Couple brings taste of city to Boondocks
By GAYLE WEBER
McCRACKEN -- "One thing I know, no matter where I go, I keep my heart and soul in the boondocks."
It's lyrics Eric and Melisa Davis know all too well, listening to them on numerous trips from Omaha, Neb., back to the place where Eric was raised as a child.
So when the duo finally moved back, there was no doubt about what they would name their restaurant -- Boondocks Bar and Grill.
"It's kind of fitting," Eric Davis said of the Little Big Town song by the same name.
After years away, Eric Davis recently returned to McCracken to open his own restaurant, one that serves both classic comfort food and the upscale bar food that is closer to what he's been serving in his 13 years as a chef in Omaha and across North Carolina.
"When we put calamari on the menu, it was a little shocking at first for people to grasp. But once they try it, they all love it," Eric Davis said.
And that includes Rose Diehl, a Topeka resident who also owns a home in her native McCracken. She said she's already tried out Boondocks, which opened Jan. 22, and is impressed with what the Davises have to offer.
"If you have mayonnaise on a sandwich, he does it a notch better," Diehl said of Eric Davis. "It's like sun-dried tomato mayonnaise."
The traditional burgers and steaks can be found on the menu, but Davis tries to offer daily lunch and dinner specials that are a little out of the ordinary.
"That way we can give a whole different feel to American dining," Eric Davis said. "They're not quite ready for some of this stuff."
But McCracken was ready for was a restaurant. The Mustang, the town's former restaurant, closed four or five years ago, and the town has been without one since.
The lunch crowd usually is local, according to the Davises, but Boondocks already is drawing in people from the region on Friday and Saturday nights.
And so far, the Davises are doing it all themselves.
"A lot of family and some people in the community have helped us," Melisa Davis said.
Diehl said she even pitched in, busing tables and filling water glasses one weekend.
Eric Davis credits the community's positive response so far to the introduction they had to Boondocks long before the doors opened.
Davis rented the American Legion building in McCracken a couple of years ago for his father's 50th birthday. He served an array of seafood and other dishes not native to the area, forcing everyone to try something new.
"Ever since then, it was a weekend thing," Eric Davis said. "We'd rent out these little buildings around town. ... We kind of exposed them of what was to come."
The Davises plan to keep Boondocks going in McCracken, even though they have aspirations of opening a restaurant in downtown Hays someday.
"We do have plans for taking this show to Hays. That's where my original plan started out," Eric Davis said.
The timing wasn't right for remodeling a building in the Chestnut Street District. So, Boondocks will be the Davises' home for now.
"We'll always keep the doors open as we progress," Eric Davis said.
Boondocks Bar and Grill is open 11 a.m. to midnight Wednesday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday in downtown McCracken.