TRANSITIONS

Old Mill Bread Bakery & Cafe, in the Rock Creek Square shopping center, 12111 W. Markham St. at Bowman Road, Little Rock, is now open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays, offering a “Sunday Fiesta Brunch Casserole” package - a sausage-andegg casserole “with a little zing,” according to co-owner Jeanie Berna, plus “fresh fruit and a big slice of the day’s sweet bread.” Also available: breakfast sandwiches and the cafe’s regular sandwich, soup and salad menu. The rest of the operating hours: 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday. The phone number: (501) 228-4677; visit oldmillbread.com.

Little Rock’s only

TCBY

store, 11418 W. Markham St., will have its post-renovation “grand re-opening” at 1 p.m. Friday. The make-over includes new floor, ceiling, air conditioning units, roof, countertops, interior and exterior paint and three more yogurt-making machines (for a total of five). Founder Frank D. Hickingbotham, who now lives out of state, will honor friend and longtime TCBY franchise owner Don Weir. Hours are 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. The phone number is (501) 221-9020.

TCBY started out 29 years ago as a single small frozen yogurt store in Little Rock and grew into the world’s largest frozen yogurt chain with more than 3,000 locations in 70 countries before Hickingbotham sold it in 2000 to an investment group that also controls Mrs. Fields Holdings. Arkansas’ other remaining TCBY outlets are inNorth Little Rock, Conway, Jonesboro and Harrison. Weir holds the franchise for the one in Harrison as well as stores in Branson and Sarasota, Fla.

Central Arkansas Fermenters, representing the area’s professional and amateur makers of beer, will hold their eighth annual

LittleRocktoberfest, 6-10 p.m. Saturday at Dickey-Stephens Park, where the Broadways meet in North Little Rock, featuring central Arkansas’ best commercial (New Belgium, Vino’s, Diamond Bear, Boulevard, Boscos) and home brews, bratwurst and music. You must be 21 to enter. The $25 cost includes a bratwurst dinner, beer samples and a raffle ticket (win a New Belgium Fat Tire bicycle, plus other door prizes). Call (501) 758-6261 or visit littlerocktober fest.org.

The website for Kansas City-based

Blanc Burgers and Bottles

- blancburgers.com - still lists “coming fall 2010” for a planned Little Rock outlet at the Promenade at Chenal, 17809 Chenal Parkway (as well as a planned location in Omaha, Neb.), along with existing sites in Kansas City and Mission Farms, Kan. The menu lists several beef gourmet burgers on varieties of brioche buns, including American Kobe, Classic, Au Poivre and $100 burgers; Barnyard and Bison burgers; meatloaf, turkey, mahi mahi, lentil, portabello and pork “burgers”; and a surfand-turf combo (American Kobe burger and grilled lobster tail). The “Bottles” don’t contain alcoholic beverages - the menu has more than 30 flavors of bottled soda. Management had not returned our phone calls by deadline.

We’llkeep you posted.

North Little Rock’s first stand-alone

Chick-fil-A

restaurant, 4330 E. McCain Blvd., opened last week in the usual fashion, giving away certificates for a free year’s supply of Chick-fil-A food products to the first 100 adults (18 and over), who had camped out in line for several hours.

And speaking of North Little Rock fast-food outlets, this update on our report last week about the

Burger King

in the 4200 block of Camp Robinson Road: Yes, the sign out front reads closed for remodeling, but in fact the building has been leveled and there’s nothing there anymore. “Man,” says the colleague who first noticed the closure, “that’s a helluva remodel plan.”

On the same boulevard,

Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, 4716 Camp Robinson, lasted only about six months. Yes, it has closed, and the phonenumber, (501) 753-1997, has been disconnected.

Also an update on the Starlite Diner, 250 E. Military Drive, North Little Rock: Owner Timothy Rogers reports he has everything in place - construction, staff, etc. - except his Health Department inspection, his state tax certificate and his telephone number. Target opening date is on or about Oct. 18, all other things being equal.

For those many of you who have been seeking updates on

The Box, formerly at 17th and Main streets in Little Rock, supposedly moving to Seventh and Ringo streets, there’s still no obvious activity afoot. (We trundle by once a week or so and peer in the windows.) And there is still no active phone number.

Soft-pretzel chain

Auntie

Anne’s, which has outlets in malls in Little Rock, Fort Smith, Jonesboro and Rogers, is offering bite-size pretzel pieces in Original and Cinnamon Sugar through Nov. 7. The nuggets come in a 16-ounce paper cup, which holds roughly 25 percent more product than constitutes their standard pretzel. Check out the website, auntieannes.com.

And in our “mea sort-of culpa” department, reader Amanda Ferrell calls us on our reference in last week’s

Lulav

review to chorizo as a “Spanish spice.” It is, she says, “a Spanish sausage made of pork with lots of paprika and garlic. Mexicans also make chorizo, although it seems to have some cumin/chili powder in it, and much less paprika than Spanish chorizo.” We stand corrected. However, theword “chorizo” is sometimes used to refer to the spice mix that gives the Mexican sausage its flavor.

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? 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:

eharrison@arkansasonline.com

Weekend, Pages 40 on 09/30/2010

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