The Spudder Restaurant

The Spudder was opened on this site by the original owners John Phillips and John Brenamen in 1976 and has been in continuous operation since. The restaurants namesake, “The Spudder” sits outside. A Spudder is a cable tool rig made for “drilling shallow wells. Today, spudding a well refers to starting the hole in the ground so that a rotary drill can be placed to bore the well to depth. Prior to the invention of the rotary drill there was only the cable tool rig. Our Spudder was made in Wichita Falls Texas in the 1920’s. It works to “drill” a hole by dropping a cylindrical weight on the end of a cable to break the rock in the ground. As the hole becomes filled with broken rock the spudder was refitted with a pipe to bail the broken material out of the hole.

Featured on Season 4 of Man vs. Food!