Catfish, hushpuppies and hospitality
FAYETTEVILLE, ARK. – Just off Weddington Drive, where the hum of traffic meets the scent of fresh-fried hushpuppies, sits a Fayetteville landmark that’s been serving catfish, fixin’s and hometown hospitality for more than three decades.
The Catfish Hole has become woven into the fabric of Razorback Country, a place where fried food meets family, and every meal feels a little like coming home.
The story of the Catfish Hole starts farther south, long before the Fayetteville building ever went up. The first Catfish Hole opened in North Little Rock, a small place built on good recipes and word of mouth. Not long after, a second location appeared in Alma, where a loyal local crowd has kept the dining room full and the fryers busy.
That’s where the Gazzola family found their calling. Pat and Janie Gazzola, both from Fort Smith, weren’t looking to buy a restaurant when the idea came along. They were already thriving in the oil and gas business, but Pat had always loved food and the way it brought people together. When he heard about a catfish restaurant for sale just up the road in Alma, he went to see it for himself. It was his barber who first told him, “You need to go to this place.”
One meal was all it took. Pat was hooked.
The Gazzolas bought the Catfish Hole in 1993. Within a year, they’d decided to open a new one farther north in a town that was just beginning to boom. Fayetteville in the early 1990s was growing fast, with new neighborhoods sprouting up around the University of Arkansas. The Gazzolas saw an opportunity to bring their Southern-style catfish to a new crowd of students, families and Razorback fans.
Construction began in 1994, the same year Britain Gazzola, their son, got married, and the Razorbacks won the NCAA national championship in basketball.
“It was a unique year,” Britain said with a laugh. “In 1994, this was getting built to open up, I got married and the Hogs won the national championship. So, all that was happening. It’s kind of a neat story on how it all started.”
When the doors opened, The Catfish Hole became an instant part of Fayetteville’s rhythm. Families gathered for birthday dinners, Razorback fans filled tables on game days and travelers made it a must-stop along their route through Northwest Arkansas. The food was simple, consistent and generous. Golden-fried catfish, thick-cut fries, beans, slaw and the restaurant’s famous “fixin’s,” those complimentary hushpuppies and sides that arrive before the main course.
Over time, the restaurant’s reputation spread far beyond Fayetteville. When Houston Nutt coached the Razorback football team, The Catfish Hole hosted recruiting dinners that became the stuff of local legend. Later, the restaurant became home to Bobby Petrino Live, a Razorback radio show that filled the dining room with fans and cameras.
Through all the excitement, the Gazzola family stayed grounded. They expanded carefully, opening a new building in Alma when the original site was cut off by the construction of Interstate 49. For a time, they even operated a third location at Table Rock Lake. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they decided to focus their attention back to their locations in both Fayetteville and Alma.
Even now, with two restaurants and 31 years under their belt, the Gazzolas have kept things remarkably consistent. They still serve the same recipes they started with, still run the same family-style dining room and still believe that hospitality is what keeps people coming back.
Inside, the space is large, 380 seats, but somehow never lost its warmth. Families gather around a long table, college students laugh over platters of fried shrimp and servers glide between booths with pitchers of sweet tea. The rhythm of the place is easy and familiar, almost like muscle memory.
“We’ve always wanted people to feel like they’re coming into our home while they eat here,” said Janie Gazzola, who has been at the heart of the business since day one. “It’s very family oriented, very homey to be here. Especially for a huge restaurant. I mean, we seat 380 people. You don’t see anybody build a restaurant that big anymore.”
That balance, a big space with a small-town feel, might be the secret to The Catfish Hole’s long success. Even as Fayetteville has grown around it, the restaurant still feels anchored in an older rhythm of hospitality.
“Our food is always going to be consistent. It’s always going to be good,” Britain said. “Everybody’s doing specials and happy hours. We just do what we do, and we do it really well – consistently, every day.”
The customers seem to agree. Some have been eating there for decades, stopping in after football games or family outings, while others make special trips when they’re back in town. There’s a comfort in knowing the hushpuppies will always taste the same, that the tea will always be refilled before you can even ask and that the people serving it all will smile like they’ve known you forever.
This November, The Catfish Hole turned 31 years old — three decades of memories, milestones and meals shared with the Fayetteville community. In a world that is constantly changing, that kind of reliability feels like a gift.
The Catfish Hole isn’t trying to reinvent Southern cooking or chase the latest trend. It’s just doing what it’s always done: serve catfish, hushpuppies and hospitality the way the Gazzola family has since 1994.
And for the thousands who’ve pulled up a chair over the years, that’s exactly why they’ll keep coming back.
