RESTAURANT REVIEW: Prospect, new sports bar in Little Rock's Heights neighborhood

The pimento cheese topping the Bang Pow Burger at Prospect Sports Bar & Grill sends the basic burger into new territory.
The pimento cheese topping the Bang Pow Burger at Prospect Sports Bar & Grill sends the basic burger into new territory.

God bless the person who first decided to slather pimento cheese on a burger.

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The Chili Cheese Fries at Prospect Sports Bar & Grill require a fork, but every messy bite is worth it.

Who knows who this soul is or was, but their creativity has boosted an oftentimes good dish into unusual greatness.

Prospect Sports Bar & Grill

Address: 5501 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock

Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Sunday

Cuisine: Sports bar fare

Credit cards: AE, D, MC, V

Alcoholic beverages: Full bar

Reservations: Yes

Wheelchair accessible: Yes

Carryout: Yes

(501) 603-0080

facebook.com/Prospe…

Take the Bang Pow Burger ($10) at Prospect Sports Bar & Grill on Kavanaugh Boulevard in the Heights neighborhood of Little Rock. It's a good burger at its basics, with a savory beefiness and cooked well enough but still juicy. The sturdy brioche bun holds its own against the burger's juices.

Those are the fundamentals of this burger. But here's where American ingenuity arrives: The burger is smeared with a thick coating of pimento cheese -- the most Southern of all cheese forms. No longer is this chunky spread -- a concoction of cheddar cheese or processed cheese, mayonnaise, pimentos and seasoning -- reserved for mere finger sandwiches, crackers or vegetable sticks.

No, somewhere along the line -- and recently, it seems, perhaps as part of a national focus on Southern cooking -- pimento cheese has made its way onto burgers. It can make a world of difference, as with this Prospect burger, with the heat from the burger's jalapenos and sriracha enveloped in the creamy goodness of the pimento cheese. It was as if an occult hand had deemed this burger a chosen one, empowered with a sharper flavor, gifted with added texture and elevated above its common brothers.

But then a sports bar is basically a celebration of America and American ingenuity, a gathering place for food, sports and booze.

Start with the usual sports bar food. Buffalo wings, Chili Cheese Fries, fried pickles -- all offered at Prospect -- are American inventions. Even piled nachos -- and not the original nacho of a single tortilla chip topped with cheese and a sliced pickled jalapeno pepper -- are an American alteration of the source material.

Add on sports. There are TVs all over Prospect, the latest venture from Lulu Chi, owner of several Little Rock restaurants. There's a projector TV hanging from a stage (karaoke is part of the sports bar Wednesday night ritual), seven TVs hanging over the U-shaped bar, TVs on the walls and even private booths with individual TVs.

There are some leftover elements at the restaurant from Prospect's predecessors like Oishi Hibachi & Thai Cuisine and RJ Tao Restaurant & Ultra Lounge, but not many. There's still that cylinder-shaped entrance hall, and those cavelike booths with their own TVs, but the large Buddha is gone, along with the lounge or club vibe.

Prospect says it has "all the sports channels." I don't doubt it. On one evening visit, the choices of watching experiences included everything from NFL and college football to something called the National Pro GRID League on the obscure Root Sports network. The GRID League? Oh, that's strategic team athletic racing; a timed competition between two co-ed teams that includes weightlifting, body-weight work and other athletic elements.

God bless America, the sport is actually kind of mesmerizing.

Then, what's all this food and sports worth without some alcohol? Prospect has shelf after shelf of whiskeys, tequilas, vodkas and even ice-cold shots of Jagermeister. There's a full wine rack as you enter, plus cocktails and more. And then there's an extensive beer selection, including Arkansas brews in cans and bottles such as Lost Forty and Diamond Bear, respectively. Also, there's a nice draft selection of craft beers such as Arkansas' own Flyway and Ozark mixed with national craft big boys such as Lagunitas and Bell's.

Prospect is reaching for that Heights crowd with some upscale items on its sports bar menu, such as the House Smoked 12-ounce Rib-Eye ($24), which was topped with blue cheese crumbles and fried tobacco onions. It was good, a little flatter than most rib-eyes I've seen, but not worth its price tag. The promised smokiness was nonexistent.

The entrees also include Beef Tenderloin and Truffle Fries ($26) and a full rack of Signature House Smoked St. Louis Ribs ($24; half is $14), but those are the only items above $20 on the menu. Even a Shrimp Plate, grilled or barbecued, is only $16.

There are five salads, including a Citrus Avocado Salad ($10.50), with mixed greens and citrus fruits tossed with a house vinaigrette and topped with sliced avocado and candied almonds, and the Blue Moon Steak Salad ($13), which includes tomatoes, blue cheese, fried tobacco onions and grilled steak topped with balsamic vinaigrette.

But the majority of Prospect's menu is focused on sports bar grub, and each expected sports bar item I tasted was good, if not great.

The easy test of any good sports bar is its wings, and Prospect's Signature Smoked Wings ($8 for eight big wings) are slathered in an exciting Buffalo sauce that playfully brings a hint of heat while not overshadowing the smokiness of the wings. It's a perfect little appetizer; not difficult to execute but still well-done. The wings also can be ordered covered in a honey barbecue sauce, a dry rub or a wing flavor titled XXX Hot Scorpion Pepper Sauce, which aroused my interest but not my appetite.

Another appetizer winner was the Chili Cheese Fries ($6), a bowl filled with hand-cut fries doused in chili, jalapenos and a soupy (in a good way) white cheese sauce that earned the dish the right to be eaten with a fork.

Playing to elegant taste buds is the Creamy Crab Artichoke Dip ($11), a large bowl of lump crab meat, artichokes, cream cheese, parmesan and smoked Gouda with pita triangles for dipping. The cream cheese was the lead flavor in the dish, but it's a rich dish that pairs grandly with the pita triangles.

A Prime Rib Sandwich lunch special ($7.99 plus $2 for fries; burgers and sandwiches are served with thin and delicious house-made chips) was a hefty meal, a bedraggled blending of succulent prime rib with gooey cheese that won me over via the tenderness of the meat.

As much as a fan I was of the Bang Pow Burger -- and it's one of five burgers on the menu -- the best burger or sandwich I ate at Prospect was the House Pulled Pork Sandwich ($8.50). The smoky, tender pulled pork was good, and the sweet barbecue sauce was certainly fine. Ditto, the coleslaw. No, what really catapulted this sandwich into new territory was a surprising layer of crisp pickles. (Or not surprising, since they are listed as a menu item, if I'd bothered to read that far.)

I'm not sure I've ever had pickles on a barbecue sandwich. I'm not sure they even belong (says the barbecue purist in me). But they work so well.

Once again, American ingenuity at work. Ain't this country great?

Weekend on 11/03/2016

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