Eat Arkansas

In Little Rock, it's gotta be The Hop. Great burgers, wonderful shakes (better than Purple Cow, I think) and good home-made barbecue.

In Hot Springs, there's a great one on 70 just as you enter town. Can't recall the name but they used to serve fresh peach milkshakes in the summer. Hope they still do.

Crispy Cone in Ash Flat--Sharp County. OMG it's great. Go in. They have peanuts in buckets on the table, too. Great burgers. Great onion rings. Great everything.

Lion's Den in Clarendon. (The high school team is the
Lion's)

Da Shack in Waldenburg... I go by it everytime on my back to NEA.... good fish plate... everytime I see it I know back home in the good ole Delta...

Alas! the Ola Dairy bar, Originally named the Ola Cola is gone

The Salem Dairy Bar in Saline Co. Old fashioned burgers. Shakes, malts, and soft serve ice cream. Been there for years and busy every day except Monday, when they're closed.

I don't really have a favorite now, but growing up in NE AR, four come to mind, each with a specialty. Hightower's had snow cones, which I loved and my mother feared (purple apparently didn't come out easily). Al's had the best onion rings in town. Wayne's was closest to school and became a lunchtime favorite (we had an open cammpus after you hit 7th grade). Walker's had by far the best soft-serve ice cream.

These days in Central AR, I haven't really found any as good as the ones I remember.

Ummmmmm...Ted Drewes...many a college term paper was finished thanks to a concrete sugar rush! Shaky's is the closest I've found around these parts. I heard the one in WLR closed...true? Haven't been by in a while. While my waist line is thankful, my taste buds are depressed.

The Hop is good and I hear that Leo's makes a good shake. This is off the subject, but I took my 6 year old nephew over to the Cajun Ice place over by me Friday afternoon. I hadn't been there in a couple of years. My lemonade snoball (that's what they call 'em in New Orleans and that's what I call them now) really hit the spot and Clarke's blueberry offering turned his mouth and tongue a color not found in nature which he pleased him to no end.

In Bald Knob - can't beat the Bulldog. Famous for their strawberry shortcake. Everything greasy is good. However, the pizza burger is not the pizza burger I grew up with. The Bulldog's version is just a steak sandwich.

Growing up, we had the Eagles' Drive In with a delicious pizza burger - steak sandwich with mozzarella cheese INSIDE the patty. Mariana sauce topped it off. Never found anything like it since.

If'n you drive through Marshall, you gotta stop at the Daisy Queen. Again, all greasy is great. Careful on the kid's burgers, though. They're those little tiny things like you get in a Lunchable. Just about bite sized.

A reader chimes in with another Mountain View report:

"

I just read the wonderful food review Belly Boy did on Friday, August 17th , while he was driving through Mountain View . I was wondering if he noticed that the old Jr Mart on Main Street no longer sells gas and has evolved into a race car themed roadside diner.

As travelers venture up Hwy 9, they come across Legends Burgers "Burma Shave" style signs just 6 miles south of town. Legends serves old-fashion two fisted burgers and offers a hot dog that weighs a full pound when fully dressed. The food is cooked fresh to order in about 10 minutes. Next time you're in town, look them up and don't forget to give the southern fried pickles or sweet potato fries a try.

I went up to St. Louis last week to see a game and visit friends, and they live in Shrewsbury not far from Ted Drewes. My friend Shane said that the custard comes out of a magical hole in the wall, and that turned out to be the case. It was delightful, and I agree with the poster who said Shakey's is the closest thing we have locally. Yum.