Always known for delicious down-home cookery, Southern cities are taking local cuisine to new heights as innovative chefs and restauranteurs take traditional dishes and ingredients and update them for contemporary palates. Little Rock is no exception to this trend.
“It’s really exciting about what’s happening to our local restaurant scene,” said Libby Lloyd, communications manager for the Little Rick CVB. “It’s amazing what chefs like Scott McGehee, who trained at Chez Panisse in California and came here to start his own little restaurant empire, are doing.”
McGehee’s restaurants include Zaza, which specializes in wood-fired pizzas and salads sourced from local farms. Located in a converted theater in The Heights section of Little Rock, the restaurant offers catering for meetings and other events.
Another local favorite is Samantha’s Tap Room & Wood Grill, part of a hot new restaurant lineup in Little Rock’s River Market Entertainment District. Along with serving grilled meats and fish, Samantha’s puts its own spin on Southern sides, offering such dishes as purple-hulled peas, asiago cheese grits, collard greens braised in vinegar and pork skins with a Latin spice rub. A private dining room on the mezzanine level seats up to 40 and offers a bar, flat-screen TV and AV services.
Perhaps Little Rock’s most exquisite culinary experiences are found at the Capital Hotel, an 1870 charmer rated by Trip Advisor as one of the top 25 luxury hotels in America. One Eleven, the property’s fine-dining restaurant, is presided over by Michelin Star and James Beard Award-winning chef Joel Antunes, who brings a French spin to Southern classics. The hotel’s Capital Bar & Grill is where business leaders and state politicos make deals over fried chicken and handmade charcuterie, while the Wine Cellar is a speakeasy-like private dining space for small groups tucked away in the depths of the hotel.
A Little Rock spot where groups can enjoy an evening of blues, jazz, literary readings or film screenings paired with Southern specialties like pan-seared catfish and hushpuppies, South on Main serves as a restaurant and performance space. Its programming content is linked to the content of Oxford American magazine.
Rock Town Distillery, which produces vodka and single-barrel bourbon, debuted in 2010 as the first legal distillery to open in Arkansas since Prohibition. Event spaces include the Still Room, the frequent scene of bottling parties, and the Barrel Room, where visitors can taste a wide variety of flavored vodkas and bourbons at the mahogany bar.
