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Tuesday, June 26, 2007 - 12:30:04

Sale Time at Restaurant.com

I've mentioned restaurant.com here before.  I'm not affiliated with or reimbursed by them (or any of the restaurants named here) in any way, but as we've discussed, I'm cheap, and having purchased certificates from them in the past, I'm on restaurant.com's mailing list, so just got notice of the current 60% off sale running now.  The way the site works is that you get discounts at area restaurants by purchasing "gift certificates" which are worth a higher face value at the restaurant than their cost to you.  ( i.e.  At normal prices, a $25 certificate costs $10, so it's like getting $15 off your meal--the current sale sweetens the deal a bit, so that you're getting a $25 certificate for $4, and a $10 certificate for $1.20.)

The participating restaurants offer a finite number of certificates each month, so toward the end of the month, the savings get larger while the choices are fewer due to the certificates' selling out.  Here's what's available, as of this writing, on sale around the state, with the coupon code "FREEDOM" at checkout.

NORTH LITTLE ROCK:
*Pasta Jack's Italian, 9811 Maumelle Blvd.:  $10 certificate, available for $1.20 with discount.
*Shorty Small's, 4317 Warden Rd:  $25 certificate, $4 with discount AND $10 certificate, $1.20 after discount.

LITTLE ROCK:
*Camp David, 600 I-30:  $25 certificate, $4 after discount.
*Juanita's, 1400 S. Main: $10 certificate, $1.20 after discount.
*Lucchesi's, 5600 Kavanaugh:  $25 certificate, $4 after discount
*Market Street Grill and Pub, 11321 W. Markam:  $25 certificate, $4 after discount
*Ristorante Capeo, 425 Main St.:  $25 certificate, $4 after discount
*Season's in the Heights, 1501  N. University:  $25 certificate, $4 after discount
*Shorty Small's, 11100 Rodney Parham:  $25 certificate, $4 with discount AND $10 certificate, $1.20 after discount.
*The Faded Rose, 400 N. Bowman and 1619 Rebsamen Park Rd.:  $25 certificate, $4 after discount (certificates are specific to location)
*The Bistro, 20400 Arch Street Pike (Wrightsville):  $25 certificate, $4 after discount.

CONWAY:
Shorty Small's, 1475 Hogan Lane:  $25 certificate, $4 with discount AND $10 certificate, $1.20 after discount.

LEXA:
*Dee's BBQ, 23 Phillips Rd. 230:  $10 certificate, $1.20 after discount

CLARENDON:
*The Sandwich Shoppe, 628 Madison St: 50% OFF certificate, $1.20 after discount (this is the first time I've seen a straight "% OFF" coupon through Restaurant.com , and I were in Clarendon and a patron of The Sandwich Shoppe, I'd buy myself a handful of these babies).

CALICO ROCK:
*Don Quixote's, 103 Historic Main St:  $25 certificate, $4 after discount

MARION:
*LJ's Restaurant, 1160 Cypress Ave:  $25 certificate, $4 with discount AND $10 certificate, $1.20 after discount.

JONESBORO:
*Piero's 320 S. Main St:  $25 certificate, $4 after discount
*Shorty Small's, 3000 E. Highland Dr:  $25 certificate, $4 with discount AND $10 certificate, $1.20 after discount.

Each individual restaurant has its own "fine print," so be sure to check that out before you purchase.  Sometimes you can only redeem on certain days, some only at dinner, and alcohol purchases are excluded from the totals in all cases, as far as I know.  Still some darn good deals.  I've seen the discounts go as high as 80% off, usually during the winter, but 60% is usually the time when I'll go ahead and bite.  Restaurant.com sends you an email after your purchase, with a code which enables you to print the certificates right from your computer.

Posted by Belinda at 12:30 PM | Permalink | Comments [0]

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - 15:43:30

Following Up, and Reciprocating the Link-Love

The other day when I read Max's post about cell-phone use being banned in some restaurants on his Eat Arkansas blog, I thought, "Well, that's nice."  But I've never been hugely inconvenienced by folks on cell-phones in restaurants much, although it seems to aggravate my husband mightily.  And I find that my tolerance for such things is directly related to the amount of money I'm spending on the meal.

Well, you know how it is, once you've been made aware of something...buy a blue car, all of a sudden everyone seems to be driving a blue car.  Get pregnant, the world seems to be populated entirely by females in the mid-to-late stages of gestation.  You know the drill.

But still, it was timely to the point of being hilarious when, the very DAY that I'd told Alex about the Lilly's/Trio's cell-phone ban, and we'd discussed it, we experienced what inspired the ban first-hand at, of all places, the Dixie Cafe.

We love the Dixie Cafe, does our little family of three.  For one thing, we usually go during quiet times, when service is good and the atmosphere is peaceful.  Service is quick enough so that a 4-year-old does not get antsy, and besides, she's provided with crayon-related activities.  She also voluntarily chooses vegetables to eat at the DC.  It's not expensive.  We love it.

On this Saturday afternoon, about 3:30 PM, we were seated at a booth in the back, in the quietest part of a quiet restaurant.  We were the only ones in our section.  Ironically, Alex actually made a 20-second cell-phone call, leaving a voice-mail for someone to whom we were attempting to leave a partial load of horse hay.  But since we were the only ones there, and he has an exceptionally soft phone-voice, no harm.

And then, a party of two was seated across the aisle from us, presumably, based on what we overheard, a 30-ish woman and her grandmother.  Just moments after placing their order, we were subjected to the following, at a volume that you wouldn't believe even if this post had sound, so just trust me that it was inappropriately loud (We never actually heard the cell-phone ring, so it must have been set to vibrate, which we ALSO found highly ironic):

"HELLO?!?"  (pause)

"OH, HEY.  WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"  (pause)

"WE'RE AT THE DIXIE CAFE." (pause) "THE DIXIE CAFE!  WHY DON'T YOU COME ON OVER?" (pause)

"WELL, TURN AROUND AND COME BACK!"  (pause)

"ARE YOU SURE?  GRANNY'S PAYING."  (pause)  "GRANNY'S PAYING!  TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT, AND I'LL ORDER IT FOR YOU!" (pause)  "I'M HAVING A HAMBURGER STEAK!"  (pause)  "WELL, I'M NOT REALLY ON A DIET..." (pause)

"ARE YOU SURE?  WELL, OK, THEN, I'LL SEE YOU AT HOME!"

I'm sure there was more repetition to it than that, but I've spared you, out of love.  I was surprised at the tension that left my body as this woman finally hung up her cell-phone.  All of a sudden, the cell-phone ban seemed not only sensible, but critical to the survival of my sanity.

We were just finishing up our meal, having heard our dulcet-toned dinner companion hold forth on everything from how long each of her various tattoos took to ink, how much they hurt, and precisely how she wanted her root-beer float prepared, when...

"HELLO?!?" (pause)

"HEY!  GUESS WHAT I'M DOING?"  (brief pause)  "ATKINS!  YEAH, THE WHOLE MEAT-EGGS-CHEESE THING.  BUT NOT REALLY, YOU KNOW, BECAUSE I'M ADDING IN A LITTLE BREAD AND STUFF."  (like root-beer floats)

This is where we made our departure, giving a look of heavy sympathy to the diners who'd been seated directly behind Extremely Loud Phone Lady just before we left.  We could clearly hear every word of ELPL's cell-phone conversation from our booth all the way to the hostess station and out the door, a distance of at least 60 feet.  WOW.

Go, Lilly's and Trio's!  REVOLUTION NOW!  Also?  Root-beer floats totally have carbs.  Besides, if you're at The Dixie Cafe, you're supposed to be having blackberry cobbler with ice-cream.  Everyone knows that.

Posted by Belinda at 03:43 PM | Permalink | Comments [2]

Wednesday, June 13, 2007 - 20:10:58

I Hate To Do This To You, But...

I'm going to remind you about Cotham's Merchantile in Scott, home of the Hubcap Burger.
If you're like us, you go weeks, maybe months, without thinking of this little out-of-the-way place, and then, something...the smell of honeysuckle, the sight of a large cottonwood tree, coming across the packaged Cotham's hamburger seasoning at the grocery store...sets it off, and nothing will do but an immediate trip to Scott.

The only dining experience I know of that even comes close to pulling up a chair in a restaurant-on-stilts that is perched on the edge of an oxbow off the Arkansas River is pulling up a chair next to the cast-iron stoves in the kitchen of the original Doe's Eat Place in Mississippi.   A regular diet at either establishment would kill you dead, but as an occasional treat, you just can't beat a jaunt out to what Cotham's refers to as "Downtown Scott."


We understand that there are many more items on the menu besides the famous burgers, but we've just never been able to NOT order a Cotham's burger, so haven't sampled them.  I was rather pleased with myself for at least sampling the fried green tomatoes this time around.  Holy cow, were they ever good.

It still surprises me that there are people--people from the North Little Rock area, even--who do not know of Cotham's.  I had the pleasure of introducing one such newbie to the Hubcap last weekend, when I met one of my favorite flickrites, Mandy, aka redjade75, "IRL" (In Real Life).  She may never be the same.

I'm no restaurant reviewer, but trust me when I say that there aren't many hamburger experiences comparable to what you'll find at Cotham's.  They also apparently have a legendary Mississippi  Mud Pie, but I've never survived to the dessert stage with any room to spare, so can't vouch for it.

Mandy and Alex and I took our cameras, and were delighted to discover how many brilliant photo opportunities there were to be found around Cotham's and the Plantation Agriculture Museum, which is worth a trip in itself.   Mandy took a BRILLIANT photo of the oxbow behind the restaurant, and it is well worth a click, so PLEASE go check it out!

Most of our photos revolved around our love affair with the beauty of rusted objects (speaking of which, Mandy even caught a shot of yours truly).  Think I'm kidding?  Rust can be beautiful, people.  Behold:

Posted by Belinda at 08:10 PM | Permalink | Comments [20]