Mixing high-quality ingredients with a giving heart, 501 Prime puts as much effort into the community as it does its seafood and steaks.
Located at 215 E. Grand Ave., the restaurant opens at 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and typically takes its last reservation at 9 p.m.
Matt Fuller, partner and chef, said the Majestic Hotel fire was the catalyst that led him to open 501 Prime.
"So I had another restaurant here in town for about nine and a half years. It was over on Park Avenue. When the Majestic burned down years ago, I was just kind of looking for an opportunity to sort of move from that location and go someplace else," Fuller said.
"I had an opportunity to purchase this property here and do something completely different, so I closed down my restaurant, Central Park Fusion, and worked on opening this up."
One difference between 501 Prime and the previous restaurant is its size, he said. "This is a lot larger space here. It allows us to have a lot more offerings. Our bar area upstairs is very robust ... we probably have about 200 bourbons here."
What sets 501 Prime apart is that Fuller is both an owner and a chef, and they buy the highest quality ingredients.
"One of the owners is actually on the line cooking. That doesn't happen a whole lot at very many places. You know I really am seeing the business every single day, and that's just almost invaluable to a place," he said.
"One of the things that we really strive for here is just to buy the best products that we can possibly buy as well," Fuller said. "I also think too that most of the people who are here that really are my key guys, they're like me in the fact that we're never satisfied, so no matter how good of a dish that we think that we might have, we are always pushing to make it better, and I think in this industry you have to do that. If you don't you just kind of fall by the wayside."
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Fuller said some were skeptical of the restaurant's location.
"People thought 'What are you doing, getting that property over here?' because this was not a developed area at all and we're really fortunate because after the property was acquired that's when they started doing work on (Highway) 70 so, you know, there's a lot more people that are coming through this way," he said.
"When things got cleaned up right here, the police department's right behind us, we have a great relationship with them, so I feel this a very safe spot. The neighborhood around here has really embraced us and we've been able to try to work and do some things with the local community here, so that's been great."
The new restaurant opened in 2018 and, over the past four years, both 501 Prime and Fuller have frequently participated in community events and fundraisers, earning public thanks from Cutwell 4 Kids, the Gateway Community Association and the organizers of the Adam Brown Shamrock Run.
"I think the community has given to me and so, you know, it's just sort of a natural thing to do," Fuller said. "I think, you know, we're so limited with the business. I mean we're fortunate and blessed to have the revenue that we have, but it doesn't mean that we're making a lot of money. I mean I don't have a lavish lifestyle. We don't have those extra dollars."
He said he puts the money "back into the business. We're growing our business and this is why when ... I do charitable type events, it's harder for me to write that check because I just don't have that money, but I can go ahead and do an event and use our facility and do something to raise money."
Fuller said he is in the process of opening up a seafood market next door to 501 Prime, and on June 1, he took over The DeSoto Club in Hot Springs Village.
Chef and partner Matt Fuller holds a plate of bigeye tuna at 501 Prime. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record
Q&A with Matt Fuller
The following are excerpts from the interview with Matt Fuller, presented in a question-and-answer format:
Q: Favorite food of all time?
Fuller: Man, that's really tough. Normally when people ask me what my favorite food is, I don't give a specific answer, but I'll tell you my favorite food to eat is the one that someone else prepares for me, and I want to explain why that is. Look, it takes a lot of care. A lot of love goes into food and so when somebody else takes the time and effort to make food for me, and a lot of my friends are intimidated to cook for me, I don't care because I know what went in to it.
Q: Go-to comfort food?
Fuller: I actually, I just like everything so it's really hard to pinpoint one thing. I am really a sucker for any carb-heavy stuff because it's not good for my diet, so you know, it's pizza and rice and that kind of stuff that I really shouldn't have.
Q: Favorite restaurant anywhere?
Fuller: I've got several favorite places that I've been. I would say probably the most favorite place, there's two of them that I can think of that are overseas. One of them was a childhood restaurant and I have searched online and I can't find this restaurant. It was actually a pub over in London. I lived in London, England, when I was a kid, and it was called The Plough ... but I vividly remember, and I was probably 7 or 8 years old, and they had a half-roasted chicken and I could almost taste it today, I mean it was fantastic ... and then I got to spend some time in Majorca, Spain. I can't remember the name of the restaurant there, but I think it is one of the oldest restaurants that is on Majorca. You walk into this place and there's hams hanging from the ceiling curing. I mean old, old school. The kitchen's all fire, you know they're not cooking on a stovetop.
Q: Favorite part of working in the Hot Springs area?
Fuller: I think it's the community. I moved here because family was here. I'm not leaving because of the community. I've been here now since 2008. I've met a lot of great people. The town has really been, and the community has been, very open-armed accepting of me.
Q: Advice for someone starting a restaurant?
Fuller: I always ask them, "Have you ever worked someplace washing dishes?" If you haven't, before you open a restaurant, go take an hourly job just washing dishes. See if you can hack it because once you hack it, get two full-time jobs doing that. There's this misnomer that it's kind of a sexy fun kind of thing, and it can be a great business to have, but if you don't have the ability to work 80 to 100 hours a week, and when I mean work 80 to 100 hours a week I mean on your feet, hard labor work, you probably should not get into this business because you've got to dedicate that time to it and when your dishwasher doesn't show up, you better be able to jump in there and wash dishes."
Chef and partner Matt Fuller cooks Hawaiian bigeye tuna at 501 Prime. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record
Bigeye tuna from Hawaii is sliced at 501 Prime. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record