“ALL U CAN EAT”
by Ben Griffin
When I was driving the Carroll Brothers’ A/FD, we had a race where we went through Arkansas. In Little Rock, Bones noticed a restaurant on the left side of the road that had a sign out front that said, "All U Can Eat" and had a good price after that. He smiled a wicked smile and then started laughing and said, "Let's stop and eat there after the race. We can put some hurt on 'em." There were five of us in the tow truck and four of these guys were BIG eaters led by Bones Carroll, a man well above 250 lbs. And after thrashing all day long under the hot summer sun we would all have some heavy appetites!
We won the race and headed back to the restaurant where, after being seated, we all ordered the “All U Can Eat” special and iced tea. I think it was limited to fried chicken and French fries as they brought out a big dish of white and dark meat chicken and a big bowl of fries. Both were empty in record time. The waiter took the two empties away and brought back full ones which were empty again in about five minutes.
After several attempts to keep the bowls full, the guy finally just came out of the kitchen with a pan the fries were cooked in and raked them all into our big bowl on the table. He did not look happy. I felt kinda sorry for these folks since this was a mom and pop restaurant, not a chain owned by a big bucks corporation or a franchise. I'm sure they had never had customers like us before - a group of tired hungry racers with huge appetites. But their sign made the offer and we took 'em up on it.
Then about a month later we had another race that had us going through Little Rock again and Bones said, "Let's stop and eat at that good chicken place again" and everyone agreed. We started looking for the restaurant and when we saw it, there was a big sign out front that said one word...”CLOSED!”
Nostalgia Drag World - by Ben Griffin; photo courtesy of Ben Griffin
Ben Griffin at Great Lakes Dragaway; photo courtesy of Ben Griffin
