TRANSITIONS

LITTLE ROCK — The Joint, 301 Main St., North Little Rock, next door to Cregeen’s Pub in the Argenta District, which had been scheduled to be open about now, now has a May 14 target opening date, says managing director Vicki Farrell. However, the website, thejointinlittlerock.com, is up and running. We’ll keep you posted.

Gina Wu, late of Gina’s Sushi, and husband Eugene Cheah have gone into the catering business since their Cantrell Road restaurant closed. “We’re doing catering, let us know if you need sushi, Japanese food or anything,” Wu says on her Facebook page; that includes home and wedding parties (they’ll even supply a bartender), and “we provide chef’s [making] sushi at your party too.” The phone numbers: (501) 353-5542 (Wu) or (501) 353-9642 (Cheah).

And speaking of catering, the folks who brought you Daddy’s Deli, 7805 Kampground Way, North Little Rock, have opened a catering company out of the same building, to which they moved last year. Events! Catering has been up and running for about a month, and got its website, eventscatering.us, going last week. Owner Marie Watson says the business has always done a large volume of corporate catering and they’ve fairly recently also gotten into weddings. The phone number is (501) 225-0665.

And it’s not quite catering, but chef Paul Novicky, formerly of Spaule and Nu, is expanding his Dinners to Go program, which he operates out of the kitchens of his current employer, The Anthony School, 7700 Ohio St., Little Rock. He’s offering single-portion gourmet dinners Tuesday-Thursday in specially designed microwaveable, reusable containers for $5. Tuesday’s menu, for example, offered seared shrimp with a sweet curry/garlic jasmine rice and a mango/mint salsa; a roasted eggplant/green curry soup; and, as the “kid option,” three meatball/pepperoni sliders with marinara and mozzarella cheese and a balsamic pasta salad. Subscribe by e-mailing Novicky at paulcooks@culinary-consultants.com with your name and the phone number from which you’ll be texting orders; once you’re on the list, send your order via text to (501) 519-3078.

Here’s what we know about the status of Feastros, in the Jacksonville Crossing Shopping Center, Suite L, 2126 N. First St., Jacksonville:

Yes, the restaurant has closed. The telephone number, (501) 983-4539, has not yet been disconnected, but impersonally routes all calls to a voice mailbox.

Co-owner/general manager Mark Spaight, in a sign on the door and a posting on the restaurant’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/arkansasonline#!/pages/Feastros/166782473378871), thanked customers for 15 years of loyalty, but explained that the place was forced to close because it was in violation of a “Covenant Not to Compete” that he supposedly signed when the restaurant moved to Jacksonville, which it did a little less than a year ago from Kiehl Avenue in Sherwood.

With what was Spaight supposedly improperly competing? The First Street Cafe, which opened shortly before he did in the same shopping center. Things flared up as early as last fall, at which, in an October Facebook posting, Spaight expressed considerable dismay: “I was just delivered certified mail in regards to what we can and cannot serve between the hours of 11 and 2. We can no longer serve ... macaroni and cheese, [mashed] potatoes and gravy, baked beans, fried okra, corn on the cob, blackened chicken pasta and chopped steak.”

And things apparently got worse from there. According to this April 17 posting, “Last week I received some disturbing information stating that Feastros was in violation of the No Compete Clause and must vacate the premises effective immediately. As of tomorrow, April 18, Feastros will be closed.”

Spaight says he originally agreed to open only from 3-9 p.m. to avoid directly competing with the other restaurant, which was open 6 a.m.-2 p.m., but because he was the only tenant in that shopping center open at night and wasn’t doing any business, he renegotiated his contract to allow him to open for lunch, agreeing to some restrictions on what he could serve.

“They gave me a specific menu, pretty much barbecue and fish, which was no problem, because that’s traditionally what we’ve done anyway,” he explains. He would also have to get the other restaurant’s permission to make menu changes, which mostly involved the limited number of vegetables he was allowed to put out on his buffet bar.

He says on Friday, April 13, however, his lawyer got a letter from his landlord’s lawyer informing him that he had violated his contract and insisting he had to close, without specifying the nature of the violation, and not granting him any grace time to work out whatever the unspecified issues might be.

C.J. Cropper of real estate management firm Marcus & Millichap, the leasing agent for the shopping center, did not return telephone messages by deadline. We’ll keep you posted if we turn up any additional details.

The Argenta Arts Foundation and the Argenta Downtown Council will offer up their third annual “Celebrate the Grape, Wine, Dine and Jazz,” a fundraiser for the foundation, 5:30-8 p.m. May 3 under a tent on the lot at 600 Main St. (the site of the weekly Argenta Farmers Market), in North Little Rock. Patrons can sample more than 150 wines, consume hors d’oeuvres by Reno’s Argenta Cafe and listen to jazz from Rodney Block and the Real Music Lovers. Local artists’ works will be on display and available for purchase. Tickets are $50. Call (501) 993-1234 or visit celebratethegrape2012-autohome.eventbrite.com.

Richardson, Texas-based wing-and-fries franchise operation Wingstop is test-marketing an extended line of “seasoned” and “loaded” fries in 21 “select” restaurants (out of its 500-plus outlets), including the three central Arkansas locations — 2913 Lakewood Village Drive, North Little Rock, (501) 791-1900; 11321 W. Markham St., Little Rock, (501) 224-3223; and 2730 Prince St., Conway, (501) 329-1919. Seasoned fries are available in two new flavors: lemon pepper and Cajun. The loaded fries are available in hot cheddar and jalapeno; hot cheddar, green onions, bacon and sour cream; and garlic parmesan (“sauced and tossed in Wingstop’s proprietary garlic parmesan mixture”). Restaurant hours are 11 a.m. to midnight daily. Check out the details at Wingstop. com.

And in our mea culpa department, last week we crossed up the name of one of the partners in RJ Tao Restaurant & Ultra Lounge, set to open sometime in May in the Shops in the Heights, 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock. The “J” in RJ is, in fact, a son of restaurant mogul-ette Lulu Chi, but it’s actually Chi’s son Jacob.

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, 121 E. Capitol Ave., Little Rock, Ark. 72201. Send e-mail to:

eharrison@arkansasonline.com