Restaurant Transitions: Chef Guizol No. 1 at Capital Bar & Grill; Oishi closed

A big Buddha statue has remained part of the decor of three restaurants in the space at 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd. in the Heights, including the recently closed Oishi.
A big Buddha statue has remained part of the decor of three restaurants in the space at 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd. in the Heights, including the recently closed Oishi.

Marc Guizol has moved from No. 2 in the kitchen of One Eleven at the Capital, the high-end restaurant in the Capital Hotel, 111 W. Markham St., Little Rock, and has taken over as No. 1 at the hotel's No. 2 restaurant, the Capital Bar & Grill. The move comes less than a year after the former chef de cuisine Arturo Solis took over that kitchen and announced a major menu upgrade.

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Chef Marc Guizol

Among the recent CB&G changes: A large-scale kitchen equipment installation that has doubled grill and oven capabilities (they had been producing an incredible number of burgers every day on a single grill) and improved the flow in a kitchen that is basically the size of a postage stamp. There are also some design enhancements planned for the bar, under the eye of Ben Edwards, who has extensive restaurant and wine experience in New York and California. He has family in the area and had previously worked at the hotel as a server.

Guizol says he's going to retain the core of the menu, keeping a couple of Solis' additions (the fried biscuits have been doing very well, he says), with seasonal changes and additions -- and, for the first time, specials, most of them based on what's coming in the way of local produce, to which he is giving more priority. Overall, the cuisine will adhere to CB&G's "mission," which involves pleasing regulars and hotel visitors, and combining "Southern ingredients and French technique." (The French-born Guizol, brought to Little Rock by colleague and friend, the Capital Hotel's executive chef, Joel Antunes, has worked as a sous chef, chef de cuisine and executive chef in France, London, Portugal and Las Vegas.)

Guizol says in the past two months since he has taken over, the kitchen staff has worked more as a team. "They have to put a name in there" for the chef, he says with a shrug and a smile, but on the whole, the working atmosphere has been more relaxed and the staff has more scope to make suggestions, some of which he incorporates. "We could call it the 'smiling team,'" he says. "We've all been smiling a lot more. It's the team mindset vs. the individual mindset."

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Oishi Hibachi & Thai Cuisine, 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, has closed, and, according to the voice-mail message we got by calling the phone number (501) 603-0080 it will reopen in mid-July as a sports bar. A collaboration between the Chi family and their protege Robert Tju, who has been running Sushi Cafe and Sushi Cafe West, it's the third unsuccessful restaurant concept for the space. It started out in 2012 as the avant-garde RJ Tao Restaurant & Ultra Lounge, which did reasonable bar business but foundered on a mostly Asian-fusion menu that featured dishes for which area diners may not have been quite ready (including three preparations of kangaroo and Bison Osso Bucco). Just over a year later, Tju and Lulu Chi transitioned it into the more modest Cafe 5501; a year after that, they opened Oishi, a hybrid of sushi bar, teppanyaki grill and a primarily Thai sit-down menu. No word on what will happen to the giant Buddha statue that we've been told would require either the demolition of a wall or the demolition of the statue to remove from the premises.

Graffiti's, 7811 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, is for sale. The listing has popped up on a couple of websites, including realtytrac.com (tinyurl.com/graffitis1). Co-owners Patrick Dayer and David Jones are looking to step out of the business. List price is $95,000 (reportedly negotiable) for equipment, inventory, furniture and recipes. The restaurant seats 65 with a party room that seats 40. For more information, contact agent Libby Pickney at (501) 773-7332. For photos, visit crye-leike.com/littlerock/15029685. The restaurant phone number is (501) 224-9079.

La Hacienda, 3024 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, will close on or about July 1 for a major kitchen and dining room face-lift and will be down for about 2 1/2 months. The other two La Hacienda restaurants -- the original, 3836 Central Ave., Hot Springs, and in the Ferguson Plaza Shopping Center, 17401 Interstate 30 (on the frontage road in Benton), will remain open -- 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. And diners can visit two other central Arkansas restaurants run by branches of the Alvarez family: Cotijas, 406 Louisiana St., Little Rock, and the newly resurrected La Casa Real, 3700 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock.

Grampa's Catfish is not going to reopen, as we had reported, at 100 Shadow Oaks Drive, North Little Rock (on the cusp of Sherwood). It is going to reopen, however, in the former Mi Burrito building, 11608 Maumelle Blvd., just on the North Little Rock side of the Maumelle border. "We're hoping to have a quick turnaround and be open in 30 to 45 days," says co-owner Scott Townsend. The phone number is (501) 904-5355 but as of deadline, it's only hooked up to a voice-mail server. You'll be able to follow progress via the Facebook page, facebook.com/grampasnlr and they're in the process of updating the website, grampasnlr.com.

And speaking of the cusp of Sherwood, a couple of sharp-eyed observers have reported that Papa Murphy's Take 'N' Bake Pizza, 7412 North Hills Blvd. at John F. Kennedy Boulevard (Arkansas 107), has closed. The phone number, (501) 834-1514, had not yet been disconnected by deadline but we got no answer in several attempts over several days to get through during business hours. The stores in the Ashley Square Shopping Center, 9120 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock, (501) 225-7272, and at 5311 Arkansas 5 N., Bryant, (501) 943-4149, are both still in operation.

And speaking of pizza and North Little Rock, the Tulsa-based Hideaway Pizza chain now has a first-week-of-October target date to open its first non-Oklahoma outlet, 5103 Warden Road, North Little Rock (next to Chuy's), the west access road for U.S. 67/167. Janie Harris, the chain's marketing and guest relations coordinator, says it will have 6,700 square feet with seating for 186, a full bar (20 beers, mostly from Arkansas and Oklahoma breweries, on tap) and large-screen TVs above the bar area for sports events. A local beer tasting to benefit a charity will precede the grand opening. They expect to employ about 100 people (full- and part-time). Hours will likely be 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Plans are to open a Conway location in spring 2017, timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the opening of the original location in Stillwater, Okla. Check out the menu -- sandwiches, salads, "starters" and pasta in addition to build-your-own and more than two dozen specialty pizzas -- and other details at hideawaypizza.com.

And still on the subject of pizza, the planned move of the Pizzeria @ Terry's Finer Foods from 5018 Kavanaugh Blvd. to 4910 Kavanaugh, into the former Revolution Gym, co-owner Jacqueline Pittman says, is going slowly, but "we make progress every day" and they'll continue to operate in their current space until they move the huge brick-floor, wood-burning, 1,000-degree Mario Acunto pizza oven that took a couple of months to come by sea from Naples, Italy. So far, most of the delays have involved, not construction, but the permitting process, including approval from the city on parking and fire code issues. The 3,700-square-foot new space (compared to the 700 square feet in which they're operating now) will include 1,200 square feet of dining room (increasing available seating from 38 to 50, plus more on the patio), an extended bar, a lot more prep room, spaces for private dining, an office and storage -- and two restrooms. It will still look pretty much the way it does now: "We don't want to change anything about it because we love it and our customers do, too," Pittman explains. The restaurant phone number will also stay the same: (501) 551-1388.

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Flyway Brewing, 314 Maple St., North Little Rock, has expanded its menu to include sliders and nachos that focus on the yields of Arkansas woods, fields and waterways, says co-owner Jess McMullen, and also pair well with the beer offerings. Flyway's first tasting room food concept was quarter-pound soft pretzels. "Customers asked for more, and we had the kitchen space to do it," McMullen explains. They're not serving dinner per se, but the sliders weigh 2 ounces apiece; two of them would be the equivalent of a quarter-pound hamburger. And they're pretty upscale -- bacon-wrapped quail on a pretzel roll; choice of venison or tofu Vietnamese-style banh mi sandwiches on baguette; wild boar meatballs in a Romseco sauce. The nachos will each feature a special salsa -- duck confit with chipotle cherry salsa, smoked trout with roasted corn and poblano salsa, and crawfish with a tri-bell pepper salsa. Subsequent specials might include catfish sliders or maybe gator nachos -- "We'll ask our customers what they're interested in," McMullen adds. They'll also continue to have food trucks parked outside on Thursdays. Hours will continue to be 4-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, noon-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, noon-9 p.m. Sunday. The phone number is (501) 812-3192.

Eat My Catfish, a minichain with restaurants at 1205 Military Road, Benton, and 2125 Harkrider St., Conway, is now looking at opening on or about July 1 -- they've scheduled a July 19 grand opening and ribbon cutting, and, according to Marketing Coordinator Jesica Talbert, would much prefer to have been open a week or two in advance of that -- in the Breckenridge Village Shopping Center, 10301 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock. Tentative hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Sunday, as per the other two locations. The phone number is (501) 222-8055 but it isn't yet hooked up; the website, where you can see the menu -- they serve catfish, chicken, crab, shrimp and po'boys -- and additional details: EatMyCatfish.com.

The food trucks taking part this week in Food Truck Friday, 10:45 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at Capitol Avenue and Main Street, Little Rock: Almost Famous, Bragg's Big Bites, Southern Salt Co., Clean Eatery and Kona Ice. It's the last such get-together until the weather (hopefully) cools off a bit, returning Sept. 1 and leading into the Sept. 24 Main Street Food Truck Festival.

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, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203. Send email to:

eharrison@arkansasonline.com

Weekend on 06/16/2016

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