Restaurant Transitions: La Hacienda open; Midtown return postponed; GiGi’s Soul Cafe to debut soon

La Hacienda, 3024 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, has finally reopened after a complete reconstruction took more than six months.
La Hacienda, 3024 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, has finally reopened after a complete reconstruction took more than six months.

La Hacienda, 3024 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, opened Monday, according to the latest (as of deadline) Facebook post: "We will have a soft opening for now to get everything back up and running to normal and to get back into the pace of things. Our grand reopening will come in a couple of weeks after some finer planning of details and specials." Hours will be 11 a.m.-9 p.m. daily. The phone number remains (501) 661-0600.

Anndrea Wyrick and her family have bought the recently vacated former Nashville Bar and Grill, 10840 Maumelle Blvd., North Little Rock, and are turning it into GiGi's Soul Cafe & Lounge, with a target grand opening date of July 28, serving soul food and barbecue, and offering music. Wyrick recently posted on the new establishment's Facebook page that she's remodeling the interior and that "I can guarantee you that GiGi's will NOT resemble Nashville in any way, shape or form." (That apparently includes using real silverware, as opposed to the plastic cutlery the previous owner provided.) The inspiration for the menu -- and the restaurant's namesake -- is Wyrick's 87-year-old grandmother. Offerings will consist primarily of comfort food and barbecue -- smothered chicken, smothered pork chops, greens, smoked meats, potato salad, cornbread and so forth. Wyrick tells North Little Rock Times columnist Neal Moore that she's angling for the feel of "an old-school rhythm-and-blues and jazz bar and restaurant." Hours: tentatively 11 a.m.-3 p.m., 4 p.m.-closing, which will be later Wednesday-Saturday, when, past the dinner rush, the place will morph into the more-adult-oriented Blue Candle Lounge, featuring soul and jazz acts with an occasional "spoken word" night. Wednesdays they'll rotate between karaoke and an open mike. A phone number is pending.

And on the other side of Maumelle (and we're a little late catching up to it), the I-40 Restaurant, 18505 MacArthur Drive, North Little Rock near where Arkansas 365 meets Interstate 40, has closed. A May 7 post on its Facebook page, facebook.com/I40Restaurant, explains, "Due to circumstances beyond our control, I-40 Restaurant will be closed until further notice. Our last day in business was Friday, May 5. We would like to thank everyone who has dined with us over the years! We will miss seeing you all!" Subsequent posts indicate that the circumstances may involve a family illness. The phone number, (501) 851-9946, remains "live" but nobody answers.

Midtown Billiards, 1316 Main St., Little Rock, has had to put off its planned Friday grand reopening. Owner Maggie Hinson got word Tuesday morning that the city's inspector is out of town this week. Hinson says she and her staff are still trying to figure out the details and when the bar will be able to welcome back customers. The phone number is (501) 372-9990.

Aug. 26 is the target date for the opening of the Dairy Queen, 6100 W. 12th St., Little Rock. Drive-by observation shows construction is underway.

Go Go China, 3412 S. University Ave., Little Rock, will close Sundays as of this weekend. Hours are now 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. The phone number is (501) 568-4646.

Colleague Jennifer Christman, who noted in her March 30 review of the Tacos 4 Life in the Shackleford Crossings Shopping Center, 2630 S. Shackleford Road, Little Rock, that the restaurant's parking and entrance area had been poorly designed, making it "tricky to navigate, especially for anyone driving anything bigger than a Smart Car or skateboard," says a recent redesign has added an exit and blocks off of part of the original lot, "to reduce congestion and create better flow for its drive-through. It's still not perfect, but it's better."

Juice Leaf, 402 Louisiana St., Little Rock, has been supposedly shuttered for renovations, however, a colleague noticed that the brown paper has come off the windows, the interior has been gutted and a sign on the window provides leasing information from real estate company Moses Tucker. A recording tells us the listed phone number, (501) 615-8322, "has been changed; the new number is unknown."

A large for-sale sign is visible outside Joubert's Tavern, the venerable neighborhood watering hole, billiard parlor and gathering place at 7303 Kanis Road, Little Rock, at the confluence of Kanis, West 12th Street and Rodney Parham Road. (The cover photo on the Facebook page, facebook.com/Jouberts-Tavern-175240273084, proclaims it "Little Rock's version of Cheers.") The phone number is (501) 664-9953.

Scott Raines of Little Rock's Table 28 won Monday's Green Leaf Grill Recipe Remix competition with his Surf & Turf (Scallops) dish -- reducing the calorie count from 555 to 328 to qualify under the downtown restaurant's "Simply 600" criteria (600 or fewer calories, 600 or fewer milligrams of sodium, 20 grams or less of fat, 5 grams or less of saturated fat) -- and took home a $5,000 check. Second and third place prizes, $1,000 and $500, respectively, went to Casey Copeland of Hot Springs' The Avenue for his 395-calorie version (reduced from 842) of Roasted Lamb and to Jay McAfee of the Pine Bluff Country Club for his 533-calorie (down from 1,343) Shrimp & Grits.

Baptist Health will set up a temporary #BHealthy Farmer's Market, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Friday in the courtyard of the Promenade at Chenal, 17711 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock. At least 10 local farmers will be selling produce and kids can play a "Shopping Cart Game" to win prizes and get nutrition facts from the Baptist Health experts. Call (501) 821-5552.

Honeybaked Ham is going to build a 5,200-square-foot store between Dress Barn and Stein Mart in North Little Rock's Lakewood Village Shopping Center, on McCain Boulevard, that will provide area customers with "new lunch, catering, and gift-giving businesses," a spokesman says in an email announcement. "We should be done with the build-out by the end of September."

The June 26 Hot Springs Sentinel-Record lists a building permit, issued June 22, permitting the addition of three-compartment and hand sinks, with certificate of occupancy, for La Potosina, 4737 Central Ave., Hot Springs, which formerly housed the Asian Food Market and the Hunan Palace Chinese Cuisine. No details yet on what or when.

And one of our Spa City-area correspondents alerts us to the recently opened Blue Springs Grill, 6225 N. Arkansas 7, Jessieville, just north of Hot Springs Village. The menu features steaks, chops, burgers and seafood with a full bar. Hours are 4-9 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 4-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. The listed phone number is (501) 204-5050; check out the Facebook page, facebook.com/Blue-Springs-Grill-562117657307877.

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 06/29/2017

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