
History
Fat Daddy's, as we know it today, started like most ventures do--as an idea. A vacant spot next to Darrells' Hillside needed to be filled to help generate business & after some brain-storming, Val Morrison suggested talking to Fat Daddy's in Blackwell. Everyone agreed that the idea sounded good and after some prodding by Gordon Shirron, President of Frank Griffin Oil, toward Kyle Wills (the company's retail supervisor), Kyle went down to negotiate. To speed things up and not bog down the story with talk of building, training, recipe writing, and about a million other tedious details, Fat Daddy's opened at its London location on August 5, 2006. Although the chairs may have been plastic rentals that first week, the BBQ sure was good.
Fast forward a couple of years and Jon Shirron (Gordon's youngest son) was staying up late each night watching the Food Network and reading BBQ recipe books when he came up with a game changer--Loin Back Ribs with a brown sugar glaze. Reviews were rave, and a legend was born.
Four more years pass, catering orders are buzzing, business is steady and Gordon has a vision--to build a restaurant in Downtown Russellville. He wanted a place to gather with great ambiance, good food and cold drinks. The good food was a given, we just kept the core BBQ menu and added a few new items fit for a "Friday night." Add an old building in historic downtown to the mix, outfitted with an industrial interior & creative quirks of several folks, and the perfect place was born. Now, as the story continues, just sit back, let us do the work
& enjoy the ride!