Grapevine Restaurant

Kenneth and Lisa Vines were both born in California in towns about 325 miles apart. Kenneth, born in the town of Ceres, about 100 miles east of San Francisco, doesn’t remember too much about California since his family moved to Paris when he was four years old. Lisa, born in Inglewood near Los Angeles, moved to Paris when she was 11. They became high school sweethearts and married in 1976. As Kenny says, “after marrying, we decided to try the big city.” They moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where Kenny worked in a fiberglass factory with Lisa’s father. After about 9 months, Kenny decided that “the big city life” was not for him and was not a place to raise a family. They consequently moved back to Paris, started a family, and as Kenny says, worked at about every kind of job there was: on the dairy farm with his dad, at the local John Deere dealership, selling Purina feed, driving a truck, and selling cars at Paris Ford. Lisa, meanwhile, worked at Tastee Freeze, the John Deere dealership, an abstract company, and of course, became the mother of 6 little Vines’. In 1990, Kenneth proposed the idea of putting a restaurant in the building that was once the “22 Café” to his sister Linda. She proceeded to let Kenny know just how crazy he was and the subject was dropped. About 3 months later, Linda decided that just maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea. After all, where could you get a good “home cooked” meal in town? And as they say, “the rest is history”! Of Course, at the time, neither Kenny nor Linda knew that she would be moving to Fort Smith within a couple of years. The remodeling of the old 22 Café building took about one year to complete. The entire building was gutted and the interior was started from scratch. The Grapevine Restaurant opened for business on the February 12, 1991 at 11:00 am. Menus were still being put together and handed to customers pouring in the door. Great strides have been made since that day, and The Grapevine Restaurant provides a great family atmosphere with an excellent menu. Features include a semi-circle bar, a banquet room perfect for meetings and gatherings, meats smoked on the premises, and the finest homemade bread you’ll ever eat. The Vines family invites you to join us for breakfast, lunch or dinner Tuesday through Saturday.