With the blessing of Bodacious\u2019 founder in Longview, Ruegsegger helped launch the Arlington location in 1991.<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Long before Arlington had cowboys, it had cows.<\/p>\n
Sliced, chopped, however you like it, you can get it at Bodacious Barbecue.<\/p>\n
After 34 years the restaurant will close next week, as soon as it runs out of food.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really has been a blessing,\u201d said Bodacious owner Fran Ruegsegger. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing negative about this at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the blessing of Bodacious\u2019 founder in Longview, Ruegsegger helped launch the Arlington location in 1991.<\/p>\n
It was a welcome treat, long before Texas\u2019 craft barbecue movement heated up.<\/p>\n
When Ruegsegger opened Bodacious 34 years ago, there was nothing like it in the area and what she quickly learned was that customers were hungry. Not for barbecue, but for connection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is home for a lot of our customers,\u201d said Bodacious employee Flora Perez.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis place is just like home,\u201d said Dyllan Ary, another Bodacious employee.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou become one whole family when you come here,\u201d said employee Mary Richards.<\/p>\n
Employees say, over the years, they\u2019ve grown close with their customers, but nobody knew how close until recently.<\/p>\n
Since Ruegsegger announced her lease wasn\u2019t being renewed, customers have come from as far as Colorado and Seattle to eat at Bodacious one more time.<\/p>\n
In Texas, good barbecue can be found on every corner, so why go to such great lengths?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s more comforting,\u201d said customer Tim Peach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s family,\u201d said Tyler Vasquez, a regular for about six years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is like coming and visiting family,\u201d said longtime diner Peter Graves.<\/p>\n
Customers say Ruegsegger is irreplaceable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat means a lot because they are as dear to me as I am to them,\u201d Ruegsegger said.<\/p>\n
Ruegsegger says she\u2019ll miss them all, but her hope is that after serving thousands her customers can serve even more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want them to feel loved and appreciated and want to go out into the world and show that to other people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Great food fills your stomach, but great company feeds the soul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the blessing of Bodacious\u2019 founder in Longview, Ruegsegger helped launch the Arlington location in 1991. ARLINGTON, Texas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-3158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}