful campaign to allow alcohol sales on Sunday in Little Rock restaurants and hotels.
Abernathy earned a bachelor’s degree in banking and finance at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, did graduate studies in macroeconomics at the UA and studied Spanish at the University of Mexico. He was the founder of the Central High School Visitor Center & Museum.
What is your signature dish and how long did it take to create it?
Obviously, the World’s First White Cheese Dip. It was a variation of the Juanita’s cheese dip created by myself, Clyde Baker and Frank McGehee. We introduced it around 1998 at my restaurant Blue Mesa Grill. It’s hard to believe now, but with the exception of the Rotel-Velveeta dip here and there, cheese dip was not found outside of Arkansas. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that you saw it popping up on menus outside of our state.
Do you think tipping should be banned?
No, but it’s complicated.
Restaurant operators and food server industry groups want to keep tips, but I think the practice needs reform. My tipped employees who work five or more shifts all make pretty good money. That is not the case for all food servers. However, if you do away with tipping and pay food servers higher hourly pay, you will see menu prices increase at least 10% to 20% to offset increased wages and payroll taxes. That raises the front-end cost of dining out and can hurt business. That $30 steak is now $35 or more. In many cases the food servers will most likely make less. That makes it hard for operations like mine to get and keep the best folks.
Could you describe the lifespan of a great restaurant, Juanita’s for example? What made it a hit and what ended it?
After 15 years in the restaurant business in Texas and Mexico, I returned home to bring “real” Tex-Mex to Arkansas. People said I was crazy to open in that rundown part of town. I knew the expressway was about to open and that would change things. It was a cool building inside and out.
Juanita’s was a huge hit. I then formed and chaired a committee with Joe Fox and others to create the South Main Improvement District (SOMA). I started playing in the bar with my band the Torpedoes, composed of remnants of the infamous Greasy Greens. Juanita’s became known for its legendary, nationally recognized live music program, in addition to having a reputation as a great Mexican restaurant. I had good partners and a great staff. Juanita’s covered all the basics: excellent food, great service, great people, good unique vibes and strong leadership.
What happened? Few people know this story. In 1992, I was the sole owner of the buildings, the parking lots and the majority stock in the restaurant. The restaurant had been doing great.
All my loans were with Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan Association. When the S&L went under, the Feds called all my loans due immediately. It would be like waking up one morning and someone says, “Pay off your house now or we’ll take it and sell it.” With super short notice I had to scramble to sell my controlling interest in everything in order to refinance my holdings.
Once the business was out of my control, I could no longer manage it properly. I didn’t like what I was now dealing with. Therefore, after 10 years of ownership, we closed Blue Mesa Grill and I transferred my ownership in Juanita’s. I moved on and opened Loca Luna. Juanita’s changed after that.
What is something about the restaurant industry that many people don’t understand?
It’s really, really hard to make money if you are an independent operator, especially in Arkansas. We’re a poor state but our industry pays among the (if not the) highest sales taxes in the United States. We pay the nation’s highest mixed-drink taxes by far!
In addition, the industry demands hard work, long hours, lots of luck and it’s still almost impossible to make it past five years. You have to be a little crazy or a lot foolish to go into this business. To survive for very long you really have to know what you are doing or have a financial backer willing to lose his ass.
What’s your biggest business mistake and what did you learn from it?
In 1992, I created and chaired August in Arkansas, a huge nonprofit music festival (boy, was it ever nonprofit!). I had loaned the festival a lot of money. It was the largest live music event in Arkansas history and although it was a legendary, fantastic event, it was a big financial failure. Regretfully, some good people lost some money and it absolutely clobbered me — and at the worst possible time (see the story about Madison Guaranty). A lot of the fault was mine: It was too big and too ambitious. We also had weather issues.
From this I coined a phrase: “It’s a dangerous thing when you start believing your own bullshit!” However, I learned I could bounce back from anything. Over several years I ended up paying many of the debts personally. I learned that real friends show themselves when you are down. I learned to always be prepared to accept the worst-case scenario because it can happen, so don’t believe your own BS.
I am very successful now because of what I learned from my failures, plus the good folks who stood and still stand behind me today.
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