ON THE FRONT BURNER: The Root Cafe, a Little Rock-based farm-to-table restaurant owned by Jack and Corri Sundell, hits national TV tonight. The couple and their restaurant will be featured on HLN TV's series Growing America: A Journey to Success. The docu-series show, premiering at 8 tonight and hosted by Ty Pennington, follows MBA students as they travel the nation over a six-week period helping 27 entrepreneurs improve their businesses and more effectively affect their communities.
TOASTING A WIN: Rock Town Distillery's Arkansas Single Barrel Bourbon Whiskey was recognized as the top U.S. micro-distillery whiskey in Jim Murray's Whisky Bible 2015, a highly regarded guide.
"Unquestionably one of the great micro distillery bourbons of all time; a bottling which will put Arkansas and Rock Town in particular on the world whisky map," Murray wrote in his review of the product of the downtown Little Rock-based distillery, owned by Phil and Diana Brandon. Murray gave the whiskey a score of 96.5.
COUNTRY STRONG: Recent ticket sales for country star Garth Brooks' three dates at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock on Dec. 11, 12 and 13 have broken the state record for number of tickets sold in entertainment, reports Jana DeGeorge with the arena. As of Nov. 7, 44,176 tickets had been sold. The previous record holder? The George Strait Festival show at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock on April 8, 2001, which resulted in 40,111 ticket sales.
KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON: Jim Ed Brown is not letting his recent diagnosis of cancer slow him; instead, he is celebrating his 51st anniversary as a Grand Ole Opry member with a new CD, In Style Again, set for a Jan. 20 release. The album marks his first solo studio product in nearly 30 years. The first single, "When the Sun Says Hello to the Mountain," features Brown's sister, Bonnie. Their other sister, Maxine, was sick at the time, so Bonnie recorded Maxine's part and overdubbed the third part. Years ago, Maxine sang both her part and Bonnie's on their brother's hit, "Morning."
BIG WIN: Speaking of Nashville, country music group Little Big Town -- which features two Arkansans, Jacksonville native Jimi Westbrook and Pocahontas native Phillip Sweet -- recently became members of the Grand Ole Opry and won the Country Music Association's "Vocal Group of the Year" award for the third year in a row.
SOMETHING'S BREWING: This newspaper's chief editorial cartoonist and illustrator, John Deering, has an exhibit at Ouachita Baptist University of some of his nationally syndicated "Strange Brew" cartoons, editorial illustrations and original acrylic paintings, which are published in the paper's Perspective section. The free show runs weekdays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Dec. 12 in the Arkadelphia university's Rosemary Adams Department of Visual Arts in Moses-Provine Hall, with a reception set for 2 p.m. Dec. 3.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or lhaymes@arkansasonline.com
SundayMonday on 11/16/2014