52 dishes we crave in Central Arkansas
Fill up a year with one great eat a week.
by Max Brantley @ArkansasBlog, David Koon, Lindsey Millar @lindsey_millar, Leslie Newell Peacock @eyecandypeacock, Michael Roberts and Daniel Walker
Page 2 of 7
2701 Kavanaugh Blvd.
Capital Bar and Grill
Pickled egg salad
What if you took some briny pickled eggs — the kind they fish out of big jars in dive pool halls — and chopped up three or four of them along with enriching additions — mayo, relish? After you piled a big mound of that in a bowl, what if you surrounded it with sliced French bread and some thick, smoky, huge slices of artisanal bacon dripping with oil de swine. If you sold it for $8, you'd have a feast for two and the ideal accompaniment to a tall, cold draft beer or a tumbler clinking from ice sloshed in a high-octane spirit. Breakfast at cocktail hour? It's a champion.
111 W. Markham St. (inside the Capital Hotel).
Cupcakes on Kavanaugh
Red velvet
The cake's lovely, but make no mistake, the magic is in the thick cream cheese frosting. It's been known to induce euphoric daydreams of playing hop-scotch through clouds of sugar.
5625 Kavanaugh Blvd. and 11525 Cantrell Road (at the Pleasant Ridge Town Center).
Delicious Temptations
Yogurt pancakes
Rolling out of bed becomes exponentially easier with the prospect of these light, fluffy pancakes in your near future. The incorporation of creamy yogurt adds a tangy note that sits nicely with the addition of fruit; strawberry, banana, and apple varieties are all available and exemplary. Slather with butter if you please, but these flapjacks are good enough on their own without any syrup.
11220 N. Rodney Parham Road.
Dixie Pig
Pig salad
Iceberg lettuce topped with a mound of East Arkansas-style finely chopped smoked pork. That's about it. And some commercial salad dressing and crackers. But we always douse it with the Dixie Pig's unique sauce, mostly vinegar and hot pepper. Cold crunch and rich meat with a palate afterburn.
900 W. 35th St., North Little Rock.
Dizzy's
Reuben
Arkansas Fat's, a '50s-era, pine-log roadhouse that sat where the Tanglewood shopping center is today, just about ruined us on Rueben sandwiches. We spent much of the last 40 years trying to recreate the soft, sweet-sour perfection of Fat's Rueben until we discovered it at Dizzy's Gypsy Bistro. The Rueben at Dizzy's is perfect corned beef, moist sauerkraut and good toasted rye bread. After 40 years living in a Reuben desert, we're in Dizzy's at least once a week for the best Rueben in Arkansas.
200 River Market Ave.
Doe's Eat Place
Tamales
How else to get primed for a saddle-blanket-sized steak than an appetizer of tamales and chili? It works at Doe's Eat Place, the skid row political hangout derived from a Greenville, Miss., namesake, which also features Delta-style tamales. Delta-style means small tamales with a moist masa wrapper around mildly spicy chopped pork. It doesn't taste vaguely of Mexico, but of the black and Italian families who vended from carts, stores and cafes along the Mississippi for generations. The plate of brown is completed by a ladle of a soupy chili, more condiment than main course. Six of them with chili cost $8.25. You can also order No. 10 cans full of tamales to take home for reheating. The steaks are best ordered on premises.
1023 W. Markham St.
Dogtown Coffee and Cookery
Dirty Southerner
Pork products, the most typically seen proteins on breakfast plates, take a back seat to crispy fried chicken with this hearty biscuit sandwich. Flaky buttermilk biscuits come stacked with golden fried chicken, dill pickles slices, shredded cheddar, and a house-made honey mustard spread. Best eaten on days you can return to bed for an after-breakfast nap.
Related Locations
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Trio's
- 8201 Cantrell Road Suite 100, Little Rock Northwest Little Rock AR 72227
-
501-221-3330
- www.triosrestaurant.com/
- (based on 1 user review)
-
White Water Tavern
- 2500 W 7th St., Little Rock Midtown AR 72205
-
501-375-8400
- www.whitewatertavern.com
- (based on 2 user reviews)
-
Whole Hog
- 1400 S.E. Walton Blvd., Bentonville Bentonville ar
- Be the first to review this location!
-
Your Mama's Good Food
- 215 Center St., Little Rock Downtown AR
-
501-372-1811
- Be the first to review this location!
-
ZaZa
- 5600 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock Heights AR 72207-4424
-
501-661-9292
- www.facebook.com/zazapizzaandsalad
- Be the first to review this location!
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