House

LITTLE ROCK — There’s also seating in small alcoves on each side of the bar area, the bar area itself and on a sort of rough-andready outdoor patio where fine-weather dining is possible, but which also accommodates smokers.

The restaurant also has some modern touches, including drum-shaped lighting fixtures and locally sourced, mostly abstract, artwork all over the place, with some impressive artistic glass work (the lavender teardrop chandelier in the main entrance way is very impressive).

Seating is at white-clothed tables that are generally a little bigger than “standard,” making for some possible long reaches and, especially in the often noisy bar, strained conversations.

Like the artwork, Ellis is trying to derive as much of what goes into, and out of, his kitchen from local sources. The food, too, is a balanced blend of old and new fashions, much of it what Ellis calls “Southern comfort food with a twist.”

For example, there’s the Mac & Cheese ($14), served en casserole, made with shell shaped pasta, Gruyere, thick slices of wild mushrooms and house-made bacon (which will be a pleasant surprise if you haven’t read the menu closely enough). The cheese isn’t as sharp as we expected or would have liked, but otherwise the dish is yummy (in the best Southern sense of the word). Also in the best Southern tradition, the portion is huge and it’s very filling.

Speaking of huge portions, the Mojo Chop ($28) is a thick, two-bone pork chop, braised in a rich, tangy barbecue sauce using Ellis’ proprietary herb-and-spices blend. It comes with a delicious, slightly smoky sweetpotato hash and cider-braised kale (a pleasant revelation for the kale-abhorring member of our party, who devoured it with glee).

Though it was surprisingly tender, we did need the monster steak knife our waiter supplied to carve up the Mojo Chop. For some reason, he also brought another such knife for our Mac & Cheese. (Perhaps we were expected to kill it before we ate it.)

We weren’t as excited by the Shrimp and Grits ($17), which was unusually moderate, in size and flavor, than we’ve had elsewhere. The five grilled “jumbo” shrimp were just the right tenderness, and we liked the two mild, creamy-textured,polenta-like cakes of grits. But the roasted garlic cream sauce needed more garlic.

We certainly can’t say the same about the tongue-thrilling blue-cheese-balsamic sauce on the 14-ounce Packet House Ribeye ($34). It suited the steak just right, and the meat (a little on the fatty side, as rib-eyes usually are, and medium rare exactly the way we ordered it) was sufficiently tender that it might even have been marinated. The steak came atop a helping of braised cippolini onions and wild mushrooms, with a huge sheaf of thin, crisp-edged, skin-on, lightly seasoned house fries that lopped over on top of the steak.

As with our entrees, we batted three out of four onour appetizers. We would certainly order the Crab Cakes ($12) again, two mostly lump-crab-meat patties (very little bread filler), nearly large enough to be a less-expensive light entree, plus a side tomato chutney (aptly described on the menu as “tangy,” and also palate-tinglingly spicy) and topped with a lemondressed arugula salad.

And we might order again the tasty Seafood Bienville ($12), bits of Gulf oysters and shrimp in a casserole of mild Romano cheese and wild mushrooms with a breadcrumb topping.

If you’re a salad fan, by all means try the Capital Street Salad ($10), Sweetwater Farm mixed greens with cherry tomatoes and two “pucks” of mild, almond-crusted goat cheese in a very pleasant cranberry vinaigrette.

But we’d probably pass on the Topping Trio ($9). The sharp-ish olive tapenade was the only one of the three toppings we came close to finishing; we left significant portions of a mild pimento cheese dip and an almost distressingly sharp bacon-and-onion marmalade, served with not quite enough toasted baguette points (thanks to our waiter, who offered to bring us more before we asked).

As large as the portions are, you will want to save room for dessert, especially when you find out how inexpensive they are. We didn’t realize until our check arrived that our generous slice of chocolate-infused cream-cheese S’mores Cheesecake atop a chocolate graham-cracker crust with a surface layer of gooey, oversweet marshmallow, was only $4. And our candidate for bargain of the month: the $3 sugar-cookie lemon ice cream “sandwich,” a delicious, refreshing and ultra-light finishing touch.

The restaurant doors open at 4 p.m., but the kitchen doesn’t start putting out entrees until 6. If you get there earlier than that, you can wait, and order drinks and appetizers, in the bar or on the patio.

By 6:30 on a recent weeknight there was already a waiting list for tables; we supposedly had a half-hour wait but only spent 15 minutes on the back patio before a table opened up in what was at the time the extremely noisy bar, to which we transferred our appetizer orders and our waiter. The bar got less noisy as a large, somewhat rowdy party, began to shrink.

Service on that visit was generally pretty good, though our outgoing waiter, being headquartered in the area, tended to hover just a bit.

We arrived early enough on our second visit to secure a main dining room table, at which we were generously allowed to wait and order appetizers while waiting for the magic entree hour. Our waiter was at least as helpful, but seemed a lot less confident.

Packet House Grill

Address: 1406 Cantrell

Road, Little Rock

Hours: 4-9:30 p.m.Tuesday-

Saturday; entrees available

after 6

Cuisine: “Southern-style

steakhouse with a Creole

spin”

Credit cards: V, MC, AE, D

Alcoholic beverages: Full

bar

Reservations: Accepted and

recommended

Wheelchair accessible: Yes

Carryout: Yes

(501) 372-1578