LITTLE ROCK — When considering dining downtown, we think of the River Market District, natch.
But Natchez, located in the Tower Building at Fourth and Center streets is (like the reincarnation of The Packet House restaurant on Cantrell Road) helping to broaden the boundaries of downtown’s foodosphere.
Chef/owner Alexis Jones, a Mississippi native who has worked at Ashley’s at the Capital Hotel, opened the promising “reinvented Southern cuisine” restaurant last month in the space that once held Your Mama’s Good Food (by comparison, “vintage Southern cuisine”). Her eclectic fare, prepared with French and Mediterranean influences and local ingredients, is classy, served in a casual setting with an open kitchen, honeycomb tile floor-ing, framed posters and black tables with white rooster and fleur de lis designs.
The restaurant reinvents itself often, modifying its lunch menu daily and changing its Thursday through Saturday dinner menu every two weeks based on what’s available. So, don’t get your palate set on anything we’re about to describe; the offerings are already different.
And don’t try to go this week. Or next week. The restaurant is closed for the holidays and will reopen Jan. 8 for lunch and Jan. 10 for dinner.
Prices are moderate to expensive. The five dinner entrees on the most current website menu were $16 (for a vegetarian fettuccine) to $23 (for a braised rib steak). Expect lunch options to range from $6 (for soup) to $10 (pot au feu braised veal shank).
In three visits, we could find no significant complaint with the food. Only that we greedily craved more of it. Portions here, though not paltry, are by no means large. The servings are more European than Southern.
At least with entrees. Some of the starters could have been main courses.
A coconut chicken curry salad ($10), featured enough lightly dressed greens andsubtly spiced chicken accented with coconut (and pecans - which the menu didn’t mention) to make a light meal. Especially if there had been bread.
(OK, there, we did have one complaint - the restaurant doesn’t regularly serve bread. And on one visit where there was a very lengthy wait for food, that would have gone a long way to ease the hungries. And the crankies. The table next to us, close enough for eavesdropping, had a case of them.)
Another starter, an $8 robust bison chili with moistcornbread (so they do serve bread, but only when specified), $8, was quite hearty. Great, but perhaps too heavy for an appetizer.
Other starters we wanted much more of, like Jones’ excellent gnocchi ($10) we had two ways (one described as “gnocchi, crab, ricotta, truffle,” the other classified as “gnocchi, bolongnese, ricotta, fried egg” - menu names are more like an ingredients list). Twice we shared. And twice we squabbled over the last bite.
Again, the limited menu changes. So the dinner selection might tempt diners or not. Less adventurous, meatand-potatoes eaters might not be delighted by the first menu we saw: choice of two vegetarian dishes, trout, quail, chicken risotto or pork (where’s the beef?). Or the second one: a vegetarian risotto, trout, duck confit crepe, pork loin or veal osso bucco(there’s the beef, sort of).
We found several successes among these offerings, including the rich and tender osso bucco ($20), succulent, saucy veal shanks served atop cheese grits.
Two preparations of pork ($17) were pleasing, though petite: the autumnal pork grillades with white grits, celery root and sweet pop of apple and the comforting pork loin and great northern beans perked up with pickled peppers.
Maybe the cornmeal crust trout ($20) came capped with crab meat and shittakes and unexpected vegetable cubes (sweet potato?) could have used a sprinkle of salt, though there was none on the table. It being our first visit, we didn’t want to offend. (Hey, we’ve seen Dateline specials. When you know you’re returning several times to the same restaurant, you don’t want to become that person.) But by the third visit, we had no hesitation about requesting salt, which came in a pinch bowl. And I pinched too much.
As for Natchez’s midday menu, don’t expect a Southern plate lunch. The least exotic entree on a recent visit was the Shrimp & Grits ($9.50), which was abundant with shellfish and more buttery than creamy.
Also buttery was the duck confit crepes with cashew butter and black apples ($9.50), which a friend described as “savory and satisfying” - to the palate, but not the tummy. Too little of a good thing. She, too, mentioned desiring bread. If only she had ordered the zippy roasted red pepper soup, $6, which came with a soft roll.
Still, not having bread leaves room for Natchez’s delicious desserts ($6-$8). Our favorites in order of “yum” to “yowza”: the mellow coconut bread pudding, the intriguing chocolate cake with coffee ice cream and sea salt and peanut butter pie. Words can’t adequately describe the dreaminess (of the filling, that is - the crust was slightly off) of the pie.
A special treat: When we couldn’t decide between the baked Alaska and cherries jubilee - nostalgic desserts we’ve only had on cruises - Jones, who makes time to step out of the kitchen to greet patrons, offered to combine them.
The frothy, sweet-tart result? Jubilant. This Mississippi girl also knows her way around Alaska.
Natchez Restaurant
Address: Tower Building, Fourth and Center streets, Little Rock
Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday for lunch, 5:30-9 p.m. Thursday-Saturday for dinner
Cuisine: “Reinvented Southern”
Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V
Alcoholic beverages: Full bar
Reservations: Yes
Wheelchair accessible: Yes
(501) 372-1167
Weekend, Pages 27 on 12/27/2012