Russellville restaurant 'The Crackhouse' stirring up attention with its play on words

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (KATV) — The Crackhouse, a local Russellville restaurant, is turning heads with its name and attracting attention on social media.

A sign outside of the Russellville City Mall was posted on Facebook, starting a conversation insinuating that it was advertising selling drugs to students heading back to class.

"How it started was, I had the maintenance man put on the marque to welcome the tech students back," said William Ford, owner of The Crackhouse. "Some guy jumped on there and said something is wrong with the community where they could put up ‘crack house’ and stuff like that.”

Ford responded back, setting the record straight that they do not sell drugs.

"All I’m saying is I’m selling addicting food, that’s it," said Ford.

The restaurant opened in 2019 as a food truck in Dover and just recently moved into the building.

Ford said this is not the first time he’s had this reaction.

"All the time, all the time<<>" said Ford. "Especially when I started up, they were like no way. I think as people got more comfortable coming around or heard through word of mouth of how good the food is, they knew it was a play on words.”

Russellville resident Makayla Rollas said it immediately caught her attention.

"When I first heard it, it was called the crack house. A restaurant named the crack house, okay? That is kind of funny," said Rollas.

Resident Anice Tedford said the same thing happened to her.

"We did kind of go, ‘crack house? What is that?’ you know,” said Tedford.

Now Tedford and her quilting group come to the mall every Thursday and confirm the food is addicting.

"We call ourselves the Crackaroni mafia," said resident Cindy Devereux.

Resident Judy Fleeman said she was not going to have leftovers.

“I was going to take some home to my husband but he might not get it on this trip," said Fleeman.

Ford said the play on words in not just in the title or if you are cracking open a crab shell.

The menu has items that play into the name, including crack-fish, crack-aroni, and crack-puppies.

If you come to The Crackhouse and show the Facebook post, Ford said you will get a discount on your meal.