Tamaroa Restaurant Ready to Serve Hunters

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Outdoorsman's BBQ & Family Restaurant salutes the American farmer and offers a 10 percent discount for all veterans every day. On Friday, the new eatery is opening at 4 a.m. to service local hunters.

The house specialty is biscuits and gravy, made from an old family recipe. The recipe earned the restaurant owner a "field promotion" while he served in the army. An officer got a taste of his grandmother's biscuits and gravy then sought him out. He was moved from the kitchen for enlisted men to the kitchen that served officers.

The owners, Robin and Mary Hood, said that the salute to the American farmer is meant to honor John and Helen Carruthers, Mary Hood's late parents.

Robin said he cooked for his in-laws for 15 years, often hearing them say "you should have your own restaurant."

Their financial assistance made it possible to open Outdoorsman's BBQ. Robin and Mary have over 60 years combined cooking experience.

He designed the restaurant's sign himself, putting overalls on the pig as a tribute to his father-in-law, who always wore them.

Mary said she has worked in food service most of her life, managing, cooking and even waiting tables.

Robin began working in a restaurant at age 16 and over the years has worked in several other professions, but always returned to cooking. "I love doing it. It's not just a job," he said. "My two main seasonings are Mrs. Dash and love."

He prefers Mrs. Dash because it has no salt or MSG. Hood, who does all the cooking, said he is currently working on his own "wonder dust" for the smoked meats.

The menu features good old-fashioned home cooking and the decor of the restaurant reflects Hoods' love of the outdoors.

"I'm a bass fisherman," he said. "My son and I are getting into bow hunting together," he added.

Obviously, Hood's name would lend itself to a Sherwood Forest-themed name for the restaurant. Particularly when you add in his wife Mary and their son, John, 14. Hood said he had nine brothers, all married. People often called them Robin Hood and his married men.

But after a lifetime of the jokes, he chose to go his own way.

His first bows and arrows do hang on the walls of the Outdoorsman's BBQ & Family Restaurant.