Dining Feature

‘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.

Eating, thinking and being daring.

Along the Arkansas River Valley in Altus, there is a wine trail rich in history, rooted in family and eclectic in presentation.

Shirley Temple’s got some company.

The state beer brewers alliance has helped Arkansas craft beer grow faster than other states.

Surveying the line at downtown Little Rock's popular new donut shop.

Brenda's turns out the freshest in town.

A pitmaster with a cult following prepares to move his joint across the street — and into another state.

Get high on the hog.

It's time again to cast votes in the state's longest-running annual assessment of the best places to eat in Arkansas.

A sustained conflict.