The blitz : The out-of-state football caravan has Gravette restaurants looking for more.
Posted on Friday, September 26, 2008
During the opening few weeks of the season, several area high-school football teams have traveled to and welcomed opponents from Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. While they've been nonconference games, they still bring a certain element of excitement - as teams get to see where they measure up and fans load into cars and buses to follow their teams on the road.
Considering the price of gas, some of the travel appeal has worn off. But small towns like Gravette - which hosted Wellington, Kan., last week - hope the traveling caravans continue to roll through town in the coming seasons.
It was still more than a few hours before the sun set and the lights at Lions Stadium turned on last Friday, but a charter bus packed with fans who made the 260-mile trek from Wellington rolled into Gravette. About an hour earlier, someone with the Wellington Booster Club had called to scout out restaurants in the area, and the group of about 50 visiting fans decided to strap on the feed bags at Snorky's Pizzeria, on Main Street in downtown Gravette.
"That bus was so big we couldn't see anything else out our window," said Levi Duncan, an assistant manager at Snorky's and a 2005 graduate of Gravette High School. "Within 10 minutes of all those people walking through the door, the entire ticket slot was full, and we had a pile of orders stacked next to it. There were so many people we couldn't even seat them all."
And it was a festive crowd, as every fan was sporting a red shirt with the phrase "Where the heck is Gravette ? "printed across the front. According to the cooks and wait staff, they and the Wellington fans had fun taking jabs at each other's teams, but the kitchen was more than occupied whipping up sandwiches, appetizers and several of Snorky's signature 26-inch pizzas.
"The whole place was full, and others were taking their food to the park or back onto the bus to eat," Duncan said. "We have our busy nights, but this was a new challenge - this many people all at once. We did an entire busy night's worth of business in a matter of minutes. It was fun because it had a road-trip feel to it - very festive."
Meanwhile, the portion of the Wellington fan caravan that decided to drive their own vehicles were pulling into Gravette, many of them stopping off at Ice House Coffee - a coffeehouse, sandwich and burger shop one block from Snorky's.
"We always have a lot of people through on Friday nights, especially when Gravette plays at home, but then it goes completely dead right before game time," Ice House Coffee manager Steven Martinez said. "But when the Kansas fans came in, the dinner rush was 3 to 5 p. m., and I was all by myself - cooking, taking orders, doing dishes. The dining area was full. People were sitting on the couches and standing outside. "
At the normal dinner-rush time of 5 p. m., two more employees arrived to start their shift, just as the wave of 40 to 50 Kansas fans were walking out the door and Martinez was trying to dig himself out from a mountain of dishes in the tiny kitchen.
"There were red and white shirts all over the place," Martinez said. "That's the good thing about these out-of-state teams coming in for games. They come to a small town they've never been to before, and this is where they spend their time. They need to eat, and we're right along the highway. Restaurants like us become the gathering spots, and it happens all at once."
"It was absolutely nuts, but it was a blast," Duncan said. "I was teasing them that they'd know exactly where Gravette was by the end of the night when Gravette beats them and they leave town. I guess they had the last laugh, though. They had fun, and we had fun. "
Wellington drummed up a second-half rally to slip by Gravette, 24-21.
Gravette takes its show on the road to Pea Ridge tonight, but returns home to take on Gentry next week. Snorky's Pizzeria, Ice House Coffee, In Zone, Main Cafe and the other restaurants in Gravette will be waiting. But they're especially looking forward to the business next season's out-of-state opponents will bring to town.
"We definitely appreciate their business," Duncan said. "It's not every day you experience something like that."
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
