LITTLE ROCK — What began as a conversation between friends and coworkers almost two years ago has blossomed into a thriving family business in the small community of Floral. Mansfield General Store Inc. opened its doors in September 2010 with just a few groceries, some hardware and a tiny deli. More recently, the business has started offering hot breakfast and lunch specials, with entrees such as biscuits and gravy, meatloaf, chicken and dressing, Mexican chicken and homemade pies.
“We started with pizzas and hamburgers, and the customers really liked it,” said Sherrie Mansfield, who owns the business along with her husband, Jim. “Then one of ourcustomers, Donnie Gay, kept asking us to do more. He was our biggest fan in the beginning, and he’s still very supportive. We didn’t really plan on cooking all these things, but customers would ask for something, and if we could make it, we would. It’s just evolved from there.”
Sherrie Mansfield has lived in Floral her entire life and can well remember the small grocery store that sat at 3830 Floral Road. It was run by Darryl Brown and his family for three generations.
“One day while I was working at Wal-Mart Transportation in Searcy, I started talking with a co-worker who lived at Floral,” Mansfield said. “We were talking about the old Floral store and about how much the community missed that little place. I had been praying God would help my husband find a new job, and God placed the idea on my heart that maybe we should try and open the store up again.”
Mansfield said she went to talkwith Darryl Brown and his wife, Becky, about what is involved with running a family store, and also spoke with another friend, Lajena Franklin, who had experience running her father’s store in Holly Springs.
“God opened doors wide open and placed lots of good people in our path to answer all our questions,” Mansfield said. “Then once we started fixing up the place, people from the community came out to help us clean and paint, and Mrs. Sondra Grammer even brought us homemade pies for treats while we worked.”
Grammer now bakes pies for the store on a regular basis, and they are sold by the slice on “pie day,” with all the proceeds going to the Floral Baptist Church to purchases supplies for the food bank.
“The community support has been just overwhelming, and we want to give a little bit back,” Mansfield said. “We also fix no-bake cookies that go to the food bank.”
Although Mansfield did the majority of the cooking when the business first began serving meals, she now has quite a bit of help around the store.
“My daughter Heather Meeks and my niece Kathy Smith cook all the breakfast items, and Jessica Grammer and my nephew Kobie Litaker fix the cheeseburgers and the pizzas in the evenings,” she said.
“My son Matt and his wife, Melissa, also help when they can, and we have friends, Gary and Suanne Brumley, who help us with the dishes and the mopping almost every single night and for no pay atall, just to be supportive of the store because they want to see us stay around.”
Mansfield also credits many of the store’s regular customers with helping to make the business successful.
“Daryl Brown owned this store for 30 years, and he now comes over for breakfast and coffee and gets to visit with people he used to wait on,” she said.
“We also have a retired Wal-Mart truck driver, Mr. James ‘Popcorn’ Thorton, whose wife passed away a few years ago, and now he comes in every day just to see my 4-year-old granddaughter Haylee so she can sing and draw pictures for him.”
Mansfield’s longtime friend Donnie Gay comes in every day for a honey bun and a cup of coffee before heading off to work, and anotherfamily friend, Kenny Swaims, comes in to visit with people he knows and also helps out with pumping gas, picking up supplies and making pizza boxes.
“He’s even held people’s horses outside while they come in to shop or eat,” Mansfield said, laughing. “We really appreciate all he does for us.”
The store is open from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Mansfield said two of the best-selling plate lunches are her famous meatloaf and the Mexican chicken. If you can’t make it by to taste them in person, here are the recipes to try for yourself.
SHERRIE’S MEATLOAF Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef 1 package onion-soup mix 1 4-ounce can tomato sauce 1/2 sleeve crackers (crushed) 1/2 cup diced onion 1/2 cup diced bell pepper 1/2 cup water Directions:
Mix all ingredients together and place in a loaf pan. Top with ketchup and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
MEXICAN CHICKEN Ingredients: 2 cups diced chicken (cooked) 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1 can cream of chicken soup 1 can Rotel 1 can chicken broth 1 package Doritos chips (crushed) 1 onion (diced and sautéed) 1/2 cup shredded cheese Directions:
Mix all ingredients together. Place in an 8-by-10-inch baking dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Top with cheese slices.
Three Rivers, Pages 46 on 03/22/2012