LINCOLN -- Katrina Asher is celebrating her second year owning the popular American Drive-In restaurant in Lincoln.

She follows Mike Walters, who owned it for 40 years. Walters retired and moved to Grove, Okla.

Asher worked for Walters off and on for 10 years and when he indicated he was going to sell the restaurant, Asher said she told him she wanted first option to buy.

"It just ended up being something I was very interested in doing," Asher said. "I knew what I was getting in to. I knew what Mike had to do."

She kept Walters' menu for the restaurant and has added lunch specials. Popular items tend to be chili dogs, open face ribeye sandwiches and catfish on Fridays.

The restaurant on West Pridemore Drive is open seven days a week: 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday; noon-9 p.m. Sunday.

"I'm here a lot," Asher laughs.

The American Drive-In has been able to stay open so long because of its food, customer service and regular customers, Asher said.

"We get a lot of people from Lincoln but I have some guys from Joplin who come every other weekend."

She said the restaurant draws customers from all over Northwest Arkansas and into Oklahoma.

Asher said she has enjoyed being her own boss. Her favorite part of owning the restaurant, she said, is seeing people from the community.

In a recent telephone interview, Walters said he was the fourth owner of the restaurant. It opened in 1958 as Beals Dairy Diner and was owned by Bob and Lucille Beal.

"It's still going," Walters said, adding, "It probably is one of the oldest ones still going in Northwest Arkansas."

Walters said he believes the restaurant has stayed around so long because it has stayed the same.

"I never changed anything, except for new equipment," Walters said. "It's been the same. I made sure the food was always good and good quality. That's because I ate there myself."

Walters said he continued to own the restaurant because it made a good living for him and his family.

"That's not to say we didn't have some rough years but we managed to survive. I had a lot of wonderful customers who kept supporting me and that's how we made it. Lincoln was a good town to live in for those 40 years," Walters said.