Dining Feature

A survey of some of our local favorites.

If that name clangs any bells, if it whispers of any hangovers past, it’s likely because of the all-too-timely product that brought an orange wave of headlines back in April 2019: Trump Tonic. (“Trump tonic will grab you by your ‘wherever,’ ” the back of the bottle reads.)

The holiday season looks different this year. Because of the pandemic, many people won’t be celebrating with as many friends and family as they have in the past. But the smaller table might bring an opportunity to spend more creative time in the kitchen.

Despite economic uncertainty and hardship, several brand-new restaurants — like Brood & Barley and Cypress Social — have popped up. Henrietta's is still in the works, and a renovated Oyster Bar is coming.

Rhett Brinkley talks about what it's like to wait tables during a pandemic. (Audio by Sydney Hunsicker and Jack Lloyd.)

The Arkansas Times persuaded a few home cooks to tell us about their favorite meals during the extended stay at home, and about the ways in which their relationship to food has changed during the pandemic. 

With an assist from the University of Arkansas’s Division of Agricultural Cooperative Extension, we’ve compiled information on some of the many markets in Arkansas.

Down markets.

How small farmers and producers are managing amid the pandemic.

My favorite thing to eat in Little Rock right now is the baleada con todo from El Sur, Luis Vasquez’s Honduran food truck often found (in normal times) in the South Main neighborhood.

‘Triple D’ by the numbers.

Our annual Readers Choice issue that celebrates the best in food in Arkansas is not a beauty contest. Good dining is about substance as well as ambiance. Kitchens are beehive-busy with battle plans, where great creativity meets vigorous chopping and stirring and strategic use of the stove.

This is the story of how the Little Rock landmark came to be and how it persists as told by staff, friends and customers.

If you’re the kind of person that prefers their protein to resemble the animal from which it came as little as possible, you’ll still find plenty to eat, but you might also risk missing the point. Tusk & Trotter serves meat with an origin story, and what’s on the plate is meant to highlight, rather than mask, the qualities of the animal you’re being offered.

The idea for serving good food produced locally came to Jacqueline Smith when she was pregnant.

Little Rock has more stellar lunch spots than we deserve, and it’s entirely possible to escape most of them without busting your budget for the entire day. Here, we highlight a few steals for the noontime hour.

How Martin Philip left Fayetteville for a career in opera, ended up head baker at King Arthur Flour instead, and returned home with a bike full of biscuits.

This is a milestone year for Lisa Zhang. It’s the fifth anniversary of Three Fold Noodles and Dumpling Co., her wildly popular authentic Chinese restaurant in downtown Little Rock, and her 20th year in the United States. It also marks a year of expansion with the opening in May of her Chinese chicken restaurant Haybird (“Where East Meats West”), and the development of a new 9,000-square-foot project in Riverdale, slated to open next year, which will house three concepts: an expanded and relocated Haybird; Eastern Pantry, a sort of deli with take-home meal options; and a sake brewery. 

It’s growing, and new styles are taking hold.

Excerpts from oral history interviews with restaurateurs in Northwest Arkansas.