Crystal Wise
Original Chop House Burger MillsMade Barbecue
When Kenny Mills, owner of the Original Chop House Burgers in Arlington, heard his son was looking for a new place for his barbecue joint, he did what any good dad would do: He let him move back home.
In June, the Original Chop House Burger and MillsMade Barbecue, owned by Kenny’s son, Travis, went into business together. Both concepts are now located at what many consider to be Kenny Mills’ home, a strip mall space at 1700 W. Park Row Drive in Arlington. There, the Original garnered a line-out-the-door following when Guy Fieri raved about Mills’ burgers on his popular “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” show.
“It just made perfect sense to both of us,” Kenny says. “It’ll open the door to a lot of collaborations – burgers and barbecue go together so well.”
The two restaurants share the same roof, the same cashiers, the same dining room, and the same servers. But their menus are separate.
Kenny's menu remains dominated by his unique burgers, whose patties are one-part slow-cooked brisket, one-part char-grilled beef. You can get them plain and simple or dressed up with fancy ingredients and sauces. Sides include fantastically crisp french fries and unnaturally huge onion rings.
Travis specializes in craft barbecue — slow-smoked brisket, pork ribs, pulled pork, chicken, and sausage, plus a half-dozen sides. You’ll smell the place before you see it: One of Travis’ smokers is located directly in front of the restaurant in the parking lot.
Father, 61, and son, 30, have started to think about dishes they can make together. “I was already doing a lot of things that we can now collaborate on — brisket mac and cheese, a pulled pork sandwich,” Kenny says. “His barbecue is outstanding. We’ll be collaborating a lot.”
Crystal Wise
Kenny and Travis Mills
The Mills Family
The restaurant also has its own bakery, run by longtime family friend Laurette Haws, who makes pies, cakes, and other desserts daily.
The past few years have been a little chaotic — and somewhat confusing — for Kenny’s restaurant. The Original’s appearance on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” led to bigger crowds but also a chain reaction of moves, new concepts, openings, and closings that would take a mathematician and geographical scientist to unravel. In 2017, he sold his business while he recovered from a medical condition. After acquiring the business again, he moved the Original back to its first location on Park Row.
Humorously, Kenny — an accomplished chef who has worked in a vast array of restaurants, from steakhouses to Thai restaurants — made T-shirts, in the style of world-tour concert T-shirts, documenting all the locations of his restaurants.
For Travis, the move to Park Row is a full-circle moment. Longtime followers of The Original might recall when, years ago, Travis first worked there, side by side with his dad. There’s a picture in the restaurant of Travis posing with Fieri.
“I did a little bit of everything — I ran the fryers, I trained employees, I helped cook, of course,” he says. “Before the restaurant opened, my dad and I would test out his burger recipes. I’d get home from school, and he’d show me everything he was working on, like the burger with grilled cheese sandwiches for buns. To this day, that’s still one of his most popular burgers.”
Crystal Wise
Pie at MillsMade Barbecue
Like his father, Travis pursued a career in the restaurant business, although the path he took was slightly different than dad’s. Travis’ interests were, initially, in butchering, then smoking meat, then serving barbecue. His training spanned several North Texas restaurants, including Cooper’s Meat Market and Steakhouse in Dallas and Heim Barbecue in Fort Worth.
When Kenny decided to move The Original from Little Road in Arlington back to its original location on Park Row, Travis took over the Little Road space and opened MillsMade Barbecue. Four months in, he needed to move. “That building just wasn’t working out for what I wanted to do,” he says. That’s when father and son put their heads together and decided Travis should move in with dad.
“I don’t know why we didn’t do something like this in the first place,” Travis says, laughing. “But it's good to be back here, to be around family."
The Original Chop House Burgers & MillsMade Barbecue, 1700 W. Park Row Drive, Arlington, theoriginalchophouseburgers.com
