Eat Arkansas

Ah, the first day of restaurant business... Sweaty, flustered-looking workers behind the counter mistakenly giving your turkey sandwich to-go to another seated customer. But we easily forgive these snafus, especially when practically every Hop employee explained that "we never should have opened today" with misty eyes.

I ordered what I stupidly presumed to be the "healthiest" option on the menu- an "Iris Turkey and Swiss" on "Parmesan" Sourdough bread- grilled, of course. It's pretty standard- not bad, not great, but definitely not healthy. The sides of mustard and mayo I ordered came piled on top of the sandwich- again, that's OK- this is their first day of business. Fries were a little disappointing (lukewarm, lacked salt) and I'll chalk it up to 1st day of biz, too.

Menu is standard fare- burgers, sandwiches, gut bombs, chilidogs, even bigger chilidogs, salads... Tons of sides like fried mushrooms, fries, fried onion rings, fried curly fries, fried shoelaces, fried deep fried batter, fried chips and salsa-... you get my point.

I'm personally looking forward to the ice cream and milkshakes they offer. The prices are killer: $1.95 for a sundae. $2.85 for a milkshake. Hot fudge sundae. Mmmmm, hot fudge sundae.

I can't get down with the burger joint that often, but the menu is right on point for those who can, I think. It's a welcome and refreshing change to this little nook in downtown LR.

I know I'm going to sound like a scrooge, but do we really need another run-of-the-mill burger joint in the heart of the River Market? It's just hard to get excited about a 50's theme restaurant that could be in any city, anywhere (i.e. The Purple Cow).

On a similar note, The Wrought Iron Grill opened today next to the Clinton Gift Shop. The menu isn't exciting (mostly burgers, chicken fried steak, misc. fried foods, etc.), but we wanted to get out & support them on their first night. Unfortunately, the restaurant is in the basement with no view & no atmosphere. It was filled with diner style tables & chairs. Given the cool location, I was hoping for a little more style. We were the only customers when we arrived & the waiter seemed really nervous. The jitters were awkward, but again, we wanted to be supportive. We decided to try the homemade pork egg roles for an appetizer as they are highlighted on the menu. Knowing it was their first night, we kept it simple with burgers for dinner. The egg roles were ok, but nothing special. They were served with a super sweet sauce that seemed to come from a jar. The burgers came after 30 excruciating minutes of listening to the owner's unattended kids clanging cups & silver ware on a nearby table. If ever you should hire a baby sitter, opening night of your restaurant would be that night. The clanging, coupled with the loud 70's rock music, left us wiped out. As we asked for our dinners to go, the owner apologized for his kids (saying they wouldn't always be there, except his wife had to be at the restaurant tonight to make her egg roles). I really do wish these new business owners well, but I can't see myself going to either of these restaurants for an enjoyable dinner. For bar food in a cool atmosphere, I'll stick to Rumba (1/2 price Tapas on Tues). As for the burgers, we were so disappointed with the whole experience that we wound up going to Iriana's for a reliable dinner.

I've read several articles mentioning that the River Market will be open every Sunday during the month of March. The push is for the locals to get out & help support the vendors. I'm game, but give me something to support. When we went to the River Market yesterday (3/8), Boulevard Bread (in my opinion, the anchor) was closed. Potential customers were standing around reading the menu, but...it was closed. I thought the idea was there would be a remodeled River Market (open on Sundays) to impress the many out-of-state visitors expected during March. So far, the market seems basically the same minus my favorite meat market.

Well, I wish I had a better review. I hope I'm proven wrong, but I don't see these types of restaurants doing well. Hats off to them for trying though.

The Hop report from 3/24/08:

Myself and five co-workers set out for lunch today and decided on The Hop due to past experiences at the West LR retro location. Today was very different. Our food order was obviously misplaced and it took an hour to finally get our food with no apologies from the wait staff or owner who runs the check-out register. After 45 minutes of waiting we questioned our waitress and we got this answer, "your food is ready we are just preparing it" what the hell does that mean. Then we sought out another wait staff person and asked why the delay and we got, "one of your orders was for chicken strips, we prepare then from scratch." Yeah right, WTF!
You know it was so obvious we were being railroaded instead of apologizing and telling the truth to us. As we spent our hour watching everyone else who came in after us get their orders and finish them before we had to question for our orders. And here is the real kicker, when we approached the owner and explained our ordeal and made suggestions to him so that maybe this restaurant could actually survive this location since at least three other places shutdown previously here the owner retaliated with, "we don't need any trouble makers here" Oh brother, we will never dine there again! I don't usually blog in less I have something vibrant to report and today was too good not to tell.

Had a very similar experience to Raven today. Waited for 45 minutes for our order. Food was cold when it came out. Waitstaff was unapologetic, bordering on rude. When we complained to the manager he said he was going to go get the lady who ran the cash register to give us our money back. When she came out, she very rudely told us to "forget about getting your money back" and walked off. The manager was now safely hidden in the back and did not come out the rest of the time. Horrible food, horrible service, horrible attitude. Please do not give them any money.