Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Prescott Rip Griffin's will be prototype

When the Rip Griffin Truck and Travel Center officially opens on April 18, it will be one-of-a-kind.

No, it won't be the only Rip Griffin's around, but it will be a prototype, with new equipment being used for the first time.

The newest of the new items is a "hearth oven", which was shipped to Prescott from Seattle, Wash. It will be the only one in the Rip Griffin chain, for a while. The company plans on installing three others at different locations in the future.

One of the unique features of this oven is once it's turned on, it can't be turned off. The hearth oven will take three days to heat up, and then remain on with the temperature never getting below 400 degrees F.

This oven will be used for making pizzas, calzone and a variety of other dishes for the restaurant.

"It will be exciting," said Toni Johnson, media coordinator for Rip Griffin. "We officially open April 18, and it will be a 24-hour facility."

The Griffin family, she said, was impressed with Prescott and the region when it held a job fair in March. Originally the company had planned to have two job fairs to make sure the facility would be properly staffed.

The second job fair, Johnson said, wasn't necessary because of the number and quality of people who applied for the positions. "I think we filled all the jobs in the first week." Not including management, 135 people have been hired to work at the center.

The nuts and bolts of the facility will be three buildings totaling 40,000 square feet, and costing $8.5 million. The only part of the business to ever be closed will be the Subway sandwich franchise.

It is also the first Rip Griffin's in Arkansas.

The main building will house Subway's, a full convenience store, travel items, clothing, electronics, novelty gifts, plenty of Razorback memorabilia and other accessories.

Country Fare restaurant is unique to Rip Griffin's, and will offer a 24-hour buffet, complete with salad bar, the hearth oven and a full menu. It will also seat 220 patrons.

The menu will offer dishes not currently available in Prescott. These include a Southwestern Cobb salad, chicken fried steak stuffed potato, the monster burger (using a full pound of ground beef), smoked St. Louis pork ribs, all-you-can-eat sirloin steak and a taco omelette. Dishes from the hearth oven include a baked chicken dinner, a stuffed pork chop dinner, several sandwiches and a dinner-of-the-day which will change daily.

The main building will also house a phone room, video arcade, 11 showers, laundry facilities, a Western Union, an ATM and a sweet shop where candies are made fresh daily. The showers and laundry are for truckers only, though.

There is also a lounge for truckers, which will have a big-screen television for their use during layovers. A second trucker lounge is at the shop.

Truckers will be offered the incentive of a free shower with 50 gallons of diesel purchased. Otherwise, a shower will cost $7.

There will be 12 diesel lanes with full-service fueling, along with parking spaces for 186 trucks.

The middle building is basically for truckers on the go. They will be able to stop in, get fueled up, buy fresh-made deli sandwiches, pizza by the slice, and a wide variety of items specifically for those in the trucking industry.

The third building is the truck repair shop. It will offer repairs for drivers of semis and recreational vehicles alike. There will be a 24-hour road service operation, along with a chrome shop and L.E.D. lighting center.

The repair shop will also do DOT inspections, and has certified air conditioning repair personnel on staff. It will sell new and used tires, all from leading manufacturers, do tire balancing and laser alignments, along with brake jobs, lube and oil changes and 24-point inspections.

Ray Johnson, operations manager, said the convenience store will also sell books on tape and books on cd, as well as movies, on both VHS and DVD formats.

However, he said, everything at Rip Griffin's is geared toward the family, so there will be no movies with ratings higher than "R" available, and no adult magazines sold.

Griffin's, he said, is a family-owned and operated business, watching out for families on the road.

There will be incentives for local residents to visit Griffin's, he said. The company has a program called Rip's Rewards. Basically, local patrons who shop there will be given cards. For each five gallons of gas purchased, they will get 30 cents off either a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread or a dozen eggs. Johnson added the convenience store prices will be competitive with other local establishments.

When fully operational, Johnson said, the annual payroll will be about $2 million, which doesn't include taxes the company will be paying.

According to Johnson, Griffin's plans on being active in the community and joining the Prescott-Nevada County Chamber of Commerce.