There are breakfast spots, and then there are institutions — the kind of place that has fed multiple generations of the same family, survived a devastating fire, and still manages to feel like the warm, unhurried center of an entire community.
Since 1980, Stoby’s Restaurant in Conway, Arkansas, has been doing exactly that — a beloved mom-and-pop breakfast and lunch landmark. 🍳
American Idol winner Kris Allen publicly declared its housemade cheese dip his all-time favorite food, and locals have been packing its booths every single morning for over four decades.
How Stoby’s Restaurant Won Conway’s Hearts
David Stobaugh, a Conway native with a deep passion for feeding people, opened Stoby’s in July of 1980 out of the former Mrs. Smith’s Pie Shop on Donaghey Avenue — striking a deal with Mrs. Smith herself to take over the space and, in a beautiful twist, keeping her on as his very first employee. 🤝
The restaurant grew steadily through the ’80s, adding a second location in Russellville in 1984, and became so woven into the fabric of Conway that the city eventually declared an official Stoby’s Restaurant Month in its honor. 🎉
Then came the crowning moment of national recognition — Esquire Magazine named Stoby’s one of the best breakfast places in America in 2009, a distinction that sent food lovers from across the country on a pilgrimage to Donaghey Avenue.
American Idol winner Kris Allen, a Conway native himself, put Stoby’s famous homemade yellow cheese dip on the national map when he publicly declared it his all-time favorite food — a moment that turned an already beloved local staple into a legendary Arkansas dining destination. 🌟
David eventually found his perfect partner in Patti, who not only became his wife but became the co-heartbeat of the restaurant — personally keeping the doors open after a devastating fire threatened to end Stoby’s forever.
From the ashes, Stoby’s was rebuilt bigger, stronger, and more beloved than ever — with Patti’s own bakery, PattiCakes, operating right next door and supplying fresh-baked croissants, cakes, and pastries to the restaurant every single morning. 🥐
For anyone searching for the best breakfast in Conway, AR, this is the place that has been answering that question for over four decades.
Food Highlights 🍳
- Eggs Benedict: A perennial customer favorite and one of the most-ordered items on the breakfast menu — two poached eggs and grilled ham on a toasted English muffin, blanketed in scratch-made Hollandaise sauce and served with your choice of side. 🍳
- Breakfast Burrito: A satisfying handheld breakfast in the Conway breakfast scene — hearty, loaded morning wrap built inside a garlic-herb flour tortilla stuffed with bacon, diced ham, country sausage, scrambled eggs, and hash browns — finished with a cheese blend and served with picante sauce. 🌯
- Breakfast Biscuit: A Conway comfort staple — a fluffy scratch-made biscuit loaded with scrambled egg, American cheese, and your choice of bacon or sausage patty. 🧈
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The Southerner: A nod to true Southern breakfast tradition — a salt-cured country ham steak paired with two eggs any style, served alongside your choice of scratch-made bread and a morning side. 🍽️
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Stoby’s Breakfast Pita: A clever, satisfying twist on a breakfast sandwich — pita bread stuffed with a large fried egg and two sausage patties, served with a side of scratch-made sausage gravy and your choice of side. 🫓
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Croissant Breakfast Sandwich: Built on a fresh-baked PattiCakes croissant delivered daily from next door — thinly sliced grilled Virginia ham or smoked turkey, American cheese, and a hard fried egg. 🥐
- The Stoby Breakfast: The definitive morning plate — three slices of thick-cut bacon, two sausage patties or four sausage links, and two eggs any style, served with your choice of scratch-made biscuit, toast, or English muffin and a side of golden hash browns, grits, or oatmeal. 🥓
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Homemade Yellow Cheese Dip: Technically a starter — but no Stoby’s article would be complete without it. 🧀
Atmosphere
Stoby’s wears its history proudly — from the original loan banknote from David’s brothers still displayed on the restaurant’s history wall, to Mrs. Smith’s old steel pie-crust table still sitting in the PattiCakes bakery next door. 📜
The dining room is warm, unpretentious, and full of the kind of lived-in character that only 40-plus years of community dining can create — booths filled with regulars, servers who know your order, and a pace that encourages you to slow down and actually enjoy your morning.
It’s the kind of place where first-time visitors feel like regulars by the time they leave — and where regulars feel like family every single time they come back. ❤️
Bottom Line
Five reasons Stoby’s belongs on every Arkansas food lover’s list: scratch-made everything — from Hollandaise to biscuits to sausage gravy; a legendary cheese dip with genuine national fame; fresh-baked PattiCakes pastries delivered daily from next door; and a 40-year community legacy that survived fire and came back stronger. 🍳☕
Address:
805 Donaghey Ave, Conway, AR 72034
📞 (501) 327-3990
🕔 Open Mon–Sat, 7 AM–2 PM | Sun, 8 AM–2 PM