Cheers at the OPO Puts the Old Post Office in Business Again

A patron walks in to the newly opened Cheers at the OPO April 5 in Fayetteville. Photo by Natalie Demaree.

The richly historic Old Post Office building, located in the center of the Fayetteville Downtown Square, is open once again with a new restaurant. 

Cheers at the OPO officially opened its doors to the public April 5.

This family-owned restaurant is open for dinner and drinks and has a menu that includes steaks, seafood, burgers, sandwiches, salads, soups, vegetarian dishes and more, according to Cheers’ online menu. 

“We wanted to revive this building and bring more life to the square,” said Jane Arnold, co-owner of Cheers. 

The Arnolds created their menu around the idea of having different people groups from the community gather at their restaurant, Curtis Arnold, co-owner of Cheers, said.

“Our idea behind it was to be affordable for everyone where you can have steak and scallops or you can have a club sandwich or salad. We’ve covered a lot of bases on the menu,” Curtis said. 

Curtis also wanted to make the restaurant affordable to college students on a budget, he said. 

“It’s nice where you can have a really nice meal and date night, or you can come in with your buddies and have a drink and eat a $10 burger,” Curtis said. 

The restaurant features a wood-fire grill, Jane said. This mesquite wood grill is important to the restaurant because of the unique flavor it brings out  in the food that cannot be replicated on a flat top grill. They mostly use the wood fire grill to cook fish and steak. 

“The mesquite wood just brings out a different flavor that you can’t find at a lot of places,” Curtis said. 

The Arnolds are originally from Little Rock. Curtis and his siblings went to the UofA, and Curtis has been living in Fayetteville for a few years. 

Cheers at the OPO is affiliated and involved with Cheers in the Heights in Little Rock, so we share a lot of the same menu items, Jane said. 

Cheers in the Heights is a restaurant is an American restaurant with catering and private dining.

“We’re excited to bring their product and all of that to Fayetteville. I know there’s a lot of people in Little Rock that have eaten there,” Curtis said. 

They have been very pleased with the response from the community so far, Curtis said. 

Jane thinks that a lot of this positive response is because of the significance of the building to many community members, she said.

“So many people in Fayetteville have so many connections to this building, and it just hasn’t been really anything,” Jane said. “This restaurant is welcoming enough for the whole community.”

In the next few months, they hope to add brunch items to the menu and open up the patio, Curtis said. 

The Old Post Office building is a symbol of the city of Fayetteville, Jane said. With a new restaurant, this iconic building is open once again for everyone to experience. For reservations and more information about this restaurant, patrons can visit the Cheers at the OPO website.