Little Rock's Atlas Bar newest SOMA restaurant, neighborhood hang out

Nasi Goreng, an Indonesian fried rice dish, came with tofu instead of chicken, and got spicier as we approached the bottom of the plate. It’s one of the few original menu items available at Atlas Bar in Little Rock’s SoMA neighborhood.
Nasi Goreng, an Indonesian fried rice dish, came with tofu instead of chicken, and got spicier as we approached the bottom of the plate. It’s one of the few original menu items available at Atlas Bar in Little Rock’s SoMA neighborhood.

Atlas Bar, Tony Poe's long-awaited gustations-libations station, has in one respect accomplished its mission: Poe has created, successfully, in our judgment, a nice little neighborhood bar in a town that up until recently lacked nice little neighborhood bars.

The neighborhood, however, is South Main, aka SoMA, which has in the past few years seen a burgeoning of nice little neighborhood food-and-drink establishments. Just in that same block you have, from north to south, Community Bakery, Core brewpub, Dos Rocas and now Atlas Bar. In the next block, South on Main, Midtown Billiards and Raduno, south on down to Boulevard Bread, Loblolly Creamery, the Tea Bar at the Green Corner Store and The Root.

Atlas Bar

Address: 1224 Main St., Little Rock

Hours: 3-11 p.m. (kitchen open 5-10 p.m.) Monday-Thursday, 3 p.m.-midnight (kitchen open 5-11 p.m.) Friday-Saturday

Cuisine: Eclectic/international

Alcoholic beverages: Full bar, cocktail program

Wheelchair access: Yes

Credit cards: V, MC, D, AE

(501) 712-4713

atlassoma.com

Nonetheless, in its first month of operation, the place has been drawing a numerous clientele, maybe for the food, maybe for the drink/cocktail program, maybe for the atmosphere. The place can get noisy, however, even with relatively few customers letting loose.

The decor ranges from classic (ceiling-fanned light fixtures that recall the '20s) to steampunk (a couple of tables in one corner look almost Rube Goldberg-like), with a heavy red emphasis. That includes red lighting around the Art Deco-ish bar (the under-mount lighting turned green over St. Patrick's Day weekend); red-padded barstools and chairs at several small marble-top tables that also have bench seating on the opposite side; and a red-baize pool table.

Poe, a former travel agent, has decked his walls with a range of somewhat whimsical, travel-theme items -- framed maps from the collection of Poe's legendary father, Fred; models of cruise ships (one behind the bar, one above south-side booths); an airplane propeller; a plastic Hindenburg that hangs from the ceiling. (A server, fiddling with the lighting, created a brief flare from one of the recessed bulbs that made it appear for a moment like the model had caught fire. Wow!) One large booth near the front door has some obviously fake fake-food items under "glass."

Poe got a gift from the culinary gods when he signed on legendary chef Denis Seyer (Jacques & Suzanne, Le Casse Croute, Alouette's, Gypsy Grill) to set up his kitchen, and his son, Antoine, a veteran of Alouette's and several other area establishments, to run it.

That has undoubtedly elevated Atlas' cuisine by at least a leap and a bound. But it has also meant that Poe's original menu concept of "international small plates, a unique collection of tapas-style international street food" has pretty much gone by the wayside.

We don't know what street you live on, but nobody on our street is serving up Spinach and Ricotta Gnocchi al Forno ($13), baked en casserole in a marinara-cream sauce with a thick cheesy topping of mozzarella, romano and parmesan. Yes, it was delicious, and we lapped it up to the last shred of dark-gray potato-spinach dumpling, but if that qualifies as a "small plate" we'd hate to see a large one. It's a full meal even without the side small house salad, mostly hearts of romaine with some chopped tomatoes (we chose the light balsamic vinaigrette dressing over Caesar and were satisfied).

The menu does include a couple of items Poe initially promised for his menu, including the Nasi Goreng ($13.95), an Indonesian fried rice dish that's supposed to come with chicken, plus vegetables, shrimp paste, eggs, sweet soy sauce and spices. Ours came instead as the vegetarian version with tofu, even though we didn't ask for it that way. It was initially pleasant but somewhat bland, but got spicier as we descended toward the bottom of the plate. It comes with a Smashed Cucumber Salad (zucchini-looking cucumber chunks marinated in a toasted sesame chile oil and toasted seeds) that is also available a la carte.

The rest of the dishes Poe projected, many of which we were anticipating with interest, are missing -- no Thai chicken satay, no Turkish pide, no American house-made Pigs in a Blanket, no charcuterie plate, no French Baguette Jambon Buerre, no Pacific Islands Spam Musubi (grilled Spam on sticky rice wrapped in seaweed), no South African "Bunny Chow" (a hollowed-out loaf of bread loaded with curry), no Japanese Okonomiyaki ("pancakes" loaded with vegetables and served with sweet plum sauce) and no Laugenbretzel (a giant Bavarian-style pretzel served with an assortment of German mustards). Sigh.

There is a handful of smaller-plate items that are essentially appetizers, though they're large enough, and priced high enough, to share. The Spicy Hummus ($8), though not especially spicy, was tasty and smooth and plenty for two, and the buttery crisp pita crisps were thick enough to stand up to it and complemented the flavor. We also tried, but were not as thrilled by, the Tomato, Mozzarella and Foccacia ($10.50), slices of "fresh" tomatoes (can that really be said about tomato slices in March?) topped with adequate slices of fresh mozzarella and drizzled with a balsamic vinaigrette and with two huge wedges of fresh foccacia bread accompanied by a tiny amount of extra virgin olive oil into which to dip it.

Do not pass up the Seyers' wonderful French Onion Soup Gratinee (cup $5.50, bowl $8), one of a couple of Alouette's legacies on this menu, a thick, rich, onion-y broth with a hearty crouton topped with just the right amount of gooey cheese and served in proper ceramic vessels with what appear to be lion heads on each side.

Antoine Seyer also told us Alouette's is the source for the recipe for the large, soft-grilled crab cake on the Hawaiian Crab Cake Sandwich ($17.25), nicely balanced between crab meat and filler, drizzled with Sriracha mayonnaise and served on a Hawaiian bun with a slice of roasted pineapple with a generous side of crisp-outside, soft-inside shoestring fries.

The rest of the menu, though no longer small-plate-centered, is certainly international; it includes the Thai Beef Salad ($15.95), generous-size slices of beef moderately spiced, some slightly dry, others moister, radiating over a bed of lettuce, cilantro, Thai basil and mint tossed with chopped cucumber, tomatoes and a few other vegetable bits and peanuts in a Thai vinaigrette. It comes topped with crispy, flamboyantly shaped rice noodles that, although these were a little crunchier than usual, still looked and tasted like they were made from polystyrene.

Atlas Bar has an impressive list of specialty cocktails, which we skipped because we were feeling, well, not exactly abstemious, but that we wanted to be able to drive home under our own steam instead of having to hail an Uber. (There's a bartender's choice "mocktail" on the menu for $5, free for designated drivers.) We did, however, indulge in a couple of items off Atlas' goodly list of craft drafts. The Working Glass Hero Blond Ale ($5.50) from Little Rock's Rebel Kettle turned out to be an excellent accompaniment to the crab cake sandwich, and the $8 price tag aside, we'd recommend the Peroni Pale Ale from Italy as a good, sturdy brew partner for the onion soup.

Not having previously encountered olive oil cake, we were initially a little leery about Antoine Seyer's dessert recommendation, but we were very much pleased by the Olive Oil Orange Cake with Loblolly Creamery Dark Chocolate Sorbet ($6.50). The cake had a particular richness alongside the citrus tang and the dark-chocolate sorbet was the perfect accompaniment.

Though we got a different server on each of our visits, service was generally good to excellent; we did have minor waits for things like beverage and water refills and for our check.

Weekend on 03/21/2019

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