Eateries enter - and exit

LITTLE ROCK — “My! People come and go so quickly here!” - Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz

The 365 days just past, as with previous years, were fraught with the comings and goings, and sometimes both, of restaurants new and old. We welcomed some new names, lost some venerable ones, and saw some venerable ones reborn in new aprons.

Herein our annual survey of the local restaurant scene. High points and low. Debuting. Defiant. Defunct. Derived mostly from about 50 weeks of Transitions columns in our weekly Weekend section. No, it’s not meant to be complete or comprehensive. (Subscribers can, if they wish, tap into our electronic archives and access them all. That’s what we did.) And for the coming year, bon appetit.

ADDIO ... E MILLE GRAZIE

In late October, almost exactly a year after Bruno’s Little Italy went under on North Bowman Road, so did The Villa, a stone’s throw around the corner at West Markham and Bowman.

Owner Ken Shivey put out desperate appeals via social media outlets to save the half-century-old Italian restaurant, in its third location, for which receipts had dropped drastically in the past year. Once word got out that the place was shutting down, customers came out of the woodwork. (The restaurant ran out of food at least twice on the day it closed its doors, Oct. 4.) But they came too few, too late.

Shivey, who took the place over with his late partner, Marty Enderlin, 34 years previously from the couple who founded it in 1960 on Hayes Street (later University Avenue), blamed the lousy economy and on area folks’ love affair with chain restaurants. (There are three competing Italian chain outlets within a couple of miles: Olive Garden, Macaroni Grill and Bravo! Cucina Italiana.)

On the evening the place closed, Shivey vowed that while he’ll be taking some time, he’ll be looking seriously at an opportunity to someday reopen. And, to keep his toe in the culinary water, he has apparently licensed his much-beloved salad and some of his pasta dish recipes to Take & Bake Pizza Cafe, 102B Markham Park Drive. There they’re dishing up partially finished Villa lasagna beef manicotti; spaghetti with tomato sauce, meat sauce or meat balls; and spinach fettuccine Alfredo (with or without grilled chicken) to customers to take home and oven-finish.

Meanwhile, two restaurants with suspiciously similar names to Bruno’s Little Italy came (and one of them went) in its Bowman Road space: Dona’s Little Italy, which disappeared after only a couple of months in business primarily because its owners did not seek any kind of alcoholic beverage permit, and Bruno’s Italian Bistro, which opened shortly after Dona’s closed.

The common denominator: Albanian-born Bruno Beqiri, who has no connection whatsoever to the Bruno family, but who has a long history in extant and no-longer-extant Italian restaurants. Bruno’s Italian Bistro now has a wine and beer license.

And meanwhile, the eventual reopening of Bruno’s Little Italy remains a possibility. Vince Bruno, the youngest scion and namesake of founder Vincenzo “Jimmy” Bruno, the chef at the late Bowman Road restaurant and the only member of the Bruno family officially still in the restaurant business, remains optimistic that he will find a location to set up shop, possibly in an existing restaurant space (saves a lot of money over starting from scratch) or some yet-to-be-constructed or remodeled place. Downtown has been mentioned.

Jacqueline Petit, who had been running Cafe Prego, 5510 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, for a long while (it’s one of the lineal descendants, through her husband, Louis Petit, of the legendary Jacques & Suzanne) sold it to a young out-of-state couple, Brian Lane and wife Maureen Martin, who were moving to Little Rock and looking for a restaurant to take over. They’re keeping the restaurant’s staff intact while expanding the menu, the wine list and the drink offerings.

HOTEL HAUTEUR

The transfer of the lease on what has been the Peabody Little Rock to the Marriott Corp. and Atlanta-based management company Davidson Hotels and Resorts will mean the departure of the Peabody ducks and likely a change in the hotel’s culinary footprint; its restaurant and catering staff, headed for more than eight years by Executive Chef Andre Poirot; and in its restaurants, which include the high-end Capriccio Grill Italian Steakhouse, the lobby bar and Mallard’s Cigar Bar & Lounge. (It’s a pretty safe bet that the Mallard’s name will vanish about the time the ducks do, if not sooner.) A Christmas Day fire at the hotel’s kitchen limits these operations for the time being.

Across Markham Street at the Capital Hotel, Executive Chef Lee Richardson left in June under circumstances about which he and hotel management are still rather terse. Richardson has claimed that he was merely pursuing other opportunities, which he hoped would crop up here in town. Hotel spokesmen wouldn’t elaborate beyond wishing him good fortune in whatever other endeavor he pursued. Just a couple of weeks ago, after a worldwide search, they named his replacement, Joel Antunes, most recently of London, where he has been a consulting chef to a couple of places that bear his first name (pronounced Jo-el, rhymes with noel) and Atlanta, where he won a 2005 James Beard Award as “Best Chef in the Southeast.” It’ll be a couple of months, he says, before his influence starts showing up on menus at Ashley’s and the Capital Bar & Grill.

Richardson protege Matt Bell, for four years the sous chef at Ashley’s, will sometime in late January or early February open a restaurant, to be officially named Oxford American’s South on Main. The building at 1300 Main St., now the headquarters of the Oxford American magazine, formerly housed Juanita’s before its move to the River Market District.

ROLLED HAUTES

In March came word that Ferneau was getting a new name: Rocket Twenty One - not exactly a surprise after businessman Frank Fletcher had bought the place late in 2011, but a bit surprising, perhaps, that the new name of the restaurant, which had been eponymously named for its chef and former owner, Donnie Ferneau, was that of a horse Fletcher owns.

It was a bit of a shock to get word in early summer that chef-owner Evette Brady would be retiring at Restaurant 1620, 1620 Market St., and that the restaurant would close for a major two-month remodeling. It resurfaced in early September, redone from the front door to the new patio, and renamed 1620 Savoy.

The Packet House, which had been a high-end restaurant at 1406 Cantrell Road in the ’80s, reopened in late September as the Packet House Grill. Owner executive chef Wes Ellis’ menu focuses on “modernized Southern Comfort food” (large portions of things like pork chops in a house barbecue sauce and Ellis’ version of bow tie mac and cheese).

Terry’s Finer Foods-The Restaurant, 5018 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, went through a more-or-less simultaneous change in management (taking over: Peter Donovan, formerly of the Capital Hotel, Country Club of Little Rock and Chenal Country Club) and chef (Trey Adams, late of House of Blues in New Orleans, Libby’s Cafe & Bar in Sarasota, Fla., and Miami’s DeVito South Beach).

PRODIGALS RETURN

Customers showed up in massive droves to mark the long-awaited (it took two years, for Pete’s sake, after closing at 17th and Main to make way for a chain drugstore) reopening of The Box at 1023 W. Seventh St., Little Rock, in July. Owner Kelly Joiner brought back the original grill and most of the staff.

Mr. Dunderbak’s, a popular McCain Mall spot in the ’70s and ’80s, reopened Dec. 14 in the mall, McCain Boulevard and U.S. 67-167 in North Little Rock - this time in the downstairs food court to long lines of folks looking for bratwursts, sausages and house made soft pretzels with port wine cheese.

Back in the day when it used to pretty much just sell doughnuts, there were a few Dunkin’ Donuts outlets, including one at 19th Street and University Avenue. Now that the chain franchise has become a purveyor primarily of sandwiches and coffee drinks (though, of course, it also still sells doughnuts), it’s making a comeback with stores that opened in mid-July at 6805 Cantrell Road and just a couple of weeks ago at Kanis and Shackleford roads.

The Cantrell road store displaced Sai Gon, which moved, lock, stock and Vietnamese/Thai/Chinese menu, west to 14524 Cantrell, to the former Gina’s Sushi Bar space. The Kanis/Shackleford store required the tear-down of the shack-like Burger Mama’s, which moved its operations to 7710 Cantrell Road, where it only lasted a couple of months. Its replacement: Route 66 Diner, a ’50s/’60s-theme and decorated diner/soda shop.

DOWNTOWN DELICACIES

It was musical stalls this year in the River Market’s Ottenheimer Market Hall, 400 President Clinton Ave. Chef Travis Meyer’s fairly high-end Cinco Entrees came and went in the hall’s southwest corner. Once it left, the city moved in the tourist-information-and-souvenir kiosk on the hall’s east side, and the kiosk was transformed into a police substation.

Across the hall, in the northwest corner, Le Pops Gourmet Ice Lollies opened in the space that had most recently housed Fatsam’s. In the southeast corner, Pasta Jack’s closed, to be replaced by what had been a baked goods shop called Sweet Crumbs, which became a full-fledged soul-and-home cooking restaurant that was renamed Sweet Soul Southern Cuisine. And moving into the spot that shop had occupied, next to Cinco Entrees, is now Jay’s Pizza, a gourmet pizza place operated by Jay Baxter, who formerly “cheffed” at the Governor’s Mansion.

Outside the Market Hall, the former Underground Pub, 500 President Clinton Ave., underneath Boscos, was, after several months of idleness, replaced in June by W.T. Bubba’s (subtitled “Soon to Be Famous Country Tavern”; the W.T. stands for “White Trash”).

And Porter’s Jazz Cafe, 315 Main St., finally ended its fairly rocky existence - which included an ongoing identity crisis, an on-again, off-again liquor license, suits over unpaid back rent and a complaint from a neighboring law firm that the restaurant’s exhaust fan spewed grease on their cars. Its recently opened replacement on the ground floor and basement of the mixed-use building is the Jamaican-themed Montego Cafe.

GO SOUTHWEST, YOUNG MAN

Scott McGehee, John Beachboard, Herren Hickingbotham and Ben Brainard’s Local Lime, a new taco/fresh margarita restaurant concept was an instant hit when it opened in mid-November at the Promenade at Chenal, 17000 block of Chenal Parkway, a few doors away from the same guys’ Big Orange. McGehee is still holding off on confirming rumors and reports of a Midtown Big Orange until he signs a lease.

Cozymel’s Mexican Grill, 10 Shackleford Drive, closed with very little notice. Speculation on what might replace it focuses on a franchise or branch of the Addison, Texas, Twin Peaks chain, whimsically characterized as a Hooters-like operation with a wait staff of young women in somewhat revealing clothing. A chain spokesman, while confirming that a Little Rock outlet is in the works, would not identify a location or a target opening date.

The former west Little Rock branch of the Faded Rose, 400 N. Bowman Road, Little Rock, became Bumpy’s Tex Mex Grill & Cantina in April.

The west Little Rock branch of La Hacienda, 12315 Chenal Parkway, shut down in mid-July and resurfaced, now named LaCasa Real (but still owned by the Alvarez family), in the former Chi Zi’s/CiCi’s Pizza space in the Market Place Shopping Center, 11121 N. Rodney Parham Road.

Santo Coyote, a fairly popular North Little Rock spot, opened a south-of-the-river location in the western spur of the Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11610 Pleasant Ridge Drive, off Cantrell Road.

And La Salsa Mexican & Peruvian Cuisine replaced Las Palmas in the storefront in the Lakehill Shopping Center, 3824 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock. Apparently it has a private club license so it can sell beer and margaritas on local option-dry Park Hill.

BURGERS COME, BURGERS GO

Mooyah Burgers, Fries and Shakes opened the first two of what its local developer says may be as many as 50 Arkansas and north Louisiana outlets, in April at 3954 Central Ave., Hot Springs, and in May at 14810 Cantrell Road, formerly a Blue Coast Burrito. Another was supposed to open in the fall in the Riverdale shopping center on Cantrell Road but we haven’t seen it yet.

And David’s Burgers, following success in Conway and west Little Rock, opened in the long-empty Roadhouse Grill, 3510 Landers Road, off U.S. 67/167, North Little Rock.

“For lease” signs suddenly sprouted in late summer at Cheeburger Cheeburger in the Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11525 Cantrell Road. And all corporate-owned Arkansas locations of Back Yard Burgers shut down in the fall. Franchise outlets remain open in Bryant, Benton, Fayetteville, Hot Springs and Rogers.

ASIAN GRACEFULLY

Kiyen’s Seafood Steak and Sushi is the new name of the place at 17200 Chenal Parkway that used to be Papa Sushi (and was originally Vermillion). In that same shopping center, Lulu Chi says she’s expanding her eponymous second restaurant, which has been known as Chi’s Chinese Express, into the vacant space formerly occupied by Coffee Beanery, with a new Szechuan-centered menu that she also plans to introduce at her original restaurant, Chi’s Bistro, at West Markham Street and Shackleford Road.

That’s at least partly in reaction to the recent opening of A.W. Lin’s Asian Cuisine in the Promenade at Chenal. The restaurant’s name in its six outlets in Tennessee and two in Alabama is Fulin’s Asian Cuisine; the renaming avoided trouble with Fu Lin, an existing establishment of long standing, now in its third (or is it fourth?) location at 200 N. Bowman Road.

May 15 was the original target date for the opening of RJ Tao Restaurant & Ultra Lounge in the Shops in the Heights, 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd. Several subsequent target dates came and went until the restaurant, a joint project of Sushi Cafe chief and longtime Lulu Chi protege Robert Tju and Chi’s son, Jacob, opened in September.

Sky Modern Japanese opened in the Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11525 Cantrell Road, in the space formerly occupied by Capi’s and originally by Imagine.

Sahil Hameerani bought Amruth in the Market Place Shopping Center, 11121 N. Rodney Parham Road, and replaced it with Curry in a Hurry, which he had been operating for just a few short months in small (and very modest) digs on Pike Avenue in North Little Rock.

China Plus Buffet opened at Colonel Glenn Road and South University Avenue, while Fu Xing Asian Buffet, whose easily misread sign became a local and Internet joke, closed at 9210 N. Rodney Parham Road.

Around the corner, Aladdin, a highly unusual Persian-Mexican hybrid, opened in early June in the former Masala Grill & Teahouse space in the Ashley Square Shopping Center, North Rodney Parham and Reservoir roads. And Kebab House, another hybrid (this one Turkish-Tunisian), opened in the former Subway/Zogi’s Euro Asian Bistro storefront, 11131 W. Markham St.