A restaurant in Russellville, Arkansas is attracting attention on social media due to its unconventional and eye-catching name, ‘The Crackhouse” KATV reported.
Despite some chatter on Facebook that the restaurant was peddling drugs to students heading back to Arkansas Tech University, patrons are welcome to crack crab shells or order crack-fish, crack-aroni, and crack-puppies, according to the owner, per KATV.
“How it started was, I had the maintenance man put on the marquee to welcome the tech students back,” Crackhouse owner William Ford said. “Some guy jumped on there and said something is wrong with the community where they could put up ‘crack house’ and stuff like that.” (RELATED: Subway Offers $50,000 In Gift Cards As Reward For Name Change To ‘Subway’)
An Arkansas seafood restaurant named “The Crack House” has caused a stir on social media… with some concerned its unique name could be interpreted by returning college students as an establishment to buy drugs. pic.twitter.com/lButZJ1w6U
— SAY CHEESE! 👄🧀 (@SaycheeseDGTL) September 1, 2023
“A restaurant named the crack house, okay? That is kind of funny,” said Makayla Rollas, who admitted the name immediately caught her attention.
Russellville resident Anice Tedord said the first time she heard the name she was taken aback. “We kind of go, ‘crack house? What is that? You know?”
Tedford says that she and her quilting group now go to The Crackhouse every Thursday night for the addicting food.
Similarly, resident Cindy Devereux loves the food. “We call ourselves the Crackaroni mafia,” Devereux said.
Local Judy Fleeman said the food is so good that bringing leftovers home was not an option. “I was going to take some home to my husband, but he might not get it on this trip,” she said.
Still, not everybody loves the idea. One Twitter user wrote, “The Crack House seafood restaurant’s name choice in Arkansas feels tone-deaf, especially when considering its potential interpretation by college students. Was this a quirky marketing move or just an oversight?”
Crackhouse owner Ford defends himself against such criticism by noting, “All I’m saying is I’m selling addicting food, that’s it.”