RESTAURANT REVIEW: Eats to ambience, JJ's is manly

One can tell by the blaring music, the wait for a table and folksy menu lingo (Green Thangs for salads, Sweet Stuff for desserts) that laid-back JJ's Grill is a good-time place.

The trouble is, I'm not a good-time reviewer. I loathe loud music while dining. I have no patience for waits. And I just can't bring myself to order a "Prime Rib Samach" from a waitress whose skirt is so short I want to march her right back to her room to change, young lady!

A sports bar with locations in Rogers, Fayetteville, Conway, Bella Vista and Fort Smith, JJ's recently opened in west Little Rock's Rock Creek Square Plaza Shopping Center in the spot formerly inhabited by another music venue/bar, Another Round Pub (and was, before that, the final location of the Villa).

Featuring TV screens, completely shaded windows and walls of wood panelling, brick and bric-a-brac (license plates, road signs, sports equipment), dark and somewhat drab, JJ's is your basic modern man cave. The stage (covered by a screen showing sports when not in use), bar and game area take up a good amount of space, leaving less available seating at wooden tables and booths than the place could use.

We visited three times. Once for dinner on a Wednesday, when the free live music (offered daily, except for game nights) and the wait were so overwhelming I had to leave. Once for a Tuesday lunch, when the volume was tolerable and there was no wait. And once for dinner on a Thursday, when the music took a night off for football. Each time there was quite a crowd, proving that it's clearly filling a niche.

Now that we've established that JJ's vibe isn't for JC, we can focus on the food, which really is quite good and better than it has to be.

At lunch, I ordered one of JJ's 20 (!) burgers. While tempted by outrageous creations like the PB&J Burger (with peanut butter, bacon, grape jelly and sriracha, $9.99) and the Big Bad Jack Burger (double patty with chipotle cream cheese, bacon, sweet 'n' spicy green pepper jelly, $11.59), I went for the Bear Trap Burger ($9.99). The busy third-pound burger, topped with roasted green chilies, buffalo and jalapeno-lime sauces, avocado, cheddar cheese and a fried onion ring, definitely had a lot going on, and it most definitely worked. My only criticism was the bread. The burger deserved a more exciting bun than the nothing-special supermarket variety.

Burgers come with a pickle spear and one side, and JJ's offers many: two kinds of fries, macaroni and cheese, fried jalapenos, fried pickles, pasta salad, honey-sweetened slaw, a small salad, homemade "tater" chips, homemade onion rings, Roadhouse Spuds, fried mushrooms, grilled vegetables, broccoli salad and fresh fruit. The subtly seasoned skin-on sweet potato fries were first-rate.

As it was Taco Tuesday (there are different daily specials, like -- giggle -- Man-Up Monday and Wacky Wednesday), my friend, who likened the place to "a little Hooters, a little Twin Peaks," ordered a lunch special of Buffalo Chicken Tacos ($8.99).

"It wasn't so special," she reported. "Two buffalo chicken 'tacos' were really just wraps that hadn't been wrapped up. Tasty? Yes. Unique? No. Taco? Not really. The sides seemed to be something from a mix -- the rice even had those little pieces of dehydrated pepper/tomato in it, and the beans were just beans."

Our server was friendly, maybe too friendly, with a tendency to overshare. Thinking we were discussing our diets when we were talking about our pets' food, she jumped in to the conversation with her imaginary weight-loss woes. Seeing her again from afar on my next visit, an NFL Thursday, I can say she looked great in her super-short skirt, football jersey and cowboy boots -- the uniform of the night.

We stuck with water and tea, but we saw plenty of $10 domestic beer buckets making their way around the dining room. In addition to beer (bottled, craft, tap), JJ's drink menu lists various cocktails and shots.

There are plenty of Warm Ups, aka appetizers. We bypassed the more traditional nachos, queso and fried items to sample the Buffalo Chicken Cheeze Balls ($7.59). But the eight seemingly overcooked and very brown balls of spiced chicken and cream cheeze didn't really pleaze.

I chose one of JJ's "Serious Meals," the Salisbury steak ($12.59), which was preceded by a decent salad of leafy lettuce, tomato, croutons and cheese that I passed off to my date to save room. The hefty and peppery 10-ounce ground chuck "steak," smothered in grilled mushrooms, onions and brown gravy, ordered with a side of creamy bacon-and-cheese topped macaroni and cheese, couldn't have been more cafeteria-comforting.

My dinner date went with a "samach," the Man on the Wall ($8.99), billed as "slap yo' grandma good." He liked the messy, salty sandwich of fried bologna, a fried egg and American cheese, even though it seemed to be served on standard sandwich bread instead of the jalapeno cornbread mentioned on the menu. A pile of skin-on fries added to the greasy goodness.

He couldn't pass up the homemade apple pie ($6.29), served with three scoops of ice cream. I couldn't pass up an extra spoon to try a bite or four of the spice-dusted, thickly crusted pie with soft, cinnamony apples.

It was then I thought that I'd return to jockish JJ's Grill. At least maybe some Sunday to watch football.

Oh, it's closed Sundays?

Maybe I'll return for carryout.

Weekend on 10/27/2016