Editor’s note: The pandemic especially hit the restaurant business hard, as many places had to close or place extra restrictions on their customers. Local eateries are beginning to show a resurgence and Saline River Chronicle wishes to salute them with this series of stories. This is the third article in this series
On a recent summer day where the outside temperature hovered around 100 degrees, Doug Thornton, the Redneck Gourmet, was literally feeling a red neck as his food wagon’s internal temperature was 109 degrees.
Fortunately, he only has to suffer in the heat for two days a week, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Tuesdays in Crossett and 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Thursdays in Warren.
Top photo: Doug Thornton holds up a rack of ribs at his Redneck Gourmet food wagon on North Myrtle Street in Warren. Photo by Tim Kessler.
By Tim Kessler
Saline River Chronicle Contributor
He usually goes to the Little Rock Farmers Market and he has brought the truck to festivals. Thornton has also catered 64 wedding events, plus several corporate events and even a sit-down Italian dinner for 250 people. He’ll take a break from the food truck in September to cater an elk hunting resort in New Mexico with an unlimited budget.
Thornton also produces hot sauce, salsas and pepper glazes which he markets. He grows his own hot peppers for those, including some that are four times hotter than Carolina Reapers. “I grow from the seed to the bottom,” he says.
With that, he can rightly claim the title of Redneck Gourmet as he has won the Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival Great Balls of Fire Salsa Contest 10 times. He cooks on a team with Keith DeNoble of Little Rock and John Higginbotham of East End with their chili, gumbo and barbecue having placed in 100 contests out of 106. “My cooking team is an eight-time Dutch oven champion,” he proclaims.
Now the food wagon provides everything from ribs, pulled pork and beef sandwiches, loaded baked potatoes to shrimp po boys and shrimp and grits. He has made over 400 cheesecakes.
In 2012, he operated the Fish N Chicken Restaurant in Dumas for awhile for David Chambers. He also catered wedding events at the Chateau Sante in Warren for two years.
All of his cooking skills are self-taught. “The thing I learned from my mama is nobody leaves the table hungry. That’s why my portion sizes are bigger than most,” he said.
Thornton has been featured on two national cooking shows and some national magazines.
“I’ve met some really nice people. Food is an universal language,” Thornton said.
