Face Behind the Place Tori Tisdale Morehart

McClard's

Lee Beasley, Tori Tisdale Morehart and Dean Jennings

There are many roads that lead to opening a restaurant. Some people work their way up through food service gigs and management, dreaming of a place to call their own. Others are born into the family business and have no plans of closing up shop. For a few, however, the decision to make food a career is as simple (and as complicated) as a single moment of clarity – and thousands of hours spent bringing that vision to life. That’s the path that Tori Tisdale Morehart has walked for nearly two decades now, building DownHome Catering into the go-to caterer for businesses, offices and hungry customers across the state. DownHome’s success, including its recent evolution into McClard’s DownHome, has come largely from the sheer force of Morehart’s personality, and, just as essentially, her collection of can’t-be-beat comfort foods done right.

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It’s 2016, and Morehart has just gotten married. Only two days after the ceremony, around 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, Morehart’s cellphone – the catering line – rings. It’s Entergy, whose storm crews are being deployed after a wave of severe weather had made its way through the state. The request? Box lunches for 450 people by 11:30 a.m. – just a little over two hours to gather ingredients, assemble and send them out. Without missing a beat, Morehart says yes.

“I didn’t have the truck,” she recalls. “I’m going to Sam’s to buy bags of chips, tomatoes, everything. My husband, my sister and a guy that used to work for me came to help. We were all like an assembly line, and Entergy was coming to pick them up as fast as we could get them made. We took the rest over ourselves.”

Though she describes it as “one of the fastest, most hectic ones,” Morehart wasn’t fazed by the scale or the timeline of the job. In fact, she has yet to say no to just about any order, no matter how last-minute the call comes in. Her website greets visitors with the message that “CATERING HOURS ARE 24/7.”

And they really are. Morehart has endless stories of customers calling at every hour of the day for any kind of event. Whether she’s serving lunch at film sets, feeding late-night festival volunteers or even getting a 6 a.m. office breakfast together with no head’s up, Morehart comes through time and again.

“This phone – my cellphone – is our catering number. It’s been my number for 20 years. I answer it 24 hours a day. I have one guy who calls and says, ‘Have you got food for 50 people laying around?’ He’ll call an hour before their lunch. We’ll do anything at the last minute.”

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It’s not a job for the faint of heart, but Morehart thrives on the challenge. She’s a self-described early bird, and she worked as a nurse before venturing into the catering business in 2003. In fact, it’s the connections she made while working in doctor’s offices that helped get DownHome off the ground in those early years. Having been on the receiving end of countless lunches provided by traveling pharmaceutical reps, when Morehart decided to try her own hand at catering, she pitched herself to customers in the medical industry first. “I went to every doctor’s office and doctor’s building in town. I took flyers; I baked cookies and put them in bags,” she says. “I went to the family practice conventions – I snuck into the family practice conventions, literally – and passed out menus and cookies to all the pharmaceutical reps. That was about 90% of my business when I started out.” Eventually, Morehart needed a storefront. DownHome’s original location was far enough out of the way that any clientele Morehart secured would be hard-won. Once she did get them in, however, her customers were hooked. “I just started. I was out in the county in a little bitty flat block building. Twelve booths, one server, paper tickets — if you didn’t know we were out there, you would never find it. I used to drive everywhere in town. Little Rock, Conway, North Little Rock. If there’s more than 5 or 10 cars in a parking lot, I’m pulling in there, handing out menus and cookies. Finally, it just caught on.”

Morehart has a contingent of longtime customers, many of whom followed DownHome to its new location on Stagecoach Road in 2015. In fact, many of her regulars are so committed to Morehart that they’ll roll silverware while waiting on their orders. Nothing – not even a pandemic – would keep them away from their favorite Southern comfort food spot.

“When COVID first hit and the restaurant got closed, these ladies would come and wait in their cars,” Morehart says. “They’d bring chairs and hang out there with a little umbrella and their food, just sitting farther away from each other.”

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For a long time, the restaurant played second fiddle to the catering gigs. Morehart’s customers include businesses of all types and sizes, from FedEx and Entergy to those still-loyal pharmaceutical reps making their way around the state. Being on-call 24/7 for catering kept the restaurant on limited hours – only open through lunch and closed on the weekends. That’s where local restaurant magnate Lee Beasley and business partner Dean Jennings came in.

Though primarily focused on buying and selling properties, Beasley has made a name for himself as the owner of eateries like Bone’s Chophouse (now JB ChopHouse), Copper Penny Pub and J&S Italian Villa. As Beasley’s head of operations, Jennings takes care of all the menu and kitchen logistics that make or break each restaurant. In 2020, Beasley added an even bigger gem to his portfolio: McClard’s Bar-B-Q, the legendary Hot Springs barbecue joint that’s been in business since 1928.

“McClard’s was too good of a brand to just let go,” Beasley says of the purchase, and he’s been hard at work trying to expand the McClard’s name to other places in the state. Crossing paths with Morehart wasn’t in his original plans. Once he arrived, however, it was clear that their meeting was meant to be.

“A friend encouraged me to come look at this place, and I didn’t really care for over a month,” Beasley says. “The day I came inside, I knew we’d be here – because I met her. It looked the part, but she is what tipped the scales.”

Beasley bought DownHome Catering in the middle of 2022, but he and Jennings knew that this was about more than owning the building. It was about the brand Morehart had been growing, one bag of cookies or lastminute tamale spread at a time.

“In this world, where everybody is trying to find their spot, customers are not calling DownHome anymore,” Jennings says. “They’re calling her. That’s what makes the difference.”

“I told her that’s the only way I really wanted it,” Beasley adds. “With her as part of it.”

Rather than one or the other, Morehart, Beasley and Jennings have come up with a way to marry the best of McClard’s barbecue legacy and the wide-ranging country favorites DownHome is known for. The restau-

rant celebrated its grand opening as the newly-christened McClard’s DownHome in October, and now, on top of the already mouth-watering options Morehart was accustomed to serving up, she can cater world-renowned barbecue as well.

“This is really a fabulous match,” Beasley says – it’s a sentiment that rings true both for the food and the people behind it.

“I never really wanted to go,” Morehart explains. “I just needed some help with it, to be honest. I wouldn’t be anywhere else. This is my baby, and this is my new family. We’re all in this together.” —

With Morehart at the helm and Jennings behind the scenes, McClard’s DownHome serves the most popular dishes from both menus and has expanded its hours to serve dinner and stay open on Saturdays. DownHome’s catfish and country-fried chicken; McClard’s fall-offthe-bone ribs and famous sauce. McClard’s seasoned and loaded fries; DownHome’s widley-adored tamale spreads. Not to mention the pies: based on recipes from Morehart’s mother and homemade by her sister Toni, the flavors of the day might change, but the made-from-scratch quality never wavers.

The DownHome team, many of whom have been with Morehart for nearly a decade, still keep the daily specials on rotation, even for the offmenu items. “We’ve got a good group back there,” she says.

Fried chicken is a Wednesday staple, and plates like blackened chicken Alfredo and pork fritters with “sweet potato smash” on the side make regular appearances as well.

“Meatloaf, chicken spaghetti, pot roast, whatever – comfort food,” Morehart says. “Just home cooking.”

On the catering side, customers have a wider array of options, and Morehart is confident in her ability to provide just about anything that an office party, wedding or holiday table could need.

“The holidays are very, very busy,” Morehart says. “Thanksgiving is huge for meals and family meal packages. And then there’s Christmas. It’s our busiest time of the year.”

DownHome’s holiday catering specials boast turkeys and hams – whole or sliced by the pound – alongside cornbread dressing with giblet gravy and cranberry sauce. Then there’s the garlic and cheese mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese and yeast rolls, to name just a few sides. Throw in one of those pies – coconut cream, pecan, key lime, possum – and it’s no wonder Morehart has her hands full this time of year.

From biscuits and gravy to sweet potato casseroles, from hor d’oeuvres to barbecue – McClard’s DownHome has it all.

“And if she doesn’t have it, she’ll find it,” Beasley adds. —

When asked to explain what keeps her getting up for 4 and 5 a.m. breakfasts, driving from Little Rock to Rogers to make sure a lunch setup goes smoothly and answering the phone every time it rings at midnight, Morehart doesn’t hesitate.

“I love all the people. Seriously. All these people depend on me. I love having tons of catering. I love the restaurant being full. I love going and talking to every single table in this whole building. That’s my favorite part.”

For his part, Beasley adds, “It’s for the buzz. It’s not about the money – it is the money to be profitable, but it just feels good. What else would you do?”

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Morehart has poured the last 20 years into building her flourishing catering business, tackling everything between driving the delivery trucks and cutting the grass. Despite the round-the-clock hours, she’s not letting up anytime soon.

“I don’t think I’ll probably ever really retire,” she says. “I love working. It drives me crazy sometimes, but I still love it. It’s a good crazy. Maybe I’ll take a vacation one day without my cellphone.”

For now, though, Morehart and the catering line are attached at the hip – literally. Towards the end of the interview, a call comes through:

“If you text me what you want, I can get you a quote. No, don’t worry about that. Just tell me what you want. I can do stuff in there that you can’t.”

She certainly can.