About the Butter Bar
For more than two decades, The Little Art has been serving a one-of-a-kind pastry which fans know as the Butter Bar, a blonde brownie of sorts with chocolate chips. The history of the Butter Bar is a bittersweet one.
Its actual full name is a Beyer Butter Bar, referring to Scott Beyer, a local young entrepreneur, who, in the mid-70s, supplemented his income with this secret family recipe as had his father before him. Although Scott also baked wonderful breads and cookies, which he sold to local restaurants and residents, the Butter Bar was an exclusive offer found only at the Little Art. Aside from the traditional Chocolate Chip Butter Bar, Scott also baked an Oatmeal Raisin and a Carob Butter Bar which were also popular, but not so much as the beloved original chocolate chip Butter Bar.
Scott tired of his baking business after a few years but agreed to continue baking Butter Bars for the theatre. Eventually this labor of love expended itself, but only after Scott had kept us satiated for seven years! When his interest in baking waned, we asked him for the coveted recipe. At first, he resisted giving the secret instructions to us. Then, unexpectedly, on August 1, 1988, Scott showed up at the theatre and handed us the secret recipe for the Butter Bars, with his blessing. We will never know why Scott made that decision when he did, but it was a fateful one.
In the meantime, known for his high-level of enthusiasm for outdoor sports, Scott had begun another business. He was an expert hang-glider pilot and instructor who also taught rock-climbing, white-water kayaking and skydiving. One of Scott's dreams was to provide physically challenged individuals the thrill of an outdoor adventure sport. With this in mind, Scott became one of the first, if not the first, tandem rated hang glider pilot in the state of Ohio. With his tandem glider Scott provided individuals physically incapable of experiencing such a thrilling sport the chance to soar.
On August 11, 1988, just ten days after he gave us the Butter Bar recipe, Scott was killed in a freak accident when the tow-rope used to launch his glider got tangled with the aircraft causing it to nose-dive out-of-control at 300 feet. Both Scott and Springfield News-Sun reporter Nick Adams were killed instantly. Scott was 36 and left behind a daughter.
We have Scott's kindness and generosity to thank for leaving us this legacy. He would be amused to know that as delicious as they are, they have never been quite as heavenly as when he made them for us.