RESTAURANT REVIEW: Breakfast success at cheery Arkansas cafe

Eggs, a biscuit, hash browns and bacon are part of the Full Spread breakfast at Peppermill Cafe & Grill in Cabot. It also comes with pancakes.
Eggs, a biscuit, hash browns and bacon are part of the Full Spread breakfast at Peppermill Cafe & Grill in Cabot. It also comes with pancakes.

Peppermill Cafe & Grill.

The name has a nice ring to it. It evokes visions of a bright, cheerful bistro-style restaurant. And when my mother and I made a visit on a recent Sunday, I found that to be the case.

Peppermill Cafe & Grill

Address: 2798 S. Second St., Cabot

Hours: 7 a.m.-2 p.m. daily

Cuisine: Breakfast, plate lunches, sandwiches and burgers

Alcohol: No

Takeout: Yes

Wheelchair accessible: Yes

Phone: (501) 286-6129

The cafe sits smack dab in the middle of a Cabot strip mall with more closed businesses than open ones. It took a minute to find it, but there is a pepper mill on the sign, so that clued us in.

The interior is lovely, bright and cheerful. The walls are white, which helped brighten the room even more. There is colorful art on the walls and a selection of tables and booths in the dining area. A counter anchors the back wall that hides the kitchen.

Business partners Tim Smith and Bryan Williamson, who have several years of restaurant experience in the Cabot area, opened the cafe in April and, though the staff was still learning, the owners' experience was obvious. Peppermill is open every day, but closes at 2 p.m.

Peppermill serves breakfast all day, every day, so we decided to share a breakfast and sandwich. The restaurant was well stocked with servers who scurried around taking care of diners and delivering food. A personable young lady took our order and I was interested to see just how fast our food would come out, having read online reviews that complained of slow service.

The food arrived at our table within 15 minutes. First came part of the Full Spread breakfast ($8.99), which includes two eggs cooked your way, bacon or sausage, toast or biscuit, grits or hash browns, and a pancake stack. We had to ask about the pancakes, which did not come out with the other items.

The breakfast was arranged attractively on the plate with two scrambled eggs, three strips of bacon, hash browns and a big biscuit, which I saved to take home. The eggs had a pleasing silky texture. The thick sliced bacon was crisp; the hash browns were a bit undercooked and pale, but flavorful, since we added mushrooms and onions to the mix for 40 cents extra each. Other add-ons: cheese, tomato, jalapeno, bell pepper, chili, gravy and ham.

While the pancakes were soft and flavorful, they were not your usual pretty, round and lightly browned version. These were a bit misshapen and very thin, but none of them went to waste.

We also ordered the Cabot Club ($9.79), which comes with fries. The menu says it has layers of ham, turkey, lettuce, bacon and mayonnaise on their signature toasted bread, which appeared to be pretty standard white bread, toasted well but very dry. It could have benefited from a dab of butter. The ham and turkey were pre-sliced lunch meat, which is fine, but it seemed that they peeled pieces off about five at a time and just folded them over. It was a bit of a job biting through them. The bacon was a bit floppy, not cooked as well as what came with our breakfast.

Peppermill's fries are cut into very thin planks, not too crispy and fresh, not frozen. The scrambled eggs were not seasoned much either. A shake of salt and twist of the pepper worked wonders.

That day's desserts were strawberry pie or shortcake made in-house from local berries. We went with the shortcake ($3.99) and were not disappointed. The cake was a substantial slice of yellow goodness with a really nice texture. The berries seemed to have been sweetened and left to sit, so instead of big red berries they were a bit mushy and shrunken, but still had a fresh flavor. Whipped cream added a nice finishing touch.

The panini section of the menu listed a couple of interesting choices. I ordered an Uncle Cuban ($9.79) to take home. Paninis come with fries, but since I had already tried those I opted for the sweet potato tots, with no extra charge for the substitution.

I split the meal with my son for dinner that night, warming both in the toaster oven. The panini bread was crusty and toothsome. The sandwich is made with a slice of slightly dry pork loin and a thick layer of lunch-meat ham and two slices of pickle. Since my server asked what kind of cheese I wanted, I said American, only to discover it was left off. In the true sense of what a Cuban sandwich is, they missed the mark just a bit.

The cafe also offers a selection of omelets, salads, burgers and sandwiches, and "favorites" that include an Angus rib-eye steak ($16.99), grilled salmon ($12.99), a grilled pork chop platter ($11.49) and fried chicken tenders ($10.99). Daily specials Monday-Friday ($8.99-$10.99) include boneless wings, roasted pork loin, spaghetti, Cajun shrimp and sausage pasta and fried catfish.

Overall, the food was good and the staff relatively attentive and very friendly and the cafe offers a comfortable ambience. But don't forget that they close at 2 p.m.

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The Cabot Club sandwich at Peppermill Cafe & Grill is made with ham, turkey, bacon, cheese, lettuce and tomato. It is served with its signature fries on its signature toasted bread.

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Two pancakes are part of the Full Spread breakfast at Peppermill Cafe & Grill.

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The recently opened Peppermill Cafe & Grill in Cabot sits in the middle of a strip center on South Second Street.

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The Peppermill Cafe & Grill’s paninis include the Uncle Cuban, with pork and ham, cheese and pickles. Patrons can substitute sweet potato tots for fries.

Weekend on 05/10/2018

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