Chicken Wang's Cafe is a southwest Little Rock institution that will be 19 years old as of Jan. 23.
On Colonel Glenn Road, the compact place is like a comfortable old den. A high counter and a big yellow, mounted menu dominate a room, whose red walls are lined with framed posters of President Barack Obama. Customers, some eat-in, some carry-out, come and go on a recent early Friday afternoon. It's obvious owner Wayne Fuller has no patience for multitaskers or "saggers": A sign on the counter states, in large letters, "PULL YOUR PANTS UP or Don't Come In!!! ... No one wants to see your underwear." Another post warns that anyone trying to use a cellphone while ordering will not be served.
One taste of the lemon pepper wings makes it easy to see why customers would want to obey the signs. An entertaining chat with Fuller -- the amiable and talkative, no-words-mincing owner of Chicken Wang's -- also explains the cafe's appeal.
"I'm not a bigwig, but I've got the bigwig customers," Fuller says in his gravelly voice. "I've got the best customers. I don't want all the customers; I just want the best ones.
"I mean something to a lot of people around here. ... I believe if I don't open, some of these people would be in my driveway."
Fuller's cafe has become a member of a prestigious fraternity. It's among the destinations and events listed in 100 Things to Do in Little Rock Before You Die (Reedy Press, $16), a book by author and former Razorback and professional basketball player Celia Anderson.
Debuting Aug. 15, the book reached the No. 1 new release book on Amazon in its genre. The 144-page guide, complete with suggested itinerary and index, offers roughly half-page summaries of each destination. Also included are tips, interesting facts, additional photos and roundups of particular types of venues (such as coffee shops and movie theaters), and a breakdown of activities by season. Entries themselves are segmented according to type: Food and Drink (the largest); Music and Entertainment; Sports and Recreation; Culture and History; Shopping and Fashion. Not all entries are destinations; some are events.
Many of the expected suggestions are included: The Clinton Presidential Center. Doe's Eat Place. The Arkansas Arts Center. Big Dam Bridge. Park Plaza. The Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. The Little Rock Marathon and Riverfest. But there are also some not-so-obvious selections, along with some newer ones: South on Main restaurant. The Food Truck Stop, where food trucks congregate to sell to customers who can then sit and dine. The Outlets of Little Rock. Bemis Honeybee Farm. The Arkansas House of Prayer.
Although Anderson's athletic career and her previous books (Love, Ocean; Daddy's Home) have given her celebrity status, she would rather the attention not be focused on her: "This really isn't about me. It's about all of the ... business owners who've worked hard for all of their lives."
The idea for the book was not an original one, acknowledges Anderson, who's director of national accounts for the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Destination smorgasbord
"They do '100 Things' [lists] in all of the major cities. It's kind of like a brand that happens through the publishing company," she says. "The publishing company reached out to me to write the book. And when I saw the concept, I thought, 'Man, this is going to be a huge undertaking' -- until I realized that, 'Hey, you work for the Convention and Visitors Bureau. You're at these places anyway.'"
Anderson agreed to do the project and began assembling her list of candidates. It took her about a year and a half to get the book completed.
"People have been very receptive; they're very honored to be mentioned," Anderson says of business owners whose establishments were included. "A lot of places didn't even know they were in the book, of course."
Fuller says he found out about his entry when Anderson, a longtime customer, brought the book to the restaurant and told him. "And I was like, 'Yes!'" he says. "I thought I was a hotshot, then.
"The other morning a lady flagged me down and said, 'Wayne, you're in this lady's book.' And I said, 'Yeah, I know.' But she said, 'She shot you up, man,' I said, 'Yeah' ... I was happy. That was good for me."
Other not-so-expected book entries?
"I keep mentioning Bemis, the honey bee farm [about 15 minutes south of downtown], for those who are interested in that sort of thing," Anderson says. "It's really a fascinating place to visit."
She also cites Mystery Mansion Escape Room, 2122 S. Broadway. "It's Little Rock's only escape room. ... It's just a fun activity for the family to do. Or you can have birthday parties there for your kids. It's just a different ... twist on the city."
The Painted Pig also made a big impression on her. There, "you can make your own pottery and design your own pottery.
"You also have the Arkansas House of Prayer, and that's a place that people don't even know exists. And it is so pretty. It is so serene. And they're working hard to bring together people of all kinds of religions and just give people a place where they can come and they can sit in solitude and be one with whatever it is that they believe in."
Personal haunts
Also included are some of Anderson's longtime favorites, such as Chicken Wang's -- and Pyramid Art, Books & Custom Framing, where Garbo Hearne, Pyramid's owner, hosted an Aug. 20 book signing and author lecture for Anderson.
Hearne found out when Anderson first started on the project that Pyramid would be one of its destinations. "The title is pretty daunting -- 100 things to do in Little Rock before you die," she says. "And I was like, 'Wow, that should be a bucket list, I think.'"
She mentions a couple of book buyers who have made it their business to go to all of the suggested destinations before Christmas.
"When we have people come in, we say, 'Hey this is the book for you.' And we add it to a lot of gift bags and things of that nature."
Along with Pyramid, a number of the city's other black-owned, or black-oriented, destinations are included in the book -- Sims Bar-B-Que, the Daisy Bates House and Mosaic Templars Cultural Center. "I included every one that I possibly could," Anderson says.
Many places, Anderson says, she'd already visited. Others, like Cupcakes on Kavanaugh Boulevard, she visited for research, such as with Le Pops Gourmet Ice Lollies and Pizza Cafe.
"And then there's some things that made the list because they're the first or they're the oldest," such as Franke's Cafeteria. "And you can't not mention Sims [Bar-B-Que] because Sims Bar-B-Que is ... one of the very few [black] businesses that survived integration." It has been around since 1937.
Some places Anderson visited with her 12-year-old daughter, Gabrielle: "I was so glad I was a mother when I was putting together this book, because had I not been a mother I don't know [that] I would have known, or had a chance to experience the Trampoline Park, Playtime Pizza, Wild River Country."
The one risk of such a book is the chance a featured business will close its doors at an inopportune time. The Afterthought, the venerable lounge and music venue in the Hillcrest neighborhood, did just that in Anderson's case.
"We were almost to production stage when the Afterthought closed. I was like, 'Wait, give me that book back,' because it was throughout the book, of course," Anderson says. She was able to remove the references.
A happenin' place
100 Things is tangible proof that those old complaints about the city being "too slow," with nothing to do, are now unfounded.
"Little Rock is a great city," Anderson says. "The quality of life is good, there are plenty of things to do, and it's affordable."
By the way, she's tired of the negative statistics that come out about Little Rock being a dangerous city.
"Contrary to what the national rankings say about our crime, I feel very safe in my city," she says. "And I think as citizens we have to start saying that. We have to start telling that story because I think people think living in Little Rock is like living in the middle of Compton [Calif.]. And it's not.
"There's no place that I do not feel comfortable going to in Little Rock."
Style on 09/06/2016
