Every now and then in our short lives, we encounter an establishment that impacts us so dearly, we remember it for decades to come, even long after that establishment is gone. Coy’s Steak House, formerly of Hot Springs, is a prime example of how much a business can touch the lives of the community around it. From all four corners of the state to the plates of blue-collar workers and diplomats, Coy’s Steak House has cooked up a legacy that will last forever — and a legacy that may soon be due for an update.
Coy’s Steak House opened in Hot Springs in 1945. Known among locals in the Spa City for aged steaks, seafood and the best house salad dressing south of the Mason-Dixon line, visitors to Hot Springs made it an annual tradition to stop by the steakhouse during the racing season at Oaklawn Park.
Coy Theobalt Sr. served during World War II and, upon returning, went to work for Myers Bakery in Hot Springs. It was during this time that he started experimenting with seasoning salts and discovered that he had an affinity for cooking. He finally came up with a flavor that would become the signature of the restaurant, Coy’s iconic steak seasoning. During this time of experimenting with different spices and seasonings, he also created the famous Coy’s creamy garlic dressing.
Coy Theobalt Jr., son of original owners Coy and Mildred “Mickey” Theobalt, recalled the hard work his parents put into the restaurant. He explains that he ran errands and helped wherever he was needed in the family’s steakhouse. When he was a toddler, Theobalt would put matchbooks on customer tables and thank them for eating at Coy’s.
“Growing up there, I really did a lot of different jobs,” Theobalt said. “In the summer as a kid, I’d go in and prep for onion rings and baked potatoes and french fries.”
As the child of restaurant owners, the family’s lives were completely wrapped around the restaurant, and hard work was expected.
“My parents wanted to create the best restaurant in the world,” Theobalt said. “My dad was a master with food, and my mom was a master with people. No one on the staff ever left when they got there. People worked there for over 30 years, and people were in line waiting to get a job there. Usually, their children would step in and take over when they were ready to retire. Everyone knew everyone by name, and customers would request staff by name.”
Coy’s Steak House developed a highly regarded reputation due to how seriously the Theobalts’ took their food. Nothing less than the best would do.
“My dad was such a particular person when it came to food, and he only bought the best of the best,” Theobalt said. “I would watch him open meat in 55-gallon wooden barrels that had just been unloaded from a truck. Inside, there would be meat in big vacuum-packed bags from Chicago or Iowa. My dad would open up the meat, and if it wasn’t to his standards, he’d close it back up and send it back.
“It didn’t take vendors long to realize that they couldn’t fool Dad. He was so vigilant about it. He was one of the few restaurants in Hot Springs that served prime meat and not choice at that time.”
The elder Theobalt wasn’t just dedicated to the best “turf,” but also the best “surf.”
“My parents gave all of my relatives and anyone who wanted a job the opportunity to work at Coy’s,” Theobalt said. “My dad bought two large trucks and hired two of my uncles to drive to New Orleans every other day to bring seafood back. Nobody else did anything like that. Nobody in the country was doing anything like that. My dad did whatever he had to do to make it its best.”
Theobalt shared that the kitchen was a tight ship in order to meet the demands of the Oaklawn racing season.
“During the horse racing season on Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, we could feed close to 1,300 people in five and half hours,” Theobalt said. “The kitchen layout Dad created was perfect for that kind of restaurant — everything was orderly and efficient. My dad worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week. He would catch a cat nap in his office for half an hour in the afternoon, staff dinner would be around 4, and then we opened the doors at 5.”
Theobalt said that, understandably, being called in to help the restaurant whenever help was needed led to a mild disdain.
“Consequently, I did not have a fondness for the restaurant that my parents did,” Theobalt said. “We often had to fill in for the employees who weren’t there, and we didn’t have a say in it. As I got older, I spent more time as the host during my junior and senior years in the horse racing season.”
Theobalt explained his dad was an entrepreneur who was always thinking outside the box. Theobalt Sr. worked with a friend, an HVAC repair man, to build tin boxes with stainless steel sleeves. These sleeves would hold and warm crackers, which diners would eat covered in Coy’s dressing. Theobalt Jr. also shares that his father is the founder of “surf and turf.” Theobalt also recalled how demand was always incredibly high to get one of the famed steaks.
“Because Coy’s was the best, people expected the best, and my parents were always pushing themselves to be better. Excellence was always expected,” he said. “It was not unusual to have to wait two hours for a table. There was often the task of making sure that the people who were waiting for a table were entertained while waiting.
Rosemary Wooten and Coy Theobalt Jr. with their dad, Coy Theobalt Sr. outside Coy’s Steak House in Hot Springs.
“My mother bought a piano and organ so people could play in the lobby. There was also a ‘monkey machine.’ Customers could put in a coin, and a row of monkeys would play instruments. There were only nine made in the world, and my dad bought it in Germany. We’d empty it in the mornings, and there would be 10 pounds of dimes in there. My parents would call it vacation money, not that they ever really took a vacation.”
Theobalt, understandably, hopes he never hears the monkey machine’s song ever again. One thing Theobalt does love hearing, though, are the fond memories people have of Coy’s.
Bruce Tippit, Theobalt’s close childhood friend, grew up working alongside him on the family farm and in the Coy’s Steak House kitchen. Tippit worked at Coy’s primarily during the horse racing season. His mother worked there during the races as well.
Tippit has known Theobalt since fourth grade, and the two became close friends from those years through college. Tippit’s mother had also been the Theobalt family babysitter during the busy racing season’s long working hours. The two lived a short distance away from one another, and Tippit found himself helping the Theobalt family bale hay. Soon, the two worked in the steakhouse kitchen, with Theobalt bussing tables and Tippit racking dishes.
“The language of chefs and cooks were all in code. Someone would call out for a ‘T&T’ which was a tender and tail, and they’d give these codes back and forth,” Tippit recalled. “You would walk in and see the beef hanging and being aged. Those steaks were literally fresh cut, cut to order, and those kinds of special things made it fun.”
Tippit said there was magic within the walls of Coy’s Steak House.
“For a young kid, Coy’s was a magical place. “Coy used to have his birthday parties there. It didn’t matter who you were — you were Coy’s friend. I remember going there, and it was the first time I’d ever really seen a steak or eaten a shrimp cocktail. It was a treat getting to work there. It was hard work but rewarding.”
That hard work didn’t stop on the weekends, either.
“Coy Sr. and Mrs. Theobalt — if they were working, you were working,” Tippit said. It is a long-running joke with Coy or I that if I were staying the night, Mrs. Theobalt would come in at 7 in the morning and say, ‘Alright boys, it’s time to get up, there’s work to do.’”
Tippit shared that if you were treating someone special to dinner — a politician, a boss, or a romantic interest — and you wanted to make a good impression, you took them to Coy’s. Theobalt reaffirmed this.
Coy Theobalt Sr.
(Photo provided)
“We served all kinds of important people, from dignitaries to vice presidents, and every act that came to the Vapors came to Coy’s to eat — Bat Masterson, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Phyllis Diller, just to name a few,” Theobalt says. “Coy’s had thousands of signed photographs. All the walls were covered with memorabilia and awards that we’d won.”
Rosemary Wooten, Coy Jr.’s sister, recalls the high esteem in which Coy’s was held.
“My prom date took me to Coy’s,” she said. “I wasn’t a big dater, and I didn’t tell my friends that I was going to bring someone that played for Ouachita’s football team. The girls’ jaws dropped when we came in. Even several years later, on the day that I got married, my husband and I stopped at Coy’s and ate.”
Political events and conferences often stopped at the iconic Coy’s for a memorable meal.
“At one point, we had General William Westmoreland eating there. I was working at the time, and picked up the phone. It was the Pentagon requesting to speak to General Westmoreland,” Wooten says.
Tippit recalled another important political event held at Coy’s.
“I remember the Republican Governors’ Conference being held there,” he said. “Ronald Reagan and Spiro Agnew were there. I got Agnew’s autograph on one of his vice presidential business cards, and everyone stood up to acknowledge Reagan, who was governor of California at the time. A level of excellence was expected. If you were going to go out, you went to Coy’s.”
Tippit’s respect for the Theobalt family exceeds the boundaries of the workplace, as he credited the family with turning his life around.
“I was going down a really dark path in college. Coy took me aside and supported me and talked to me about what I’d been doing,” Tippit recalled. “Coy Sr. treated me honorably and kindly and involved me in many areas of responsibility. They helped me, and it changed me for the better.”
Not long after, Tippit began a career in Christian ministry. Tippit shared that even though the Theobalts were immensely successful in their restaurant endeavors, they always acted with a spirit of humility and equality.
“Everyone was treated equally; there was never a subservient attitude,” he said. “One of the men that worked with me in the kitchen was an African American man named Andrew, and Coy entrusted him with great responsibility. That was very rare during the ’60s. But at Coy’s, there was never a sense that he was different. He was Andrew. He worked alongside us in the kitchen and on the Theobalt farm.”
Most of all, Tippit said he was thankful the humility of the Theobalt family created a tighter community in Hot Springs.
“Mrs. Theobalt was out front doing a lot of welcoming. It was the ethic of the home,” he said. “They didn’t act like they were above anyone. It was a blessing to have that in my life and to know that it was authentic and real. I have great love and affinity for that family, and they were such a vital part of my life.”
Wooten also emphasized that everyone at Coy’s wasn’t just a member of the staff, they were family.
“We had more aunts than anyone is allowed in a lifetime,” she said. “When a waiter came to Coy’s, she was here to stay, so they all became aunts to me. And they loved us, just like we were their kids.
“I would hang out in the bar with my godmother, Mary, who was like the right-hand woman. She was there for many, many a dark times. We had our bright times and our dark times, and Aunt Mary was always there.”
In 1972, the elder Theobalts grew older, and as Theobalt Jr. and Wooten pursued career paths outside of the food industry, the owners sold the restaurant to a group of investors. One investor was Jim Manning.
The Coy’s Little Rock location was opened in 1976 and operated for 17 years until 1993. A North Little Rock location was also opened but closed after just three years. The allure of Coy’s in Hot Springs was not just the food but also the family atmosphere and connection to the community that had been prevalent for decades.
“When they tore down the National Bank in Hot Springs, Dad bought all the bricks in order to build a new building,” Theobalt said. “He’d hire people during the day to work cleaning bricks to keep them employed during the transition from one restaurant to another. Back then, any job was a job, and dad took care of his employees. The building that was built with those bricks was just beautiful.”
Manning and investors decided to nurture that Hot Springs community. Tracy Brown, Manning’s daughter, explained that even after her father acquired the restaurant, the legacy and importance of Coy’s remained.
“Many employees crossed over at that time and stayed on with us,” Brown said. “We built on a bigger dining room and added onto the menu a little. Wedding receptions and engagement parties and birthday parties and proms would still dine here, in addition to Miss Arkansas judges and Miss America pageantry.
“We started personalizing booths and tables with faces and personalities who had been there a long time through the ages.”
The Manning family continued to run the restaurant, during which time Brown took it over from her father. Servers continued to bond with long-time customers, who had become more like friends. As individuals retired, their children would take over. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
Coy Theobalt Sr. died in 1997, and Mrs. Theobalt followed in 2006. All was quiet for a while. But three years later, tragedy struck.
* * * * * * * * *
“In 2009, a day before the horse racing season, I got a phone call,” Theobalt recalled. “A fire broke out around 2 in the morning.”
“It was like driving a stake through my heart,” Tippit said, remembering when he had received the news. “Coy’s was iconic in the Hot Springs landscape. … The memories were still there. It was the food, yes, but it was also what it represented. It had been born out of hardscrabble work and had become famous in so many ways. And it all went up in flames.”
Brown still remembers the phone call vividly.
“I got a call from my kitchen manager and a fireman that there was a fire, and that I needed to come quickly,” she said. “My son, Clay, was little, and I put him in the car. The smoke hit us before we even reached the rest stop. The fireman was in tears and told me that the fire was too hot — he had to let it go.”
Brown recalled agencies looked for a cause of the fire, but the investigation yielded no answers. A lot of the equipment, which the family was in the process of replacing, was older; this might have been the cause of the fire.
Following the disaster, Brown attempted to look for locations to house a new Coy’s, eager to reinvent the old. But she realized that it was a challenge that would require more time.
Theobalt recalled returning with his sister to the site where Coy’s had once stood.
“We went and stood up there on the rest of the concrete pad after the fire, and there was still some linoleum left that I recognized on the ground from where the floor once was,” he said. “It was devastating. It makes you sick.”
Wooten recalls that tragic day as well.
“It was sad, it even makes me tear up now,” she said. “It was just such a shock; this was just not supposed to happen. That legend was not supposed to end, not like this. I still go sit up on the lot where the restaurant used to be on important days, like Dad’s birthday. It was like our home. We spent more time there than we did at home. That was home.”
Wooten hopes that when people think of Coy’s, they don’t remember the tragic fire. Instead, she hopes they remember the impact that Coy’s had on the lives of so many.
“You take things for granted when they’re there,” Wooten said. “And when it’s gone, you regret not cherishing it. It was a wonderful place and one of the most wonderful places anywhere. I don’t want people to remember the fire. I want people to remember my family’s hard work and the treasure that it was.”
Much like Theobalt and Wooten, the Hot Springs community was heartbroken in the wake of the fire. Even today, one does not need to look far on the internet to find recent forums and threads of people continuing to share memories about Coy’s.
Several years later, in 2017, Brown’s son Clay grew interested in cooking, particularly grilling. Brown found a box of charred recipes and showed them to her son, who took an interest in the Coy’s Steakhouse recipes.
Brown says that the Coy’s Southern Eats recipe is the seasoning that Coy Theobalt Sr. used, but that the type of salt used has been changed due to MSG allergies in the family. Clay came up with the idea to market this seasoning and Coy’s house dressing to the public in a more modern way.
“We took Clay’s idea to Clint Albright, who had been responsible for Coy’s Steakhouse’s marketing,” Brown said. He told us that we don’t have to abandon the old Coy’s, but that we can reintroduce it and bring it to a new audience that might not have known about Coy’s before. We rebranded as Coy’s Southern Eats, and we’ve shipped all the way to Alaska. I’m shipping seasoning anywhere that there’s a horse track, for sure.”
While the unwavering loyalty that people have to Coy’s Steakhouse and Coy’s Southern Eats remains, Brown points out one thing that everyone can agree on.
“The restaurant has almost been like a family member to two different families — it meant so much to so many people,” she said. “No matter who owns it, that is what makes it unique. The legacy, without question, began with Coy Theobalt, Sr. Nobody will be able to wear the shoes of the folks who paved the way; we can just hope we learned enough from them to carry on.”
And not all is lost.
The legacy of the iconic Hot Springs steakhouse and its beloved seasonings will live on. In fact, rumor has it that something lies just around the bend …
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