Taco Bell Cantina to debut in Arkansas
K-Mac Enterprises will open Arkansas' first Taco Bell Cantina in Fayetteville on Wednesday. The Cantina at 412 W. Dickson St. will be Taco Bell's fifth in the nation, following Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas and Austin, Texas.
The Cantina will feature a more upscale menu as compared to a traditional Taco Bell and a redesigned interior. The menu features tapas-style sharing plates of nachos, quesadillas and chicken fingers alongside a wide-range of customizable frozen slush drinks from the restaurants "Freeze Wall." Customers can choose flavors like pina colada, margarita or berry blast and can decide to add liquor, ranging from spiced rum to tequila.
The regular Taco Bell menu will also be available. The Taco Bell Cantina will be open 7 a.m. to 3 a.m. Monday through Saturday and from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. Sunday.
Fort Smith-based K-Mac Enterprises has been a Taco Bell franchisee since the early 1980s and operates 274 Taco Bell restaurants in nine states.
Shoe retailer opens Siloam Springs site
Shoe Sensation is opening a store in the Highland Park Shopping Center at 153 U.S. 412 in Siloam Springs. A grand-opening celebration is scheduled for April 13.
This is the company's fourth Arkansas store, with stores in Arkadelphia, Mountain Home and Paragould. Shoe Sensation sells footwear for the entire family from athletic to dress shoes.
The parent company of Shoe Sensation, Shoe Sensation Inc. is a privately held corporation based in Jeffersonville, Ind., and operates more than 145 stores in 18 states.
Engineering firm honored at LR gala
A project by Fayetteville engineering firm McGoodwin, Williams & Yates Inc., won top peer honors at the 2017 American Council of Engineering Companies of Arkansas Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on March 16 in Little Rock. The firm won for its design of the Batesville Wastewater Treatment Plant and Collection System Upgrades.
The Environmental Protection Agency recognized the improvements as a Green Project under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 for its energy savings and awarded the project $12.6 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, including a principal-forgiveness loan of $6.3 million
Plant construction began in March 2010 and was finished in January. The cost of the improvements was $33.5 million.
Highlands Oncology an award contender
Highlands Oncology Group, a Northwest Arkansas cancer treatment provider, has been nominated as a contender for "Best Sponsor-Focused Technological Development" by the Clinical and Research Excellence Awards. Highlands was nominated for its use of IBM Watson to electronically screen patients for qualifying clinical trials in which they may be eligible.
IBM Watson is a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data, according to the International Business Machines website.
Highlands Oncology Group was nominated in congruence with Novartis Oncology and IBM Watson Health for their collaboration in the clinical trial matching program.
Winners of the 2017 Clinical and Research Excellence Awards, which recognize excellence across global clinical research, will be decided by a distinguished panel of industry experts and announced at a ceremony April 5 in Boston.
Briefs are for businesses in Northwest Arkansas that are new, have moved or closed, opened a new branch, changed owners or have been honored by an independent organization. Email items to [email protected]. Information will be published as space allows.
SundayMonday Business on 03/26/2017