Brian Sorenson

You might think this is a story about food. And it is. But it’s also a story about realizing a vision and leading people with conviction.

Chef Matthew Cooper opened his new Bentonville restaurant Conifer to much anticipation in August. There, the James Beard Award nominee is taking simple, local ingredients and making them brilliant without transforming them into something they were never intended to be.

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“I’m not trying to make salmon look like zucchini and taste like bubble gum,” he said. “We are taking the best products grown around here and highlighting them in their natural forms.”

The dining room is humming with people five nights each week, Tuesday through Saturday.

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No lunch, no brunch — only dinner at this time. Securing a reservation can be a challenge. It’s obvious that Northwest Arkansas is excited by Cooper’s newest endeavor.

Brian Sorenson
Chef Matthew Cooper

My wife and I were fortunate to secure a table on a recent weeknight. Our server recommended we start with the corn cakes with grilled peaches, squash, pickled red onion, and cashew cheese. It was one of several small plates on the menu made with fresh produce prepared in a simple yet elegant way.

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Cooper and his team are on full display in an open-kitchen concept. Guests are able to watch them perform a culinary ballet, gracefully floating between stations in a coordinated manner that is almost hypnotic to watch.

“I love the transparency of the kitchen,” the 43-year-old Arkansas native said. “There’s no smoke and mirrors. You can sit at your table or at the bar and see everything we are doing.”

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Cooper enjoys watching his customers as much as they enjoy watching him.

“I can see everyone’s facial expressions,” he said. “And if I think anything is wrong, I’m at that table checking to see how I can make it right.”

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He did not need to worry about me and my wife during our visit. I savored the coffee-rubbed tri-tip with cabbage and cherry cacao nib mostarda, which caught my eye upon first glance at the menu. The beef was perfectly cooked, and the smokey, nutty, and candied fruit flavors of the accompanying ingredients created complexity while bringing balance to the dish.

Brian Sorenson
Coffee-rubbed tri-tip.

My wife was equally impressed with her selection — half a chicken brilliantly cooked with heirloom fonio (an ancient African grain), marinated peaches, and heirloom tomatoes.

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Conifer is the culmination of Cooper’s 25-plus years in the kitchen. He prominently served as founding chef at Bentonville’s The Preacher Son and Little Rock’s Cache. Conifer is the first restaurant that he has owned outright. So he relished the opportunity to put his full stamp on the space, the food, and his team.

“I’ve worked for other people my entire career,” he said. “Even with restaurants I was in charge of, there was always an outside influence. When I designed this restaurant, I wanted to make sure that my vision was realized.”

Conifer occupies the bottom floor of The Howard, a mixed-use residential complex located at the eastern entrance to downtown Bentonville. Cooper went for a 50-50 dining room-to-kitchen ratio vs. the 80-20 approach used in most restaurants.

Brian Sorenson

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Although impressive, Conifer’s interior is not overwhelming. Local artisans added subtle touches throughout the space to make it warm and inviting.

Conifer

But even more remarkable than the food and atmosphere is Cooper’s passion for being a leader and treating people with compassion. “If I’m arrogant about anything, it’s that I’m not a terrible person,” said Cooper. He’s the son of a Methodist preacher and comes from a long line of humanitarians. His grandfather was an advocate for integrating churches during the Civil Rights era.

Cooper was widely celebrated during his time at The Preacher’s Son, where he spent a total of six years. Despite success and acclaim there, he knew he needed to step out on his own.

“It was time to pour my heart into the community — to have the time, the space, and the energy to build what I wanted without the influence of another company,” he said. “I did everything I was supposed to do at The Preacher’s Son. We built an amazing restaurant there.”

One of the accomplishments Cooper is most proud of is the 97% retention rate he achieved while leading the staff at The Preacher’s Son.

“If a cook ever left it was because I trained them well and the company took them to be a sous chef somewhere else,” he said. “They left for opportunity, not because they were mistreated.”

Cooper said he learned important lessons from chefs who didn’t care for their people.

Watching tyrants and miscreants run kitchens early in his career taught him how he should not behave when it was his turn to lead. He decided that his objective as a leader was to know the person, his or her family, and his or her dreams.

“The idea is to be inclusive, encouraging, and nurturing — not only to the community, but also to the people who live and work here in the restaurant,” he said. “We spend so much time with each other. We have to have cohesion and a family environment to make it work.”

The care he displays for his employees is one reason so many staff members followed him from The Preacher’s Son to Conifer. Another is the voice he allows them to have in decisions.

“All of my employees have input on the menu,” said Cooper. “We have amazing bartenders here, and they wrote the drink menu. We are a democracy here, and we all pitch in. I expect the most experienced people in the kitchen to help out with dishes when needed.”

Conifer
Conifer staff.

The egalitarian approach in the kitchen extends to the dress code. Many locals are intimidated by the increasingly upscale restaurant scene in Bentonville. With so many corporate out-of-towners calling Benton County home these days, there is pressure to look the part when hitting the town for dinner or drinks.

Despite this, Cooper wants everyone to feel comfortable at Conifer, no matter who they are or what they wear.

“I don’t care if you come in here with a t-shirt and baseball cap,” he said. “I don’t care if you come in wearing flip flops. Conifer is for everyone.”

Much has been written already about Cooper’s dedication to a gluten-free menu and his reliance on local producers for ingredients. Farm-to-table is a growing trend in Northwest Arkansas, and Cooper is at the forefront.

The region, however, is still in the early stages of self-sustainment. There are a number of quality farmers in the area, but there’s also a shortage of certain basic ingredients needed by restaurants. Cooper sees the need for more, and he plans to address some of that need himself.

“I’m going to build a farm here for this restaurant and to meet the needs of the community,” he said. “Even if it’s only 2 acres where we grow carrots, onions and celery.”

Cooper has a full-sleeve tattoo on his left arm that features mushrooms and foliage from different places he has lived. At the top, near his shoulder, rests a phoenix.

“My life has been about moving around so much that it’s about dying and being reborn as you arrive at a new place,” he said.

Before the restaurant opened, when thinking about a name, he glanced at his tattoo. There he saw evergreen imagery and knew that planting seeds, sprouting, and growing into a fully-realized form was symbolic of his goals for the new restaurant.

“It was as simple as looking down at my arm and saying, ‘We’re going to call it Conifer.’ ”

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