Our Story

Dinner at Papa Dave’s always started around 10 AM. He’d walk into his kitchen and begin the process of preparing the evening’s meal. To Papa Dave, dinner was not just about making a quick meal; it was about a moment with friends and family that everyone would savor, creating a community that would leave everyone excited to return for another taste.

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Sometimes he’d prepare a roast in his handcrafted stone smoker at the hunting cabin. Other times, as people gathered around a warm campfire, he’d season potatoes in a cast-iron skillet after a long day of canoeing down Spring River in Hardy, Arkansas. No one could make a meal taste as good as Papa Dave. Dinner preparations may have started at 10 AM, but the meals were always enjoyed with family and friends into the late hours of the evening. No one cared, and no one complained; the flavors quickly satiated every grumbling stomach.

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No matter what meal was being made, friends and family would come from all over just to eat at Papa Dave’s. Hardy Spice, founded in Arkansas, quickly became a recognized name across Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas. Today, Papa Dave’s passion for flavors continues in Tennessee, where we mix and pack each bottle by hand with the same passion Papa Dave had when he created Hardy Spice.