To paraphrase Horace Greeley, "To-go west, young man."
This week we also to-went to downtown and Hillcrest, adventuring dishes, one per restaurant, for consumption upon our own table, because even for those places that fully adhere to state Health Department guidelines regarding protective measures and social distancing, we share with many people reservations about exposing ourselves to the possible pounce of pandemic predation.
The idea for this series has been to restrict the geographic radius with expectations that meals that started out hot at their origins will still be so at their end point. And as is our consistent custom, all meals are paid for up front.
• STAR OF INDIA, 301 N. Shackleford Road, Little Rock, (501) 227-9900; lrstarofindia.com; facebook.com/lrstarofindia
WHAT WE GOT: Lamb lunch special ($10.99): tomato soup, Lamb Kofta, mixed-vegetable curry, rice, naan, ice cream and tamarind and mint chutneys. The lamb entree, vegetables and soup all came in plastic to-go bowls of the same size, so there was really no telling until we opened them which was which. The soup was steamy, spicy and delicious and we eschewed a spoon and just drank it down in several slugs. The entree consisted of half a dozen ground-lamb meatballs in a mildly spiced, orange sauce-broth into which we dumped the paper-boxed to-go portion of rice so little if any of it went to waste. The pleasantly curried veggies included peas, carrots, green beans, cauliflower and one good-size chunk of potato. Herbed naan (the pita-like Indian flatbread), cut in half, was still warm in a foil wrapper. The fruit-flavored ice cream topped the meal off nicely. The restaurant also offers similar fish, chicken, vegetable and vegan lunch special packages at the same price.
HOW IT WENT: Star of India hasn't yet opened its dining room, so we placed our order by phone; it was ready and we paid for it upon our on-time arrival. Major domo Sami Lal, who remembers every customer he has ever had in the decades the place has been open, ID'd us even in a mask and knew exactly how long it had been since we were there last, which has been far too long. (One of the drawbacks of this job is that with so many new places opening we don't get back to the places we like.) Months, if not years or decades, of experience dealing with to-go orders has led to all of these items being concisely packed in a big paper bag, which we needed to carefully unpack once we got it home. The ice cream was in a tightly wrapped-in-plastic foam cup, so it was just barely starting to melt when we got into it. Lal threw in a polystyrene foam cup of hot, milky Indian chai tea that fully complemented the meal. Lal and the guys who carried bags out of the kitchen were fully masked and gloved.
HOW IT'S GOING: There were several other to-go orders awaiting pickup. Lal says they have been staying busy so far.
• DAVE'S PLACE, 210 Center St., Little Rock, (501) 372-3283; davesplacerestaurant.com; facebook.com/davesplace restaurant
WHAT WE GOT: Gazpacho (cup, $3.50); Italian salad ($7.50) — romaine, plum tomato, cucumber, pepperoncini peppers, supposedly onions (we don't recall actually encountering any), shredded mozzarella, grated parmesan, croutons, all tossed in a light Italian dressing and topped with thick chicken collops. The salad was enormous, fresh and with enough different flavors and textures to make it thoroughly enjoyable. The soup was rich, pleasantly zippy and of a little smoother consistency than we prefer (mom's gazpacho, our gold standard, is charmingly chunky to the point you can identify the vegetables that went into it, with a distinct garlic accent).
HOW IT WENT: It has also been altogether too long since we've been to Dave's; a casual check on their dining room status (not yet open) revealed that this soup and this salad were specials of that day. We ordered over the phone; we could have paid that way too, but we decided instead to pay (and tip) directly the nice masked-and-gloved young woman who brought the bag directly to our car window.
HOW IT'S GOING: Three or four cars were lined up awaiting curbside hand-off, with at least two behind waiting for our parking spaces.
• DELTA BISCUIT CO. (food truck), (501) 551-2177; deltabiscuits.com; facebook.com/deltabiscuitco, parked on Sunday at The Rail Yard, 1212 E. Sixth St., Little Rock
WHAT WE GOT: It was a tough choice among the half-dozen biscuit-based items on the menu, but we settled on the Hillbilly Benedict ($9), a split large firm biscuit, topped in turn by a good-size slice of Petit Jean ham, two eggs over easy and sausage gravy in a compostable container (we strongly suspect the flatware are similarly environmentally friendly). This turned out to be more food than we expected, but we managed to wolf it down somehow. If you prefer your biscuits fluffy, you might be disappointed, but this was just the right consistency to serve as a base for the Benedict. Ham, eggs and chunky gravy all complemented one another.
HOW IT WENT: The truck occupied the front part of The Rail Yard, an outdoor food court that also encompasses a stand for Count Porkula (allowing the restaurant to provide substantial outdoor dining space and keep the interior, open for to-go orders, dark on the weekend) and a CAN-tini bar. The fellow at the window and the fellow preparing the food were fully masked and gloved.
HOW IT'S GOING: As early as 11:15 a.m., there was a steady stream of food-truck customers as well as some for the barbecue; the truck was scheduled to serve through 3 p.m.
• CIAO BACI, 605 Beechwood St., Little Rock, (501) 603-0238; ciaobacilr.com; facebook.com/ciaobacihillcrest
WHAT WE GOT: One of chef Jeffrey Owen's recent dinner specials ($27), 7-ounce portion of blackened Atlantic salmon with a sweet chile glaze, on a bed of creamy crab penne pasta with a side of julienned and sauteed summer vegetables. This has to be one of the finest dishes we've had anywhere since we last actually dined in a dining room. The crab meat-pasta-cream sauce "starch" would have made an excellent entree by itself. The salmon was perfectly cooked — we didn't so much notice that it was blackened as we did how well the chile glaze complemented the fish. The grilled and lightly spice vegetables were, alas, thin, oblong slices of squash and zucchini, with one long haricot vert, but we ate them anyway.
HOW IT WENT: We ordered and paid over the phone; our order was bagged and ready for the masked-and-gloved server to hand us just inside the front door; we could also have opted for curbside pickup.
HOW IT'S GOING: Ours was one of a couple to-go orders awaiting pickup; there was at least one table in the back of the now-open dining room, and anecdotally, at least (based on folks bragging via Facebook on meals they've consumed there), things are going well.
TAKEOUT TASTINGS