Lindsey’s Hospitality House, located at 207 Curtis Sykes Dr. in North Little Rock’s Argenta neighborhood, is one of 25 U.S. restaurants to receive a $40,000 grant through the “Backing Historic Small Restaurants” grant program.
The Backing Historic Small Restaurants program annually awards $1 million in grants to support the growth of 25 historic small restaurants throughout the country. The grants are administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and funded by American Express. This is the third installment.
Lindsey’s Hospitality House opened in 1989 but was originally founded by Bishop Donne Lindsey and his wife Irma Lindsey in 1956 as Lindsey’s Bar-B-Q, a pit barbecue restaurant located at 203 E. 14th St.
Arkansas Times contributor and former editor Lindsey Millar wrote about the history of the restaurant in 2008:
In 1975 Bishop Lindsey, who started Lindsey’s Bar-B-Que in his home on 203 E. 14th, decided to devote himself fully to the ministry and his family and sold the restaurant to his nephew Richard Lindsey (one of the North Little Rock Six who tried to integrate North Little Rock High two weeks before students integrated Central in 1957). After Rev. Lindsey’s children were grown, he got an itch to return to the restaurant business and, in 1989, opened Lindsey’s Hospitality House, 207 Curtis Sykes Dr. (East 15th Street), a home-cookin’ and barbecue restaurant, catering business and banquet hall that his son Donnie eventually took over.
Lindsey’s is still owned by Donne and Irma’s son Donnie Lindsey II and his wife, Eleanor Lindsey.
A news release says the owners intend to use the funding to install outdoor seating, replace awnings, improve exterior lighting, upgrade signage and repair fencing. The restaurant’s Facebook page gave its customers a chance to weigh in on the outdoor design.
Additional information on the program and the full list of winners can be found in the full release here.
