Imagine taking the family recipes from the dishes you loved as a child and serving them from your very own food truck. That’s what Dr. Danny Silver, a pain management specialist, has done, much to the delight of his growing fanbase.
The food truck, Silver’s North Carolina BBQ and Catering, now sits at the Bakery District in downtown Fort Smith, Arkansas, and came about after years of Dr. Silver’s friends asking him to share his cooking with a broader audience. He opened in July 2024, in part because he has a nearly 100-acre working farm in Mulberry that could supply many of the ingredients needed for his recipes.
Dr. Silver, a strikingly young sixty-one-year-old, sits at a table near his truck. His hair is dark, his eyes darker, and he carries himself with a kind authority that puts those around him at ease.
When he describes his food, he comments on the specifics of North Carolina barbeque, which is different from the sweeter fare you might be used to. The flavor is complex, layered, and delicious.
“Our signature dish is the barbeque sandwich ‘All the Way,’ pulled or chopped pork seasoned with Silver’s Sauce, a vinegar-based cayenne pepper sauce from my father’s recipe,” Dr. Silver says, adding that he alone makes the sauce for his food business, ensuring the family recipe stays in the family.
“We also serve grilled chicken, grass-fed Angus smash burgers from my Mulberry farm, brisket, ribs, and sides like coleslaw, potato salad, hush puppies, and fries. Favorites include Brunswick Stew made with farm vegetables and ‘potlikker.’” (Potlikker is the liquid from either greens or beans that have been slowly simmered.) “Sweet potatoes, and Apple Jacks, both inspired by my great-grandmother. Indian Fry Bread is served on special occasions.”
Apple Jacks resemble half-moon fried pies, with flaky, buttery crusts, and filled with thinly sliced apples seasoned with vanilla and fresh ginger from North Carolina. He also sells quail eggs and bone broth. It’s certainly an impressive, eclectic menu, developed from a place of love.
“I grew up in Hollister, North Carolina, and I’m a proud member of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe,” Dr. Silver said. “Both of my parents, Nelson and Lue Jean, are also Haliwa-Saponi. The name ‘Haliwa’ comes from Halifax and Warren counties, where our ancestral lands are located.
“I was raised in a multigenerational home with my parents, older brother Michael, younger sister Marcie, and our great-grandmother Mary. Grandma Mary taught me how to be self-sustaining, imparting lessons in gardening, caring for farm animals (including chickens, rabbits, pigeons, and hogs), and cooking. I loved working in the garden, from preparing the soil and planting seeds to harvesting and canning our vegetables.”
He was surrounded by innovative thinkers, stewards of the land, and attention to the old ways. “I remember being a tiny little thing, barely able to see over the edge of our well, watching containers of milk being lowered into the deep water to keep it cool.”
While growing up, Dr. Silver learned to speak the Haliwa-Saponi language. He was taught to make pottery and beadwork, although not nearly as well as his mother. She is a seamstress, potter, and jewelry maker of the finest order.
When it came time to learn the intricacies of barbeque, Dr. Silver turned to his dad. “My father taught me how to cook over direct heat with oak and hickory: chicken, pork shoulders, and whole hogs.
“Barbeque was always a social event in our home. My dad would cook a whole hog for twelve to eighteen hours while family gathered to eat, sing, play games, and attend Pow Wows. I also loved watching my mom cook and host with such excitement and pride.”
His father invented a metal wood box lined with rebar. When shaken, it released uniform pieces of coal from the wood he’d burned, another must for great barbeque. Dr. Silver copied his design when he opened his food truck.
“Even now, when I smell wood smoke, it takes me back to my childhood,” he says, his voice wistful.
In Dr. Silver’s early years, he developed an interest in music, taking piano lessons and playing for the congregation of Mt. Bethel Baptist Indian Church. Medicine also appealed to him. His first patients were his family’s farm animals. Once, believing he could cure an ailing chicken, he boiled and cooled a medicinal root he’d foraged, confiscated one of his uncle’s insulin needles, and tried to treat the bird. When the chicken rallied, Dr. Silver moved on to other, wobbly farm animals who appeared to need splints.
In his junior year of high school, he attended a health science fair sponsored by UNC Chapel Hill. “That event confirmed my desire to pursue medicine.”
The following year, Dr. Silver was named the valedictorian of his graduating class at Northwest High School and headed to Chapel Hill to study medical technology. It was the first time he’d resided outside his tribal culture. It was during those undergrad years that he began cooking barbeque for his friends.
He completed his training at UNC School of Medicine and has worked in this area for twenty years. His main residence is in Fort Smith, but he spends much of his time at his farm that sits along the Little Mulberry. While going through the property’s old barn, he found newspapers from 1914, and on the surrounding land, he found arrowheads. He’s in the process of converting the barn for weddings, concerts, and other group events. One day, he’ll add five guest cabins and a restaurant.
The farm he loves and hopes to share with others also holds secrets. “A few years ago, my office manager researched the land and found that the lowest part of the Mulberry runs through it. That was part of the Trail of Tears. They’d cross there and camp.”
Today, Dr. Silver is renewing the land where so much sorrow lay. “Animals include black Angus cattle (now crossbred with registered Brahman for Brangus beef), registered heirloom Hereford hogs, quail, Brahma chickens, and endangered Bourbon Red turkeys, which I hatch and give away to help repopulate the breed. I also grow vegetables and herbs for barbeque sauce, including tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and collard greens. We bale hay and plant only what we need to support the food truck menu.”
At night on the farm, Dr. Silver watches the stars. There are few lights, no big cities nearby, nothing to keep him from resting beneath the celestial ceiling. He thinks of his family in North Carolina – of his ninety-four-year-old aunt Verty, who lives alone and cooks for days on end to prepare for upcoming Pow Wows. He thinks of his eighty-four-year-old mother, Lue Jean, who teaches Sunday school. He recalls being ten years old, with a father who wasn’t a churchgoer. But Dr. Silver and his older brother were being baptized, so their father decided to go under the water with them.
He calls it an honor to have been reared by such fine people. And then Dr. Silver says, “I know where my strength comes from.” And now, so do you.
Silver’s North Carolina BBQ and Catering is open Wednesday through Saturday in the Bakery District in downtown Fort Smith. To learn more, visit silversbbq.com.
