Two Hermitage High School alumni have joined forces to give their hometown a new restaurant.
Wilkerson Café will have a “soft opening” at 6 a.m. Friday. It is located in the former Lil Hermit Restaurant, not to be confused with The Hermit Restaurant. It is at 220 S. Farmville Road, across from Dollar General Store.
By Tim Kessler
Saline River Chronicle Contributor
Connor Wilkerson and Bobby Richard are the owners with a staff of five to six workers. It will be closed Mondays. The new Café will be open:
- 6 a.m.-8 p.m., Tuesdays-Thursdays
- 6 a.m.-9 p.m., Fridays
- 6 a.m.-9 p.m., Saturdays
- 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Sundays
A ribbon-cutting and grand opening will be arranged with Bradley County Chamber of Commerce later.
Richard is a Hermitage native who served in the U.S. Air Force. He came back to Hermitage in 2013 and opened a glass shop and operated two restaurants in Moro Bay and Hampton.
While at HHS, he served in FFA and graduated in 1994.
“I think we’ll do good down here. Hermitage needs a restaurant,” he said.
The restaurant will be full-service, with dine-in or take-out available. It will serve fish, burgers, chicken tenders, salads and “the usual South Arkansas food.” Richard says all food will be fresh, not frozen.
Wilkerson is known for being on two FFA National Champion forestry teams. He also played football and baseball and graduated in the Hermitage Class of 2017.
He went on to play baseball for the University of Arkansas at Monticello and graduated from there with a business finance degree. He works for Jan’s Realty in El Dorado and previously worked for a food trailer and snow cone stands in Hermitage.
