Burger restaurant famous from ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives’ moves ‘home’ in Arlington
The Original Chop House Burgers, a chef-owned burger grill that landed Arlington on the Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” is moving back next month to its original location near Fielder Road.
After three moves and two format changes, chef Kenny Mills has struck a deal to return Original Chop House Burgers to its first restaurant space, 1700 W. Park Row Drive.
“It’s like we’ve had a world tour and now we’re coming home,” said Mills, a former Dallas steakhouse chef who left in 2010 to open Chop House.
The current location at 2502 Little Road will become a craft barbecue restaurant, Mills Made Smoked Meats, he said.
The restored Park Row location “will look exactly like it used to” in the days when host Guy Fieri and the “Triple-D” show visited.
“Chop House is back,” Mills said.
Chop House was an immediate hit for the namesake burger, a brisket blend bacon-cheddar burger with steak sauce.
It was a regular finalist in the Star-Telegram’s occasional “Burger Battle.”
When Mills and a landlord couldn’t agree, he moved his restaurant west and opened a prime steakhouse in Pantego. :Later, he added a Chop House Burgers in Mansfield and eventually moved to Little Road.
The Little Road location only seats 35 customers, and it’s a longer drive for his old UT Arlington customers.
“I’m anxious to move back,” Mills said.
He’s printed new T-shirts celebrating the “world tour” to Pantego, Mansfield, west Arlington and back to West Park Row Drive.
Son Travis Mills will open the barbecue restaurant, he said. Before Chop House moved in, the Little Road location was formerly a grocery store and barbecue stand.
He expects to open Chop House in mid-January, he said — “although I wish it was sooner.”
(The restaurant is not related to Chop House Burger, a Dallas-based concept operating in Fort Worth.)
This story was originally published December 4, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
