LITTLE ROCK — The west Little Rock Five Guys Burgers and Fries opened Monday in a brand-new strip center at 13000 Chenal Parkway (just west of Cold Stone Creamery and Target). It will have the same hours as its North Little Rock sibling - 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily - and a patio that the North Little Rock outlet doesn’t. The telephone number is (501) 225-1100.
A new Mexican-American restaurant also opened Monday in the basement of the Federal Building, Capitol Avenue and Broadway. El Nopal, which owner Olivia Lira says means “The Cactus,” replaces the Capitol Cafe. Lira says the menu will include Mexican dishes and American staples such as meatloaf. Hours are 6:30-10:30 a.m. for breakfast and 11 a.m.-2 p.m. for lunch Monday-Friday. The telephone number is (501) 372-9999.
When he opened Maddie’s Place, 1615 Rebsamen Park Road, Little Rock, a year and a half ago, Chef Brian Deloney promised that he would eventually expand the then-limited menu. Well, now he has, with a much wider range of appetizers (House Smoked Salmon Dip With Grilled Pita Bread, Spicy Boiled Shrimp With Homemade Cocktail Sauce, Lump Crab Cakes With Chile Lime Butter Sauce and Cilantro Crema), poor-boy sandwiches (“on Leidenheimer French bread and dressed with remoulade or mayonnaise, shaved lettuce and tomato,” adding Ham N Cheese, spicy chicken, pulled pork and blue cheese coleslaw) and entrees (spicy shrimp boil with andouille, corn and potatoes; Mississippi catfish with slow-cooked greens, black-eyed peas and Creole tomato glaze; fish tacos with cilantro lime slaw, chipotle aioli and fresh tomato relish; panned pork loin with corn bread pudding, smothered green beans and homemade Worcestershire). Hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. The telephone number is (501) 660-4040; the website is maddiesplacelr.com.
And speaking of expanded menus, Mark Abernathy, just back from 24 days in Italy “where I spent time with Italian chefs in Rome and Tuscany and stayed several days in the 100-year-old Cavazzone Balsamery in Reggio Emilia outside Parma,” is introducing several new Italian-inspired dishes as specials at his Loca Luna, 3519 Old Cantrell Road, and/or Red Door next-door, including roasted beet salad with goat cheese and toasted walnuts; spinach ricotta ravioli with sage brown butter; pan-seared sea bass with lemon vanilla butter and fingerling pan potatoes; grilled whole boneless quail with spicy balsamic glaze; grilled lamb loin chops with chianti-porcini reduction; and strawberries with toastedamaretto pound cake and citrus cream. Phone number for Loca Luna is (501) 663-4666; for Red Door, (501) 666-8482.
And less than a month after it opened, Bravo! Cucina Italiana, in the Promenade at Chenal shopping center, 17815 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock, is already adding 11 new menu items, including Antipasti Chopped Salad (“traditional Italian meats, cheeses, olives and pickled vegetables, tossed with red onions, garbanzo beans, escarole and red-wine vinaigrette”), Mahi Mahi Rustica, Rigatoni Melanzana (pasta with roasted eggplant, fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella topped with fresh basil and shredded Parmigiano Reggiano) and Spaghettini Carbonara (tossed with Parmigiano Reggiano, pancetta, asparagus, egg yolk and black pepper). The telephone number is (501) 821-2486 and the website is BravoItalian.com.
La Bella Luna has opened up at 915 Front St., Conway, in the space formerly occupied Pia’s Italian Restaurant (formerly Pia’s Ristorante Italiano). The cuisine is predominantly Italian; in fact, it’s the resurfacing, and the return to Conway, of Bruno Beqiri, whom central Arkansas restaurant aficionados will remember from Conway’s and Little Rock’s Amore, Little Rock’s Mona Lisa and DaVinci’s and, howsoever briefly, of Hot Springs’Due Amiche and Mama Teresa’s. Hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. The telephone number is (501) 205-0888.
Has a restaurant opened - or closed - near you in the last week or so? Does your favorite eatery have a new menu? Is there a new chef in charge? Drop us a line. Call (501) 399-3667 or (501) 378-3513, or send a note to Restaurants, Weekend Section,Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203. Send e-mail to:
Weekend, Pages 38 on 06/24/2010