Managing partner David Rackley is targeting a September opening for a new Shorty Small’s location at 126 N. Main St. in Beebe.
Searcy’s The Daily Citizen reported in April that the Beebe City Council unanimously approved an ordinance for the restaurant to seek a private club permit from the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Division in order to serve liquor. (Beebe is in dry White County.) Rackley, who grew up in Beebe, told the Council at the meeting that Shorty Small’s founder, restaurateur Bruce Anderson, developed the concept for the restaurant in Beebe, Daily Citizen reported. Anderson owned Anderson’s Restaurant in Beebe and would later open Cajun’s Wharf in Little Rock before opening Shorty Small’s at 11100 N. Rodney Parham Road.
The new Beebe restaurant will be the company’s first brick and mortar since it closed the original store on Rodney Parham in 2021 after 40-plus years. Throughout the decades, Shorty Small’s opened several locations, with branches in Hot Springs; Conway; North Little Rock; Branson, Missouri; Wichita, Kansas and Oklahoma City. In February 2022, the company issued a press release stating that it was relocating. In June 2022, the iconic antique truck that hovered above Rodney Parham from the restaurant’s parking lot was removed from its post. The building was later demolished to make way for a 7 Brew Coffee stand.
The brand resurfaced as a food truck in 2023 under the name Shorty Small’s Cheese Stick Factory. It has mainly been stationed at The Lot food truck court at 601 W. Fourth St. in North Little Rock off North Broadway.
Shorty Small’s owner, Paul Kreth, told the Arkansas Times in September that he was looking into brick and mortar opportunities for the brand, as well franchising additional Shorty Small’s food trucks. Real estate agent and Rock City Eats publisher Greg Henderson announced on his Facebook page last week that he is working with Shorty Small’s to find “the next generation of franchise location owners.”