Arkansas businesses trying to beat the heat and keep their doors open

SHERWOOD, Ark. – Some of you may have been scrolling social media the past couple of days and noticed restaurants closing their doors due to the extreme heat outside.

For one business in Sherwood, this was a reality for them last year, and this year they are doing everything they can to avoid it.

Ice piled to the rim, and the hum of the fans fill the space during the hustle and bustle of Sunday brunch.

All things to prevent having to close the doors of Bennett’s Casual Dining in Sherwood.

"You dread it, you know it's coming and you think you're mentally prepared for it and you're not and it seems like it's getting hotter and hotter," owner of Bennett’s Casual Dining, Darin Keith said.

Darin Keith is the owner of Bennett’s and he said when Arkansas starts to see these types of temperatures, they have to take extra measures to keep doors open.

"It’s been difficult. You do the best you can, you bring in fans, we have spent a lot of money on AC and sometimes unfortunately it still isn't doing it," Keith said.

Multiple fans are placed all over the dining area to keep customers cool, and they had to go buy bags of ice because the machine can’t keep up with the weather.

This is all to avoid a true reality they faced last year where they had to close during the summer due to the heat, making a huge economic impact on a homegrown business and the people that work there.

"I think a total of last summer, all combined we had to shut down three weeks and so we went into this summer not wanting to do that again," Keith stated.

Regardless of the temperatures, Darin said they will do whatever it takes to beat the heat.

"Make lemonade out of lemons as they say and that's what we are trying to do," Keith said.

Darin said he drove to Mississippi on Friday to get a new AC unit installed so that they would have it for next week because there are still a couple of weeks left of Arkan-sauna.

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