Fast away the old year passes. (Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.)
Service slower than molasses. (Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.)
Restaurants are coming, going, (Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.)
And it shows no sign of slowing. (Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la.)
There's an old Yiddish saying: "Eat fast. We need the dishes." In the fast-changing central Arkansas restaurant business, the phrase might better be, "Eat fast. We're closing tomorrow."
As with every year since we started doing these roundups, back in the late Bronze Age, volatility has been a big part of the area hospitality industry. New places sprout up, venerable establishments close, longtime customers are variously surprised, disappointed, deprived and/or devastated.
Information from this piece is culled from a year's worth of weekly Transitions columns from our Thursday Style/Weekend section. It's not meant to be comprehensive; there's only so many column inches into which to cram them all, so we're hitting the 2017 high (and low) spots.
Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served.
REQUIESCAT IN PLATE
Probably the biggest restaurant death notice of the year was the Dec. 6 shutdown, on just two days' notice, of all 17 Dixie Cafe and Delta Cafe restaurants in Arkansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma after more than 35 years in business. Dixie Restaurants Inc. CEO Allan Roberts in a news release blamed "declining sales combined with increasing costs." It wasn't because the restaurants didn't have fans -- at least a couple of the Arkansas restaurants were so slammed during their last days that they ran out of food.
An end-of-May fire destroyed the legendary Cotham's Mercantile, 5301 Arkansas 161 South, Scott, including its contents -- a decades-old collection of antiques and memorabilia.
A little further down on the "venerability" meter: the November closure of Cock of the Walk, operating for three decades off Maumelle Boulevard in North Little Rock.
Meanwhile, a severe and progressive illness forced Dan Spencer, the co-owner of Arkansas Burger Company, 7410 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, to shut down his popular establishment in mid-July, initially temporarily, but he confirmed in October that it was permanent. And there's now a sign that the building will soon house Casey's B-B-Q -- no word, as of this posting, whether it is, in fact, a reincarnation of the much-loved barbecue joint on Little Rock's Reservoir Road that closed in 2005.
One of the area's oldest Japanese restaurants, Shogun Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar, 2815 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, closed in April. The building is scheduled to be razed to make way for a Starbucks.
November closings included Lulu's Latin Rotisserie & Grill, in the Colonnade Shopping Center, 315 N. Bowman Road, Little Rock, and Mimi's Cafe, 11725 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock.
And the long and winding struggle between Jerky's Spicy Chicken and More owner John Walker Jr. and the building's owners, Sixth Street LLC, and property managers, Rental Realty Inc., over the survival of the restaurant, 521 Center St., Little Rock, finally ended in September with an official eviction notice.
VEG OUT
The June 30 shootout that injured 28 people at the second-floor Power Ultra Lounge, 220 W. Sixth St., Little Rock, also claimed as a victim The Veg LLC, which had recently sublet the building's ground floor, forcing owner Shiem Swift to once again seek a new home for his vegan restaurant.
UP ON THE ROOFTOP
In November, the new Hilton Garden Inn Little Rock Downtown, 322 Rock St., opened Agasi 7, the area's first rooftop, open-air restaurant and bar. Reportedly, initial service snafus created long waits for wrong orders.
OPEN SEASON
Petit & Keet Bar & Grill, the collaboration between restaurateur Jim Keet (Taziki's Mediterranean Cafes and, with sons Tommy and Jake, Paninis and Co.) and Little Rock culinary legend Louis Petit, opened in May in the former Restaurant 1620/1620 Savoy, 1620 Market St., Little Rock. The project, which was originally supposed to involve minor changes to the building, take six weeks and cost "a couple of hundred thousand dollars," expanded to a six-month, "million-dollar project" that involved a complete gut job and reconstruction.
North Bar opened in February in the space vacated by Ira's Park Hill Grill in the Lakehill Shopping Center, 3812 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock. And in June, Eric Greer and Kyle Ray Dismang turned their other restaurant, Victorian Garden Bistro, 4801 North Hills Blvd., into a seafood-serving sports bar called Lakewood Lounge.
REOPEN, SESAME
As with Petit & Keet, what was supposed to be some remodeling that would close the place down for a few weeks turned into a complete six-month reconstruction, from the ground up, for La Hacienda, 3024 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. It finally reopened in June.
The IHOP, West Markham Street and University Avenue, Little Rock, also underwent a complete from-the-ground-up reconstruction, reopening in April.
Fired up, and rising literally from the ashes:
• Conway landmark Stoby's Restaurant, 805 Donaghey Ave., crisped by a March 19, 2016, fire, reopened in August.
• Three Sam's BBQ & Catering, 10508 Mann Road, Mabelvale, destroyed by a May 2016 fire, reopened in November. In the interim, owners peddled barbecue sandwiches, barbecue stuffed potatoes and desserts in the restaurant's parking lot.
• Midtown Billiards, the longtime pool and burger joint (some might use the appellation "dive"), 1316 Main St., Little Rock, gutted by a Sept. 19, 2016, fire, finally reopened in early July.
CHANGE, PLEASE
Sarah and Armando Bolanos, co-owners of La Terraza Rum & Lounge, 3003 Kavanaugh Blvd., in Little Rock's Hillcrest district, with their parents/in-laws/partners, Ana Lara and Carlos Valdivieso, bought Graffiti's, 7811 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. The family expects to complete its menu redesign in January.
Vesuvio Bistro, 1315 Breckenridge Drive, Little Rock, closed briefly for renovations and in September reopened with lunch service -- and pizza.
In November, Forty Two, the restaurant at the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, reopened after a major renovation and expansion, with a new name -- 42 bar and table -- and three-day-a-week dinner service.
In February, just two weeks after it started serving lunch, The Restaurant at Terry's Finer Foods, aka The Sidecar at Terry's, 5018 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, closed. New co-owner Eric Herget replaced the market with Heights Corner Market at the end of March and added a new restaurant.
Pantry and Pantry Crest owner Tomas Bohm took over what had been Hillcrest Artisan Meats, 2807 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, initially planning to call it Hillcrest Market & Nosh, but later changing his mind, opening in April as District Fare, a high-end deli with sandwiches, charcuterie and baked goods.
The Main Cheese, 14524 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, closed Jan. 21, reopened a couple of weeks later under new ownership (Clean Eatery owner-chef Ryan Merritt-McGehee), then closed again in June. In early September, Whole Hog Cafe took over the space for a new west Little Rock branch that added highly praised chicken wings to its barbecue menu.
Nashville Rockin' Grill, 10840 Maumelle Blvd., North Little Rock, closed in May; Anndrea Wyrick and her family bought it and turned it into GiGi's Soul Cafe & Lounge, which opened July 28, serving soul food and barbecue, and offering music.
ASIAN WITH GRACE
Three Fold Noodles and Dumpling Co. vacated its white-tiled space at 215 Center St., Little Rock, and moved into a historic structure (the original location of the Arkansas Democrat, in fact) at 611 Main St. The move, which significantly increased kitchen and seating space, allowed the expansion of the menu to include a wider variety of dumplings and noodle dishes and a range of breakfast buns, and letting them prepare all of that to order instead of dishing it out of steam tables. Hanaroo Sushi Bar, meanwhile, took advantage of the Center Street vacancy and moved there, lock, stock and bento boxes, from its original 205 W. Capitol Ave. location.
Kamikaito by Kiyen's, a second location for owner-chef Kiyen Kim, who also owns and operates Kiyen's Seafood Steak and Sushi, 17200 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock, opened in September with an upscale menu in the former Good Food by Ferneau/Argenta Market space, Sixth and Main streets, North Little Rock.
Mr. Hui's, linked to the folks who operate Mr. Chen's on Little Rock's South University Avenue and Mr. Cheng's on North Little Rock's East McCain Boulevard, opened at the confluence of February and March in the Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11525 Cantrell Road, Little Rock.
In late April, Kimchi Korean Restaurant replaced Vietnamese restaurant VanLang in the strip center at 3700 S. University Ave., Little Rock.
Osaka Japanese Restaurant, 5501 Ranch Drive, Little Rock, closed around the first of June, replaced in early August by Ninja Bar-Sushi-Grill, a sister restaurant to Wasabi Sushi, Bar & Gril, 101 Main St, Little Rock.
GOING UP, DOWNTOWN
The owners of Level, a private club in the 300 block of Main Street, replaced it in September with Brewski's Pub & Grub, a public sports bar. (A shooting in a nearby parking lot the week before apparently had nothing to do with the decision, we were told.) Meanwhile, in progress along that side of the same block: Ira Mittleman's upscale Ira's, in the old Rose Building, 307 Main St., and, at 311 Main, a downtown branch of west Little Rock Asian-fusion establishment A.W. Lin's.
Katmandu Mo Mo, which has been enormously popular as a food truck vending Nepalese dumplings and other Himalayan goodies, went brick-and-mortar, after a fashion, in April, opening a kiosk in the River Market's Ottenheimer Market Hall, 400 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. Elsewhere in the Market Hall, new owners took over and expanded the menu of Jay's Pizza in late July from Jay Baxter, also the founder of now-defunct Hot Springs Italian restaurant Pompeii and who operated Jay's in the former Mollie's location on West Grand Avenue in Hot Springs.
Down the street a bit, Buenos Aires Grill and Cafe opened in March at 614 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, most recently the final resting place of Juanita's.
Vintner Margie Raimondo bought Kent Walker Artisan Cheese, 323 Cross St., Little Rock, and opened Southern Table there in September.
BREW-SING COMPETITION
Also in the River Market, Zeteo Coffee, 911 W. Oak St., Conway, opened a Little Rock scion in April on the ground floor of the building at 610 President Clinton Ave.. Another Conway coffee emporium, Blue Sail Coffee Roasters, opened a shop in March on the first floor of the Little Rock Technology Park, 417 Main St. And Nexus Coffee and Creative opened in July, also in the River Market District, at 301B President Clinton Ave., Little Rock.
In other parts of town, Josh Alley and father Jim Alley acquired Guillermo's Coffee, Tea, & Roastery, in the Pleasant Valley Shopping Center, 10700 N. Rodney Parham Road (next to Chili's), in March, expanding tea and coffee lines and boosting their breakfast, lunch and appetizer menus. The Meteor, a coffee shop and bakery, opened in early June inside of Spokes, a bicycle shop, 1001 Kavanaugh Blvd. at West Markham Street, Little Rock, at the heart of Stifft Station. And up the street, the expansion of Mylo Coffee Co., 2715 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, into the next-door former Afterthought Bar and Bistro, which was expected to turn the space into a new restaurant and concert venue, seems to have stalled. Owner Stephanos Mylonas, meanwhile, was also supposedly in the process of putting a new roastery even farther up the street, into a former dance studio, 3604 Kavanaugh, at North Lookout Street.
MOVING ON UP ... ON THE EAST SIDE
Donnie Ferneau Jr. left 1836 Club, the private club in what used to be the Packet House on Cantrell Road in Riverdale, and announced in November that he'd be spearheading, with dessert mogul Kelli Marks of Sweet Love, Cathead's Diner, 515 Shall Ave., in burgeoning east Little Rock. In the interim, Ferneau; his wife, Meaghan; and former 1836 sous chef Amanda Ivy competed for several episodes in the Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race.
WRAPPED UP IN CHAINS
Little Rock's first (at least in a long while) DQ Grill & Chill opened in September at 6100 W. 12th St., just west of University Avenue. Franchisee Blake Lively had previously opened an outlet in Sherwood.
Farmers Branch, Texas-based Taco Bueno, which had been circling the capital city for a while, with outlets in southwest Little Rock, Benton, Conway and Maumelle, is nearing completion of a restaurant at John F. Kennedy and Pershing boulevards, just off Interstate 40, in North Little Rock, and announced plans to open one at West Markham Street and John Barrow Road in Little Rock. Meanwhile, Georgia-based Zaxby's opened its first Little Rock outlet in late November at 10601 Kanis Road, next door to Panera Bread, just east of Shackleford Road.
Freddy's Frozen Custard and Steakburgers opened its first central Arkansas outlet at 4305 E. McCain Blvd., North Little Rock, in May, and has another pending at Chenal Parkway and South Bowman Road, in front of Wal-Mart, in west Little Rock.
Gandolfo's New York Deli, headquartered not in New York, but in Lawrenceville, Ga., opened its first Arkansas location in June in the former Boneheads Grill in the Promenade at Chenal, 17801 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock. And Tampa, Fla.-based franchise-chain Burger 21 opened its first Arkansas outlet at the end of July in the shopping center at 12319 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock, where its neighbors include a Staples store and Bed Bath & Beyond.
THROWBACK THURSDAY
And in September, Mark Abernathy instituted Blue Mesa Grill Night at his Red Door, 3701 Old Cantrell Road, Little Rock, resurrecting menu items from his late, lamented west Little Rock Blue Mesa restaurant that pioneered Southwest cuisine in Arkansas in the early 1990s.
Style on 12/19/2017