The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus might have been talking about the area restaurant scene when he opined that "All things change and nothing stands still," that existence is a constant flow of things coming into being and passing away, and that it is not possible for a man to step twice into the same river, because, second by second, "it's not the same river and he's not the same man."
As in every year, new restaurants opened, older -- even venerable -- restaurants closed or reappeared in new guises. Chefs changed kitchens and in a lot of cases, Heraclitus would have been unable to step twice into the same menu.
From our weekly Transitions column -- almost 50 of 'em so far in 2014 -- we've culled the culinary news and drawn a rough map of the flowing restaurant river. As always, a disclaimer: We're skimming that river, not plumbing its depths.
Blue Dog blues
Possibly the year's biggest, or at least juiciest, restaurant saga involved the space at 2601 Kavanaugh Blvd. in Little Rock's Hillcrest neighborhood, where, you will recall from last year's report, restaurateur/entrepreneur Frank Fletcher had converted Ferneau into Rocket 21, turning a high-end, cosmopolitan restaurant named for its original chef/owner, Donnie Ferneau Jr., into more of a meat-and-potatoes place named for a racehorse.
In January, Fletcher up and moved it, lock, stock and Blue Dog art, across the river into a new extension he'd had built onto his Wyndham Riverfront Hotel on the North Little Rock riverfront, where there was already an excellent thriving meat-and-potatoes establishment, the Riverfront Steakhouse. After numerous delays, it finally opened in late February -- and closed in early July. Some of its dishes found their way onto the Riverfront Steakhouse menu; a couple of the Blue Dog paintings ended up on the steakhouse walls.
Meanwhile, restaurant mahatma Jerry Barakat, the success of whose current restaurants (Arthur's Prime Steakhouse and its Village at Rahling Road neighbor and companion, Ocean's at Arthur's) has overshadowed a long string of less-than-successful efforts, filled a market niche with Kemuri Sushi Seafood Robata in that Kavanaugh Boulevard space, modeling it on the famous worldwide Nobu chain. He's recently added lunch hours and is plotting to add a Sunday brunch.
We'd gotten word in March that Barakat had lured Chef Brian Kearns from the Country Club of Little Rock to become executive chef at Arthur's/Oceans, and subsequently Kemuri, where Barakat installed Chef Greg Wallis, previously of The Afterthought and YaYa's Euro Bistro, as chef de cuisine.
Ferneau, meanwhile, resurfaced with Good Food by Ferneau, which started out as a catering/take-out business out of a Hillcrest church kitchen, focusing, according to Ferneau, "on healthy (gluten- and sugar-free) meals for people with active lifestyles." He subsequently moved in, in partnership with Travis McConnell's Butcher & Public, to the former Argenta Market, 521 Main St., North Little Rock, where he has been serving "healthy" lunches and, on weekends, high-end dinners. He is also still working on a new high-end restaurant, The Still, in the still-in-development Hall-Davidson Building, 200 block of West Capitol Avenue in downtown Little Rock, with an early-summer 2015 target opening date.
Elsewhere in Hillcrest restaurant news, Tomas Bohm, proprietor of The Pantry, 11401 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock, announced in early January that he would be taking over the former house at 922 N. Palm St., which had most recently been The House, to open a second location, called The Pantry Crest. Numerous delays -- most of which involved more intensive reconstruction of the century-old house than he'd originally anticipated -- pushed back his original expectation of an April/May opening date to early October.
Tables d'hotel
The other biggest restaurant story of the year is the transition of Ashley's at the Capital, the premier restaurant in the Capital Hotel, West Markham and Louisiana streets, to One Eleven at the Capital. It opened its long sliding doors in early August following a complete physical makeover designed to make the place feel more "convivial" but still classy and a major menu overhaul on the part of Executive Chef Joel Antunes.
Across Markham Street, the Marriott Hotel underwent an almost $17 million renovation that involved converting the former Pancetta Regional Kitchen & Wine Bar to the Heritage Grille Steak and Fin.
Something's brewing
Diamond Bear Brewing Co., which completed its move from West Cross Street in Little Rock to 600 N. Broadway, North Little Rock, on April 21, opened its new taproom/restaurant, Arkansas Ale House, in mid-June.
Scott McGehee and Yellow Rocket Concepts partners John Beachboard and Russ McDonough have opened the taproom at their new Lost 40 Brewing Co. in a 19,000-square-foot former warehouse, 519 Byrd St., Little Rock. Nearby, at 425 E. Third St., the new Blue Canoe Brewing Co. has also opened a taproom. Stone's Throw Brewing, East Ninth and Rock streets, has been consistently seeing its brews added to area restaurant beer lists while it operates its own so-far-successful taproom (food provided by food trucks). And Damgoode Pies founder/owner Jeff Trine announced in early November that his mini-chain would be taking over the now-closed Boscos Restaurant and Brewing Co. in the Museum Center, 500 President Clinton Ave., in Little Rock's River Market, by the first of the year, with the brewery reopening shortly after.
Mexican hat dance
The preoccupation of McGehee and his Yellow Rocket Concepts partners with getting Lost 40 open has delayed the opening of Heights Taco & Tamale Co. in the erstwhile Browning's Mexican Grill, 5805 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, resetting the target opening range to late January or early February. McGehee says he still has no plans to open a second Local Lime, the area's top-grossing nonchain restaurant -- either in Midtown, as rumor has placed it, or anywhere else. Putting aside the occasional gripe that its far-west Little Rock Chenal Parkway location makes it hard for many of his potential customers to access, he notes it's still sufficiently unique to attract diners and drinkers from all over the metropolitan area (including Benton, Bryant and Jacksonville).
Neighboring Mamacita's Mexican Bar & Grill, 5923 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, closed for "renovations" and then never reopened, and was subsequently replaced by Baja Grill, Craig Roe and co-owner/wife Melissa moving their Benton-based food-truck operation into a new brick-and-mortar location and leading a trend (see below).
And El Chiapaneco Mexican Restaurant went into the space at 3700 John F. Kennedy Blvd., on North Little Rock's Park Hill, replacing Rosalinda Restaurant Hondureno, which moved in November to the former Dixie Pig location, 900 W. 35th St., North Little Rock.
Asian with grace
Cafe 5501, 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, the "replacement" for RJ Tao Restaurant & Ultra Lounge, closed; co-owners Robert Tju and Chi's materfamilias Lulu Chi reopened it over the summer as Oishi Hibachi & Thai Cuisine, a hybrid of teppanyaki steak house, sushi bar and Thai menu. Tju, also the co-owner of nearby Sushi Cafe, 5823 Kavanaugh, also has pending a second location, to be called Sushi Cafe West, in the Eleven Two Eleven Center, 11211 Cantrell Road, just west of Interstate 430, Little Rock; we're still waiting on a target opening date.
A few blocks down Cantrell, Far East Asian Cuisine & Bar, 11610 Pleasant Ridge Road, Little Rock, closed in November. And Thai restaurant Lemongrass Asian Bistro, 4629 E. McCain Blvd., North Little Rock, closed in June. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Cheng's Authentic Chinese Cooking opened in that space, a sibling of sorts of the Mr. Chen's Authentic Chinese Cooking in the Village Shopping Center, Asher and University avenues, in Little Rock -- different chef-owner but the same menu and the same recipes, no Asian grocery store.
And, replacing the defunct-this-year Your Mama's Good Food, 215 Center St., Little Rock, sometime in early January is family-owned Three Fold Noodles and Dumpling Co., offering several varieties of northeastern China-style dumplings, noodles and steamed buns.
Downtown doings
Cache Restaurant, the elaborate, multimillion downtown project of entrepreneur Rush Harding III and his chef-son Payne, actually opened ahead of schedule in January in the Arcade Building, 425 President Clinton Ave. in Little Rock's River Market District.
Chris Tanner, owner of Cheers in the Heights, is working to open Samantha's Tap Room and Wood Grill in 4,700 square feet on the ground floor of the Mann on Main building, 322 Main St., where it will become the next-door neighbor of Bruno's Little Italy.
Award-winning chef Jason Knapp opened Green Leaf Grill in January on the ground floor of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield building, 601 S. Gaines St., Little Rock, and a few months later, announced that he had also picked up the former Quizno's space at Fourth and Spring streets, where he expects to open an express version -- Green Leaf Grill Express -- sometime in the first quarter of 2015.
Bart Barlogie Jr. of The Fold and a handful of business partners expect to open Piro Brick Oven & Barroom, a pizzeria and bar, at 1318 S. Main St., Little Rock (its neighbors on that block include South on Main and Midtown Billiards), headed for an early January soft opening, with a full opening to the public sometime in mid-January.
Spa City shifts
Jay Baxter, the progenitor of Jay's Pizza in the Ottenheimer Market Hall in Little Rock's River Market, opened Dec. 11 in the former cottage at 538 W. Grand Ave., Hot Springs, that once housed Mollie's Restaurant, which closed in March 2009 after 63 years in business, as Jay's Hot Springs.
Nom Noms Mexican Grill N Chill, 3371 Central Ave., Hot Springs, closed, or at least, according to co-owner Rafael Alvarez, has temporarily closed during the search for a new Spa City location; he hopes to be in that new spot by the time the racing season heats up the restaurant business in mid-January.
And Arkansas' second-to-last Perkins Family Restaurant & Bakery, 3630 Central Ave., Hot Springs , also closed. The only remainder: the location on East Main Street in Blytheville.
Keep on truckin'?
Former food truck Pizzeria Santa Lucia also moved into brick-and-mortar quarters at Terry's Finer Foods, 5018 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, as The Pizzeria @ Terry's Finer Foods, in the space left empty when Terry's Finer Foods the Restaurant moved into the former retail store on the other side of the grocery store.
Thai food truck kBird took over the space at 600 N. Tyler St. in Little Rock's Hillcrest that had been the home of Palette Catering, which had operated the Pizzeria Santa Lucia. And chef-owner Justin Patterson is also joining the brick-and-mortar movement as his popular Southern Gourmasian food truck operation goes into the Sterling Annex, 219 W. Capitol Ave., Little Rock, where its neighbors will include Ferneau's The Still.
DOA/MIA
• The Packet House Grill, 1406 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. And nothing came of a report/rumor that Lee Richardson, the former executive chef at the Capital Hotel, had taken the place over -- it's still for sale.
• Starving Artist Cafe, 411 Main St., North Little Rock. Possible major factor: the split between co-owners Jason (the chef) and Paula (front of the house) Morrell.
m D'Carlo Ristorante & Pizzeria on Stagecoach Road at the Pulaski/Saline County line
• Rocky's Pub, in the Indian Hills Shopping Center, 6929 John F. Kennedy Blvd., North Little Rock. Nothing has come, or at least not yet, of efforts by owners Kristine and Patrick Dunlap to reopen in a different location.
• Mr. Dunderbak's in North Little Rock's McCain Mall, which reopened after several years' absence with great fanfare, and closed, according to a Facebook post from the owner's daughter, with great regret.
• And this stillbirth of sorts: Legal troubles in Lonoke County apparently killed off entrepreneur Gene Hickman's dream of reopening the former Sir Loins Inn, 801 W. 29th St., North Little Rock, as Sir Loins Steak and Lobster House. The building and its contents were subsequently sold at a "sell at any price" auction.
Wrapped up in chains
The west Little Rock Johnny Carino's, in the western spur of the Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11610 Pleasant Ridge Drive, off Cantrell Road, Little Rock, closed Jan. 5. Springdale-based Restaurant Management Group LLC and MarketPlace Concepts LLC opened a MarketPlace Grill in that space in September.
Central Arkansas' first BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse outlet opened March 24 in the Shackleford Crossings shopping center, 2624 S. Shackleford Road, Little Rock, and later in the year the Huntington Beach, Calif.-based chain announced a second would open early next year outside McCain Mall. The mall also is the site of a planned second central Arkansas location of Bar Louie; an outlet of the Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe mini-chain opened there in May.
And the Austin, Texas-based Chuy's chain confirmed they'll be opening a third Arkansas outlet at 5105 Warden Road, North Little Rock, in early 2015. (The others are in Rogers, which opened in February, and on Chenal Parkway in west Little Rock, which opened in May 2013.)
And we know that Little Rock will be getting, sometime in fall 2015, an outlet of the Southlake, Texas-based Del Frisco's Grille chain. But we don't yet know where. As always, we'll keep you posted.
Style on 12/23/2014