Eat Arkansas

What is is about the smell of fresh baking bread that warms the heart and spurs the memory?  Whatever it is, it's something that can't be replicated in a candle or manufactured in a scratch-and-sniff sticker. 

One place to inhale the heady scent of fresh baking bread around these parts is the Old Mill Bread and Flour Company over in the Rock Creek Square shopping center (over by Hobby Lobby in Little Rock).  It's one of those places that nearly knocks you over when you enter the door with the scent of sweet breads, yeast, and grain.

Dropped by recently for a lunch that would make anyone on the Atkins Diet blanche with terror. The restaurant offers a soup-and-half-sandwich combo with an ever-changing menu of soups and sandwiches to choose from.  I decided to go for a turkey, swiss cheese, and green apple affair on a ciabatta roll, and the asiago cream cheese soup.  What I got was a nice little refreshing and crisp sandwich, a warm bowl of goodness -- plus an oatmeal raisin cookie and a Spinach Feta roll which was the real highlight of my lunch.  Served up with some iced tea and I was good to go for the afternoon.

Something I really like about going in there -- there's always a couple of types of bread and a bowl of butter out on the counter, always a sample to try.  And even if you get a little woozy over the prices (some loaves top $8) this is often the final blow. 

You'll find Old Mill Bread and Flour Company open Monday through Saturday from seven in the morning to six in the evening.  Closed on Sunday.  (501) 228-4677.