A Slow-Aged Arkansas Steak Worth the Drive

By: The Local Palate

Copy to clipboard

Slow-aged for 45 to 50 days, expertly cooked, basted with herbed butter—Arkansas’ best steak can be found in a little spot that started out as a country grocery, and it’s absolute perfection.

Dumas Taylors Steakhouse Chuck and Pam Taylor Image courtesy of Grav Weldon — Dumas Taylors Steakhouse Chuck and Pam Taylor, Image courtesy of Grav Weldon

Chuck and Pam Taylor own Taylor’s Steakhouse along Arkansas Highway 54, a low-slung yellow building a few miles outside of Dumas. Chuck’s dad opened a grocery store there in 1954, a place that became well known for counter lunches and cheese dip. After connecting the structure with the family-owned liquor store next door, the couple reopened the operation as a steakhouse in October 2012, offering steaks and seafood on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.

Chef Chuck read up on how to perfect steaks through his younger years. He honed his skills cooking at duck lodges each fall and winter. Today, he controls every stage of the process that brings these excellent cuts of meat to the table. “I’m the chef, I’m the butcher, and I’m the grill master,” Chuck says. “I do everything with the steaks—dry age them, cut them, cook them.”

He works exclusively with prime Angus beef, dry‑aging bone‑in cuts for roughly 45 to 50 days, an expensive and time‑intensive process. Those steaks, combined with Pam’s commitment to hospitality and connecting with individual customers, have earned the place a reputation that brings people from states around.

The prime bone-in ribeye, 20 to 24 ounces of beautifully curated beef, is one of the biggest stars on the menu, precisely calculated to be spoon-soft and flavored all the way through every bite. But it’s the Taylorville prime strip, around 12 ounces of delectably marbled, buttery textured beef, that is the true star here. Each slice, each bite, showcases Chuck’s exceptional attention to detail.

Taylor’s Steakhouse is the only restaurant in Arkansas inducted into the Steakhouse Hall of Fame. It is also an Arkansas Food Hall of Fame inductee.

Where to Stay:

Hotel Morgan

The University of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM) Trotter House was built by Virgil Josephus Trotter in 1896 and was expanded twice to accommodate his wife and eight children. Six suites, each with a private bath, maintain the character of the historic home, outfitted with antique furnishings while offering modern amenities and grab-and-go breakfast.