When the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock’s MacArthur Park closes June 30 for a lengthy renovation, its restaurant, Watercolor in the Park, will go with it. But Watercolor’s successful Petit & Keet Sunday brunch will survive, moving into the actual Petit & Keet, 1620 Market St., Little Rock, as of July 14.
Jim Keet, the “Keet” of Petit & Keet, says the menu is still in development, as Keet’s people continue extensive surveys of Watercolor and P&K customers and extensive staff tastings, but count on it including many items that were successful at Watercolor — eggs in various styles; house-cured bacon, ham, sausage; and the very popular honey-sriracha chicken paired with a Belgian waffle.
Also likely to be on the menu: a churro waffle and the so-called “shrimp and blintz.” Also, expect the award-winning Desayuno Burger, a house-made chorizo and Wagyu beef patty with chipotle lime aioli, house-cured bacon and fried egg on a King’s Hawaiian bun. It recently won an area best-burger competition, Keet says, and will be vying in Dallas in October for a $100,000 grand prize.
Hours are tentatively set for 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m., but those may expand, “depending on what our guests tell us going forward,” Keet says.
The catering operation of JTJ Restaurants LLC (that’s Jim, Tommy and Jake Keet) will continue to use the equipment at the Arts Center for off-premises jobs until probably early August; they’ll eventually move it to their new catering headquarters in the former Cock of the Walk campus on the North Little Rock side of Maumelle, where Keet is promising a “surprise for central Arkansas. hopefully in November.”
And JTJ, which holds the Arkansas franchise for Taziki’s Mediterranean Cafe, is in the process of building, from the ground up, a prototype of a new kind of Taziki’s on Arkansas 10 (aka Cantrell Road) in Little Rock, just west of Taylor Loop Road. The 3,500-square-foot building will feature limited indoor seating, a pickup window and curbside service, a private dining space and a pergola. Keet says the target to have it open is the end of November.