Wendy McCrory, who owns and operates two Memphis-area outlets of
Memphis-based Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken (the one
on Front Street in Memphis and the one in Collierville,
Tenn.), confirms that the Little Rock branch will in fact
open this spring in what had been Redbone’s Downtown, 300
President Clinton Ave., in the River Market District.
Target date is sometime in March, but McCrory says
she’s expecting sometime in April to be more likely. It’ll
offer “the same menu, same recipes, same chicken, everything”
as in highly popular Memphis-area restaurants,
with the possibility of seasonal specials, “which we have
not [done] in the past,” like sweet-potato fries, “greens
when we can get them fresh,” cucumber salad and, perhaps
not as early as this year but eventually, Lenten catfish and
homemade jalapeno hush puppies. (She has been using
the Collierville place as a test kitchen as well as training
facility for a burgeoning franchise operation.)
The Little Rock Gus’s will serve beer in 40-ounce bottles
(requiring one or more extra fridges but eliminating the
need for taps) but will not have a full bar. Standard operating
hours across the minichain are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday-Thursday,
11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, but McCrory acknowledges
the local franchisee group (reported in last week’s Arkansas
Times as including Carter Malloy, a research analyst for
Stephens Inc.) might jigger the closing hours to take better advantage
of late-evening River Market foot traffic.
Details are coming in with grudging slowness, but we
have learned that there is a definite connection between
the Mamacita’s Bar & Grill “coming soon” to the former
Satellite Cafe, 5923 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, and the
Mamacita’s “coming soon” to the former Los Amigos, 2850
Prince St., Conway: The state Alcoholic Beverage Control
Board confirms that the alcoholic
beverage licenses for
both establishments (a full
restaurant bar license for
Little Rock and a private club
license for dry Conway) are
in the same name, Joseph M.
Park, who did not return a
phone message by deadline.
We just got word that Hot
Springs Brau Haus, 801 Central
Ave., Hot Springs, will close
at the end of the month. Details
are sketchy, but apparently
owner John Linehan is
looking at other projects after
17 years of operation. Nothing
special is planned, so far, in
the interim, we’re told. The
phone number is (501) 624-
7866.
Target date is next week for
the opening of Utopia Restaurant
and Lounge, 521 Center St.,
Little Rock, formerly the site
of something called Mediums
Art Lounge. The restaurant
will serve breakfast (including
chicken and waffles and
omelets), lunch and dinner
(the menu will feature, among
other things, wings, fried or
broiled tilapia and vegetarian
options), with a full bar that
will host bands after hours.
Right now, restaurant hours
are 10:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and
4-7:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday,
with breakfast times to be
announced. The phone number
is (501) 907-6688; there’s
a Facebook page: facebook.
com/utopia.littlerock.
...
There have been so many
twists and turns and kinks and,
quite frankly, stinks in the convoluted
history of Hunka Pie,
which originated in a corner
of an Argenta furniture store
and has migrated twice, first
to the former Hop Drive-In on
Cantrell Road, and eventually
to the former Starlite Diner,
at the meeting of MacArthur
Drive and Military Road in
North Little Rock.
To describe the restaurant’s
operating pattern as
“mercurial” would be an understatement.
Sometimes it
was open. Sometimes it was
closed. What hours it would
be open, or closed, seemed to
change on a whim. The inside
and sometimes the outside of
the front doors sported from
time to time a variety of signs,
some from owner-operator
Chris Monroe, some, reportedly,
from utility companies.
Keeping track of the doings,
or lack thereof, at that
establishment was so difficult
and all-consuming that
we finally, here at Transitions,
made a deliberate decision
not to pay any more attention
to Hunka Pie unless aliens
snatched the building from
the parking lot.
However, between a recent
flood of requests for
information from readers,
some of whom have shown
unprecedented loyalty and/or
concern for the business (and
some of whom hold apparently
unredeemable Groupons),
we will report what we know
to this point:
The restaurant has been
dark as the tomb for several
weeks. The listed telephone
number, (501) 224-1104, returns
a “not a working number”
recording. The restaurant
website, hunkapie.com,
has been taken down, though
a pop-up default site indicates
the domain name has recently
been re-registered.
Meanwhile, Monroe,
reached through e-mail a few
weeks ago, promised us details,
but since has not responded to
subsequent messages and has
not responded by deadline.
And Groupon Customer
Support sent out this message
to paying customers, offering
refunds where applicable: “Hi
[customer’s name deleted],
Thanks for your interest in the
Groupon for Hunka Pie. We
have heard that some of our
customers are having difficulty
redeeming their Groupons for
Hunka Pie because they may
have closed. Our apologies for
the inconvenience. We realize
how frustrating that can be
and we want to make it right
as soon as possible. To avoid
any further frustration, we have
canceled this deal.”
Now, a sharp-eyed observer
has sent us this following update:
“There is a sign on the
door of the Starlite Diner saying
‘Closed for repairs, reopening
soon, under new management.’”
And another sharpeyed
reader says the diner
owner (the sign still sits atop
the building, by the way) says
the “new management” is the
owner-operator of a neighboring
business, who plans to run
it with her son and hopes to be
open in about a month.
...
BJ’s Market Cafe, 45 Market
Plaza, off Arkansas 161 in North
Little Rock, will open a second
location Tuesday — that’s the
target, anyway — in what until
last Saturday had been Kierre’s
Kountry Kitchen, 6 Collins Industrial
Place, just off Maumelle
Boulevard on the North Little
Rock side of Maumelle. BJ’s
owner, Jeanna Whitley, says that
in addition to serving breakfast
and lunch, 5:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
Tuesday-Saturday (similar to
the original location, which will
remain open), she’ll be adding
“fish and more” dinner Friday
and Saturday nights, continuously
operating those days from
5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Whitley says
she believes she’ll be able to
keep the Kierre’s phone number,
which is (501) 758-0903. Get
a look at her menu at bjsmarketcafe.
com.
Victorian Garden Bistro,
4801 North Hills Blvd., North
Little Rock, has added Monday
lunch — 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m.
— to its operating hours of
10:30 a.m.–6 p.m. Tuesday-
Friday and 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Saturday. The phone number
remains (501) 758-4299; e-mail
margie@victoriangarden.biz or
visit victoriangarden.biz.
With more than 700 restaurants
to keep track of in the
Little Rock metropolitan area,
we admit we occasionally get
behind one curve or another,
and somehow missed the closure
of Fishermen Fish & Chicken
at 3400 E. Broadway, North
Little Rock, as well as the return
thereto of Young’s Catfish,
the previous occupant. Now a
sharp-eyed observer reports
that the restaurant was closed
“over the holidays for ‘remodeling’”;
a sign in the window said
they’d reopen in January, but
they didn’t. A call to the listed
number, (501) 945-3474, returns
a recording about how happy
AT&T will be to find us another
similar business.
And speaking of being behind
the curve, though apparently
it has been open for a few
months, we are just now finding
out about Eliella Ristorante and
Taqueria, 7700 Base Line Road,
Little Rock. Hours, according
to the gentleman who answered
the phone number, (501) 539-
5355, are 10 a.m.-8 p.m., daily.
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