When Kenny Mills, proprietor of the Authentic Chop Home Burgers in Arlington, heard his son was on the lookout for a brand new place for his barbecue joint, he did what any good dad would do: He let him transfer again dwelling.
In June, the Authentic Chop Home Burger and MillsMade Barbecue, owned by Kenny’s son, Travis, went into enterprise collectively. Each ideas are actually situated at what many think about to be Kenny Mills’ dwelling, a strip mall area at 1700 W. Park Row Drive in Arlington. There, the Authentic garnered a line-out-the-door following when Man Fieri raved about Mills’ burgers on his fashionable “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” present.
“It simply made excellent sense to each of us,” Kenny says. “It’ll open the door to numerous collaborations – burgers and barbecue go collectively so properly.”
The 2 eating places share the identical roof, the identical cashiers, the identical eating room, and the identical servers. However their menus are separate.
Kenny’s menu stays dominated by his distinctive burgers, whose patties are one-part slow-cooked brisket, one-part char-grilled beef. You may get them plain and easy or dressed up with fancy elements and sauces. Sides embrace fantastically crisp french fries and unnaturally big onion rings.
Travis makes a speciality of craft barbecue — slow-smoked brisket, pork ribs, pulled pork, hen, and sausage, plus a half-dozen sides. You’ll scent the place earlier than you see it: One among Travis’ people who smoke is situated immediately in entrance of the restaurant within the parking zone.
Father, 61, and son, 30, have began to consider dishes they’ll make collectively. “I used to be already doing numerous issues that we are able to now collaborate on — brisket mac and cheese, a pulled pork sandwich,” Kenny says. “His barbecue is excellent. We’ll be collaborating rather a lot.”
The restaurant additionally has its personal bakery, run by longtime household good friend Laurette Haws, who makes pies, muffins, and different desserts every day.
The previous few years have been just a little chaotic — and considerably complicated — for Kenny’s restaurant. The Authentic’s look on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” led to larger crowds but additionally a sequence response of strikes, new ideas, openings, and closings that will take a mathematician and geographical scientist to unravel. In 2017, he bought his enterprise whereas he recovered from a medical situation. After buying the enterprise once more, he moved the Authentic again to its first location on Park Row.
Humorously, Kenny — an completed chef who has labored in an unlimited array of eating places, from steakhouses to Thai eating places — made T-shirts, within the type of world-tour live performance T-shirts, documenting all of the areas of his eating places.
For Travis, the transfer to Park Row is a full-circle second. Longtime followers of The Authentic may recall when, years in the past, Travis first labored there, facet by facet along with his dad. There’s an image within the restaurant of Travis posing with Fieri.
“I did just a little little bit of every part — I ran the fryers, I skilled workers, I helped cook dinner, in fact,” he says. “Earlier than the restaurant opened, my dad and I’d take a look at out his burger recipes. I’d get dwelling from college, and he’d present me every part he was engaged on, just like the burger with grilled cheese sandwiches for buns. To today, that’s nonetheless certainly one of his hottest burgers.”
Like his father, Travis pursued a profession within the restaurant enterprise, though the trail he took was barely completely different than dad’s. Travis’ pursuits have been, initially, in butchering, then smoking meat, then serving barbecue. His coaching spanned a number of North Texas eating places, together with Cooper’s Meat Market and Steakhouse in Dallas and Heim Barbecue in Fort Value.
When Kenny determined to maneuver The Authentic from Little Highway in Arlington again to its authentic location on Park Row, Travis took over the Little Highway area and opened MillsMade Barbecue. 4 months in, he wanted to maneuver. “That constructing simply wasn’t figuring out for what I wished to do,” he says. That’s when father and son put their heads collectively and determined Travis ought to transfer in with dad.
“I don’t know why we didn’t do one thing like this within the first place,” Travis says, laughing. “Nevertheless it’s good to be again right here, to be round household.”
The Authentic Chop Home Burgers & MillsMade Barbecue, 1700 W. Park Row Drive, Arlington, theoriginalchophouseburgers.com
