LITTLE ROCK — The target date to open the first of two central Arkansas
Dunkin’ Donuts
outlets, 6805 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, is the first or second week of July (somewhere between July 2 and 13), according to owner Conan Watters. The restaurant will offer a full Dunkin’ Donuts menu, including breakfast sandwiches and wraps, lunch sandwiches, hash browns, “the gamut of coffees and iced coffees” and, of course, 57 varieties of doughnuts. “You say ‘Dunkin’ Donuts,’ and of course, everybody thinks doughnuts,” Watters says, “but we’re a coffee shop: we actually sell more coffee than Starbucks.Or at least somebody told me that.” The restaurant is looking to hire management - send an e-mail to dunkindonutslr@gmail.com; Watters is waiting on a telephone number, but there is a Facebook page - facebook.com /DunkinDonutsLittleRock. Watters also reports that he hopes to begin construction on a second restaurant, at Kanis and Shackleford roads (the former site of
Burger Mama’s, in the next 30 days. Site preparation has begun next door for a planned
Panera Bread
outlet, he says.
Meanwhile,
RJ Tao Restaurant & Ultra Lounge, in the Shops in the Heights, 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, did not meet its May 15 target opening date, and we’re no closer to figuring out just what that will be, butwe have learned a few new snippets about the “modern steakhouse and ultra lounge” being put together by Robert Tju of Sushi Cafe and Jacob Chi, son of restaurant mogul Lulu Chi. We have telephone numbers - (501) 603-0080 and (501) 603-0082, not that we can get anybody to answer them. And last week the restaurant posted its planned menu on its Facebook page (facebook.com/pages/RJTAO/271119886289257), with a variety of fondues; cheese and charcuterie plates; tapas, including edamame, “Rob’s Spicy Edamame” from Sushi Cafe, RJ’s Parmesan Truffle Fries, Ahi Tuna Pizza and more; a couple of Tao Prime House Burgers; and the “United Steaks of TAO,” a 7-ounce “NY Striploin” and 12-ounce T-bones and rib-eyes, “all steaks served with wok-fired vegetables with a choice of rosemary demi-glaze or gorgonzola cream.” We will definitely keep you posted.
And we may be closer to the end of a long wait for the reopening of
The Box
at 1023 W. Seventh St., Little Rock. One of our corps of sharp-eyed observers has seen restaurant equipment and furniture in place and an on-premises beer permit application in the window. And information provides a telephone number: (501) 372-8735, not that anybody is answering at the moment. Soon as we get any more details, we’ll rush ’em into print.
And speaking of sharpeyed observers, we’ve gotten a couple of reports of the apparent closure of
Hunka Pie, 250 E. Military Drive, North Little Rock. Saith one of our correspondents, “The lights were off, the place was deserted, although everything inside looked ready for business. ... A paper hanger on the front door with the message, ‘To have your service restored, call: xxx-xxx-xxxx’ from Centerpoint Energy.” The phone number of record, (501) 224-1104, has not been disconnected but directed us to a voice mailbox and nobody returned our call by deadline.
Something called
Yamato Japanese Steakhouse
appears poised to open at 2650 John Harden Drive, Suite Q , Jacksonville, which has housed, among other establishments, Roma and Cayenne’s Cajun Eatery. Information has provided a phone number - (501) 457-7573 - but (aw, you guessed it) nobody was answering it by deadline.We’ll keep you posted.
Ashley’s at the Capital, 111 W. Markham St. at Louisiana Street, will hold the latest in a series of Napa Valley wine dinners at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday featuring Fernando Frias of Frias Family Vineyard in St. Helena, Calif. They’ll be serving the winery’s 2011 Rose of Cabernet Sauvignon for a kitchen reception; 2011 Sauvignon Blanc with fried Two Goat’s Farmstead cheese with bitter greens, green tomato vinaigrette and pepper jelly threads; the 2009 Rose of Cabernet Sauvignon with grilled calamari and sweet onions with saffron aioli; a 2007Syrah with Pork Crepinette with fennel, sunchoke puree, bacon-herbes de Provence jus, lavender-basil creme and watercress; a 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon with quinoa and eggplant ravioli with tomato and porcini mushrooms; 2008 Spring Mountain District Cabernet Sauvignon with Alaskan halibut with oxtail; and the 2011 Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc with dessert, cardamom panna cotta with blueberries and almond streusel. Tickets are $135. Call (501) 370-7011 or e-mail lingold@capitalhotel.com for information or to make reservations.
In case you missed the mention by our distinguished colleague, Linda Caillouet in a recent Paper Trails column, Southern Living has included Little Rock’s
Sims Bar-B-Que
as one of “The South’s Best Butt: 20 of the Best Barbecue Joints in the South,” citing “great ’cue and their tangy, brown Sims sauce.” The Little Rock restaurant has three current locations - on John Barrow Road, Geyer Springs Road and South Broadway at Roosevelt Road. The original eponymous restaurant, which Allen and Amelia Sims opened in 1937 on West 33rd Street, closed in 2008. The list also includes three restaurants in Memphis:
A&R Bar-B-Que, The Bar-
B-Que Shop
and Payne’s Bar-B-Q.
Three of the four fast-casual restaurants mentioned in the “Green Life” column in the Sierra Club’s magazine, headlined “Fast Food, Hold the Guilt,” listing “joints that environmentalists can order from with a clear conscience,” actually have Little Rock outlets:
Panera Bread
(“For a chain, they’re very accommodating: They have no problem pulling out their huge three-ring binder that lists all the menu items with ingredients. ... And they use washable real dishes as opposed to one-timeuse throwaways”);
Chipotle
(“They’re bringing environmentally conscious business practices to a large national chain by using natural meats, hormone-free chicken and organic beans, as well as ecofriendly design elements and biodegradable tableware”); and
Five Guys
(“Hardly healthy, their French fries are vegan and delicious. Potatoes are cut fresh - no freezers here. Without processing, they minimize energy input and the packaging is just a paper cup and an unbleached paper bag”). By the way, the guy who recommended Five Guys, Jay Friedlander, the director of the Sustainable Business program at the Collegeof the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, is not the Jay Friedlander who previously was chairman of the journalism department at University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
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:
Weekend, Pages 38 on 05/31/2012