Little Rock, Arkansas?

My husband has never been to Arkansas, and so we will probably take a trip there sometime this spring. Any suggestions for food and things to do other than the Clinton Library? (we will hit that, certainly)

thanks,

Well, it's not Little Rock, but if you're passing through Northwest Arkansas on the way there, check out this thread.

Reviving this as a friend of mine finds he will be traveling to Little Rock and Conway on a semi-regular basis for his job. Any tips for either of these two cities would be welcome.

I was in Little Rock about six weeks ago.

The Capitol Building is worth a visit due to the architecture. Enter from the lower level.

The Old Capitol Building is a state museum and has a lot of interesting exhibits about Arkansas history and culture. It was one of the better places.

The Clinton Library is the most over-the-top of all the presidential libraries. I mean it is worth a visit despite all the self-promotion and the high cost of admission.

Heifer International is next door. Personally, I would not go there again. The tour was less concerned with the good that the charity does as much as the "greenness of the building". That was a real disappointment.

The "must see" in Little Rock was the Central High School National Monument which presented a fairly balanced view of the events of 1956-1959.

And yes, the ducks appear at the Peabody Hotel downtown.

Foodwise, one of the better deals was the River Market District which is a farmers market and marketplace. There are a lot of great places for breakfast inside the market. There are also a couple of Amish vendors who serve fresh baked goods.

The best meal in Little Rock was at the Flying Fish. For an inland location, the fish was extremely fresh and very well prepared. There are two warnings about this place. First, there is generally a long line to get into this restaurant which is an "order at the counter and find a table" location. Second, one room is totally covered with Billy Bass mounted fish. The food was really good and there is a wide selection of broiled and fried seafood.

Flying Fish of Little Rock
http://www.flyingfishinthe.net
511 President Clinton Ave
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 375-3474


THE place to eat for a power lunch near the Capitol is Cotham's in the city. In general, the food was acceptable. However, it was a relatively expensive lunch and the food was not much better than many of the other similar diners in the area.

Cotham's In The City
1401 West 3rd Street
(501) 370-9177

Iriana's Pizza offers a pretty solid thin crust pizza in a very comfortable atmosphere.

Iriana's Pizza
201 E Markham St
Little Rock, AR 72201
(501) 374-3656


Shorty Smalls is a small dinnerhouse chain that has some pretty good selections, There is little that is original in the menu. However, the food is well prepared and the servers really make the eating experience a blast.


Shorty Smalls of Little Rock
11100 Rodney Parham
Little Rock, AR, 72212
Tel: 501 - 224 - 3344



Two other things to check out is Hot Springs National Park which is about 50 miles southwest of Little Rock. Also, Crater of Diamonds State Park is another 40 miles southwest,

Hope that helps.

I have always wanted to try "Doe's eat place" but havent got to it yet. I have heard much about it though.They have a location in Little Rock although the site says it is a franchised spot and not one of the two family owned.

http://www.doeseatplace.com/index.htm

I spent one night in Hot Springs, AR, and ate both meals while there at McClard's BBQ. jlawrence01 also posted about other finds in the area the same thread.

crrush wrote:I spent one night in Hot Springs, AR, and ate both meals while there at McClard's BBQ. jlawrence01 also posted about other finds in the area the same thread.

You have a better memory than I do. I forgot that I ever posted on that part of the trip.

I second the recommendation of Flying Fish. Crazy place, better than decent eats. Huge crowd with a line out the door by 7 PM on a Saturday night.

Hated the Clinton museum, but you can tell Bubba was a chow hound, because of the 10 presidential museums we've visited to date, Clinton's had the best on-site food service by far.

Grizzly wrote:Hated the Clinton museum, but you can tell Bubba was a chow hound, because of the 10 presidential museums we've visited to date, Clinton's had the best on-site food service by far.

Food looked great but we had plans to head over to Flying Fish ... we did not regret the decision.

Let me strongly urge a day or several in Eureka Springs. My trip photos are here. The Thorncrown Chapel and Quigley's Castle are worth the drive all by themselves, but the the town itself, filled with galleries and old hotels, is also wonderful.

And there is food. I was particularly fond of the catfish at Catfish Cabin

Bubba's BBQ wasn't earth shattering, but it wasn't awful, either,

and this soup, the name of which I can't remember, was almost enough to bring me back for a repeat visit.
.

On a trip to Little Rock, I ate at Flying Fish twice (it is near the Riverplace Market). It has better than average Cajun/Southern food: excellent gumbo, perfectly fried catfish and oysters, very good and light hushpuppies (although that might be a contradiction in terms), fine peel and eat shrimp, and good crayfish chowder. In all, even though it is a (smallish) chain throughout the lower-west-central South (Tennessee, Texas, and Arkansas), it is a worthy destination.

But perhaps they are best known for their walls of "adopted" Billy Bass fish, left by loyal customers who have realized that the days of Billy Bass have passed. Here are two images:





P.S., I found the food at 42, the restaurant at the Clinton library to be substandard, except for some sweet potato fries. I ordered a Vietnamese pork sandwich and probably got what I deserved.

In contrast, I had a very nice dinner at Ashley's, Chef Lee Richardson's fine dining restaurant at the comfortable and congenial Capital Hotel. (Appetizer: Seared foie gras, grapefruit, honey, and basil on rye toast; Main course: Wild striped bass with peanuts, cabbage and ham; dessert: citrus terrine, orange cream on spiced brioche, and spiced caramel ice cream. Not Trotters, but impressive for a modest sized state capital.

I wasn't sure whether to post this on a Pie thread or on the Little Rock thread, but my favorite spot in Little Rock was 4Square, a small sandwich/salad/gift shop near the Arkansas Studies Institute on President Clinton Avenue (will they have to change to Presidents Clinton Avenue if HRC is elected?).

4Square sells Hunka Pie, a serious pie company, run by Chris Monroe, an Illinoisan who gave up his day job to make pies. The pies give Achatz Pies or even Hoosier Mama a run for their money (although he does not make Savory Pies). I returned three times for pies, including French Blueberry, Dutch Pecan Peach, Strawberry Pie, Chocolate-Pecan, and Peanut Butter Cup (some of these were amuse-size pieces).



Among the other pies that are sometimes available are Basque Black Cherry Custard, Limoncello Tiramisu, Chocolate-Hazelnut Baklava Pie, Indiana Buttermilk, and Egg Custard.

It is definitely worth visiting.

Hunka Pie
at 4Square
405 President Clinton Avenue
Little Rock
501-612-4754
http://www.hunkapie.com/1.html

GAF wrote:Little Rock

You really get around, one week Hong Kong, the next Little Rock.

I couldn't find any pie in Hong Kong. I had to do something. (No Billy Bass either).

With only a short stop in Little Rock, there wasn't much time to explore. Hildalgo-style pastes (Cornish pasties) and tamales at Tamalittle were a highlight, and the subject of a separate post. Cotham's Mercantile in Scott, a little west of the Bill & Hillary Airport, gets plenty of press for their Hubcap Burger. In addition to the original in Scott (opened in 1917; serving food since 1984), another Cotham's opened downtown near the Capitol about 15 years ago. Incidentally, Scott is not far from Lonoke, where many of the catfish sold in Chicago's Chinatown come from. It's pretty around there.





Home of the Hubcap Burger, yes indeed.





Unfortunately this Hubcap was quite dry. We got there at the end of their day—Cotham's closes at 2pm—and I wonder if they didn't have a burger or two lying around. Fried green tomatoes were awful—sour and slimy.

Chicken fried steak, on the other hand, was excellent and the onion rings were good.



Based on that CFS, I might give Cotham's the benefit of the doubt and try 'em again, but not right before closing.

I'll briefly mention a few other places that seemed promising. For various reasons we weren't able to eat at them...but wanted to.

In Little Rock, Sim's is the name you always hear when it comes to barbecue, but HB's is the place I'm most interested in. Unfortunately they recently eliminated their evening hours and now close at 4pm (we arrived around 5).



Looks promising, inside and out.



I'm also sorry to have missed the fried catfish at Lassis Inn, not open at the beginning of the week.



Looks like I missed my chance for an Arkansan Jim Shoe, as Lynn's Chicago Foods was permanently closed (I don't really think the Shoe was listed but I'd've been curious if they knew about it).



Midtown Billiards is Little Rock's somewhat notorious late-night dive—billiards, beer and burgers, not to mention spam-n-eggs, until 5am (food to 4:30).



Midtown strikes me as the kind of place where you could get in as much trouble as you want. I need to get back to continue my explorations of the pool hall burger. Remember: Don't start nothing there won't be nothing!!

Cotham's Mercantile
5301 Arkansas Route 161 (= Walkers Corner Rd; just south of US-165 intersection)
Scott AR
501-961-9284

HB's Bar-B-Q
6010 Lancaster Rd
Little Rock AR
501-565-1930

Lassis Inn
518 E 27th St
Little Rock AR
501-372-8714

Lynn's Chicago Foods (closed)
6501 Geyer Springs Rd
Little Rock AR

Midtown Billiards
1316 Main St
Little Rock AR
501-372-9990