Hickory Park Restaurant Company

Hickory Park Restaurant Co is a family owned restaurant located in Ames, Iowa, United States. The restaurant specializes in American style barbecue food and is currently housed in its third location. Hickory Park was established in 1970 and has since grown to over four times its original size. Hickory Park is one of the older and larger restaurants located in Ames Iowa.
Hickory Park primarily sells smoked meats, hamburgers, chicken products, french fries, soft drinks, shakes, and desserts. In the face of criticism over the healthiness of its products, the restaurant has modified its menu to also include alternatives considered healthier such as salads, wraps, and fruit.
History
First Location
In May 1970, a man by the name of David Wheelock first opened Hickory Park Restaurant with barbecue at 604 E. Lincoln Way in Ames, Iowa. With a seating capacity of 60, the Hickory Park restaurant was born. After the closing of a local church, church pews were brought in to provide more seating, followed by a walnut and mirrored ice cream fountain.
Second Location
On New Year's Eve of 1981, the restaurant moved to SE 16th Street. The new location had a seating capacity three times greater than the old location. Now with the ability to serve over 200 patrons at a time.
Third Location
In 1997, Hickory Park Restaurant grew again and moved to its present location at 1404 South Duff Avenue.
Menu
The menu at Hickory Park Restaurant contains over 100 different selections.
Barbecue
Hickory Park serves barbecue which is slightly different than in other areas of the US. In the United States barbecue is often thought as a dish connected with, primarily served in, and most popular in the Southern United States. Hickory Park barbecue is similar to barbecue found in St. Louis and Kansas City. The sauces found used in the restaurant are tomato based with sweet, spicy and tangy flavor profiles. Most ribs on the menu are pork, but they also come in beef varieties and can come in a number of different cuts. Burnt ends, the flavorful pieces of meat cut from the ends of a smoked beef or pork brisket, are a dish in the restaurant as well. Midwestern barbecue is typically served with many side dishes, including baked beans, french fries, and cole slaw.
Preparation
Hickory park cooks most of its barbecue using a masonry oven that allows for an open flame that uses convection to cook. The oven combines two cooking techniques simultaneously, one right after the other, with a duration slightly longer than grilling.
Hickory Park also braises meats and vegetables in a pot on top of a grill. To braise, the restaurant puts a pot on top of the grill, covers it, and lets it simmer for a few hours. There are two advantages to barbecue-braising: the first is that this method now allows for browning the meat directly on the grill before the braising, and the second is that it also allows for glazing the meat with sauce and finishing it directly over the fire after the braising, effectively cooking the meat three times, which results in a soft textured product that falls right off the bone.
Deserts
Other than its hickory smoked meats, Hickory Park also serves ice-cream from its old-fashioned ice-cream fountain. Hickory Park exclusively markets Ice Cream.
Reviews
In Dawn Simonds book, "Best Food in Town: The Restaurant Lover's Guide to Comfort Food in the Midwest,"
she writes of Hickory Park Restaurant: “I looked over the menu at Hickory Park with dismay. It wasn’t that the menu didn’t look good—I was impressed with everything from the moment I arrived. Hickory Park has a convenient location, a nice building, good service, and a broad menu. But I was on my fifth meal of the day and I still had two more to go…and I’m glad I tried the barbecue beans. Hickory Park makes sides from scratch using fresh ingredients, and the baked beans are smoked and slow-simmered with chucks of salt pork. My smoky short loin pork ribs were fall-off-the-bone, not too wet, and with the sauce on the side.”
-Dawn Simonds
The website amesbeat.com, a publication detailing information about place in the Ames, Iowa area describes Hickory Park as follows: "Hickory Park is cream of the crop when it comes to the fine art of the BBQ. Features excellent food and gigantic portions, including a world-famous ice-cream/soda fountain."
-amesbeat.com

Main Menu

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Main Menu