Skye's Little Bistro, within Stratton's Market, 405 E. Third St., Little Rock, and next-door to Dugan's Pub, is no more. A handwritten butcher-paper sign stretched across the front display case proclaims, "Bistro closed. Big news coming soon." The market remains open. Pub and market owner Don Dugan says he's not sure yet what the "big news" will be, but they're "in process of a couple ideas of what we would like to do with the space and are weighing our options for it at the moment."
Cotija's Mexican Grill, 406 Louisiana St., Little Rock, now has a food truck, we're told, that you are likely to spot at forthcoming festivals. Claudia Alvarez -- the Alvarez family is also connected to the La Hacienda mini-chain -- is the registered owner; the truck is registered at 418 E. Center St., Jacksonville; and the listed phone number is (501) 416-6216.
Womply, a software company that provides services to small businesses, has released its first-ever "State of Local Restaurants" report covering the 2017 calendar year, analyzing transaction data -- including average transaction volume, ticket size and daily revenue -- for nearly 26,000 restaurants in all 50 states. A look at the Arkansas results (womply.com/state-of-local-restaurants/arkansas) shows that "restaurants in Arkansas are among the most affordable in the country in terms of average ticket size. ... Restaurants in Arkansas rank 41st for the average number of transactions each day (35), 49th for average ticket size ($25) and 48th for average daily revenues ($894). All told, this makes The Natural State the 50th overall for restaurant revenue and one of the most affordable states to #eatlocal."
Following our report last week on the apparent demise of the J. Gumbo's in the Centre at Ten center, 12911 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, we got a call from a reader wanting to know what's up with the other central Arkansas location of the chain-franchise operation, 2050 John Harden Drive, Jacksonville. Apparently that one has also closed. The phone number, (501) 241-0800, returns a "disconnected" notice.
Smokey Joe's Bar-B-Que is now open in the former Dickey's Barbecue Pit, 13503 Crystal Hill Road, North Little Rock, in a strip center in front of the Walmart. George and Sharon Qandah are back in business almost exactly a year after "retiring" (after 36 years in business) and closing their restaurant on Military Road in Benton, which actually originated on Chicot Road in Little Rock. Their new operation will be open 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday. The phone number is (501) 803-9445.
The venerable U.S. Pizza outlet at 8403 Arkansas 107, Sherwood, is about to undergo a major upgrade, says the chain's chief operating officer, Drew Weber. They're applying the same floor plan for their recently opened Maumelle restaurant, expanding it by 1,000 square feet and building it around the existing, tiny wooden shack where the pizzeria currently operates -- and will continue to operate during construction, 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. "We build them ourselves," Weber explains, so they're looking at a 16-18 month timeline for the build-out. The phone number will remain (501) 992-1512.
Little Rock Regional Chamber's 14th annual Taste of the Rock, 5:30-7:30 p.m. today at the River Market Pavilions, 400 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, will feature food and drink from more than two dozen member restaurants, caterers and distributors, competing for "Best Taste" and "Best Booth" awards. Presenters are McLarty Automotive Group, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Choctaw Casino Hotel -- Pocola and the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the gate. You must be 21 (and have ID to prove it) to attend. The chamber will donate leftover food to Women & Children First. Call (501) 374-2001 or visit littlerockchamber.com/events.
El Dorado's Murphy Arts District has opened its new Farmers Market at MAD, 8 a.m.-noon Wednesday and Saturday through October in the north pavilion in the Murphy Amphitheater, 105 E. Locust St., El Dorado. Vendors will sell produce, meat, herbs, bedding plants, baked goods, jams and jellies, canned products, homemade items and local honey -- and only goods grown, raised or made by participating vendors. Call (870) 315-0380, email elizabethy@eldofest.com or visit eldoMAD.com.
And we get a lot of comments about, and have from time to time written about, the noise and sound level in restaurants. A lot of chain places are designed to be noisy because it increases the speed that tables turn over, which increases profits. In bigger cities, restaurant writers publish the decibel level along with details about the filet mignon. Now there's an app for that: SoundPrint, through which users can sort and find restaurants by decibel ratings, and use their own phone's microphone to submit measurements. The app shows more than 25,000 noise-level submissions, mostly in major cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco; there are a couple of dozen spots on the map of Little Rock and North Little Rock, almost all in downtowns and extending west to Riverdale, but we have been unable to find any of them that have been rated yet. Download the app from your favorite app provider -- it's free -- and it'll walk you through how to take measurements and other operational details. You can be among the first to start rating their existing locales or map new ones.