Imagine walking through the door of what just a couple of days before was one restaurant that served one type of cuisine, only to discover it's now a different restaurant serving something entirely different. It isn't usual, but it happens — remember, just a few months ago, the complete changeover from Ira's to Allsopp & Chappell over a matter of just a few days that happened on Main Street. Well, it just happened again: Roma Pizza & Pasta, 402 Louisiana St., Little Rock, which had been drawing a small but dedicated clientele, suddenly vanished. Within a day or two it had become Malibu Cafe, with an ambitious breakfast menu that starts with smoked bacon, eggs, waffles, French toast, huevos con chorizo and four kinds of omelets, and a lunch-dinner menu that goes on to deli sandwiches; burgers; grilled salmon, tilapia and pork chop entrees; and "Cali-Style Street Tacos." (The changeover was so sudden that the shelving in the kitchen's assembly area is full of pizza boxes of various size.) Hours are 7 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Saturday. The phone number is (501) 615-8338.
Connor Grimes, who with his wife, Heather, co-owns the pending Little Rock outlet of Springfield, Mo.-based Hurts Donut Co., is not yet ready to specify an opening date (it's close, sometime later this month, but Grimes says it has been pushed back for about a week because Seattle snowstorms have delayed the shipment of their fryers) or even to confirm the location — although it has already been reported as the first floor of the Block 2 Lofts building, 107 E. Markham St., Little Rock, and a recent job posting on Facebook listed "E Markham St, Little Rock, AR 72201, United States." ("Hiring insanely outgoing, personable, guest-service-driven, sweeter-than-sunshine, Southern hospitality-drenched, on-stage smiling, singing and dancing donut ninjas. If you have any sweet dance moves or can break boards with your head, you're hired on the spot. If you are not comfortable doing that ... we might have a position washing the dishes or feeding our goldfish.") Grimes did reveal that he has hired a general manager and is training some 80 employees, and that yes, once it opens, it will be open "24/7 or, as they say at Hurts, 25/8." An official statement on the location and grand opening date will happen on the Facebook page; Hurts is also working on a promotional giveaway of free doughnuts to the first 100 people in town that spot its Emergency Donut Vehicle. The 3,537-square-foot location has been the home of at least a half-dozen earlier restaurants and/or nightclubs. Visit wannahurts.com/where-it-hurts.
Cigar Republic is set to open March 21, the opening day of the NCAA basketball tournament, at 1315 Breckenridge Drive, just off Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock. That's almost a year to the day (March 22) that we reported the "retirement" of Vesuvio Bistro, the earlier occupant of the building that for several decades housed an outlet of the El Chico chain. The "very cigar lounge" will be a private club with a modest monthly membership fee and a full bar, says proprietor-manager Joe Miller; food service will come from food trucks, since, Miller says, "I demolished that kitchen the first thing I did." That space, he explains, now houses two indoor golf simulators. You'll be able to watch the college basketball tourney and subsequently other sports on a vast number of large-screen TVs, and Miller has scheduled his grand opening for April 6, the weekend of the Final Four. Hours will be 10 a.m.-midnight daily; the phone number will be (501) 615-8040, and he expects the website, cigarrepublic.com, to be up and running by the time you read this.
Meanwhile, a little ways up the Rodney Parham corridor, a $56,000 building permit has been applied for toward the "remodel for restaurant" for Bawarchi Indian Cuisine in the Market Place Shopping Center, 11121 N. Rodney Parham, Little Rock. The space, storefront 36B, has previously housed no fewer than four Indian restaurants — Flavor of India, Amruth, Curry in a Hurry and Kebab & Curry — and is notable for its stone's-throw proximity to the popular Taj Mahal, just half a block away. As we have reported, it's a franchise outlet of a Plano, Texas-based chain; the menu, according to the website, bawarchibiryanipoint.com, offers more than two dozen versions of biryani (the Indian rice dish); vegetarian and nonvegetarian entrees; North and South Indian items (including several versions of the crepe-like dosa); and even "Indo Chinese" fusions of Indian and Chinese cuisine.
And Diablos Tacos & Mezcal has opened at 528 Central Ave., Hot Springs, previously the home of Bubba Brew's Brewing Co. Spa City Taproom. We've found a Facebook page, but we're still trying to track down operating hours and a phone number.
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 02/14/2019