Transitions
By Eric E. Harrison (Contact)
LITTLE ROCK — Cantina Laredo has opened in the Midtowne Little Rock center, West Markham Street and University Avenue. Hours are 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday (Sunday alcoholic beverage license is pending). Menu and price details for the restaurant, the first Arkansas outlet for a Dallas-based “gourmet Mexican” chain, are available at the Web site, www.cantinalaredo.com. The telephone number is (501) 280-0407.
Chef Rosario Patti, the originator of Belle Arti in Hot Springs and Little Rock (he later sold the Hot Springs location to Penny and Joe Gargano), is opening a new Italian restaurant, Vesuvio Bistro, as early as Monday in the Best Western-Governors Inn, 1501 Merrill Drive, Little Rock. The restaurant, in the hotel’s remodeledformer lounge, will offer authentic Italian cuisine from 4-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Patti, after leaving Arkansas in the mid-’90s, says he opened a restaurant in New York near the World Trade Center and lost everything after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, then had a restaurant in Napa, Calif. - “Belle Arti, of course,” he says - before returning to the Natural State. The hotel phone number is (501) 224-8051.
The Starving Artist Cafe has reopened at 411 Main St., in the Argenta district of downtown North Little Rock. The new location has about twice as much indoor seating space (plus a patio that will offer another 25-30 seats that opens next week), about twice as much art on the walls, and extended hours - 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. It’s also across the street from a trolley stop, making it a little more convenient for patronsto get there from downtown Little Rock across the river. Telephone number remains (501) 372-7976.
We had a chance a week or so ago to catch up with Layla’s Restaurant, Grocery & Halal Meat, 9501 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock, for the first time in a while, and discovered that the seating space and menu have roughly doubled. Menu additions include kibbeh (the Middle Eastern meatball made with ground beef, bulgur wheat, onions and walnuts), a larger variety of calzones and 9-inch pizzas and a couple of new combo plates (the Mubarak Plate, $11.99, includes gyros, kibbeh, a kifta kebab, chicken Shawarma (chicken spiced like gyros), rice, soaked salad and tzatziki sauce. The telephone number is (501) 227-7272.
Pasta Patch, 12318 Chenal Parkway, has not only closed, but every scrap of anything thatidentified the building as having once housed a Pasta Patch is gone. A sign on the door informs former employees that they will be mailed their checks.
Conway now has its first Lenny’s Sub Shop, at 605 Salem Road. Hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. The telephone number is (501) 336-8825.
The long, long, long-awaited move of the Hillcrest branch of U.S. Pizza from a converted gas station at 2814 Kavanaugh Blvd., Little Rock, to a converted former Masonic hall at 2710 Kavanaugh may finally take place this week. A sign out front say it’ll happen, and a sharp-eyed colleague notes that there are actually salt and pepper shakers in place on tables visible through the windows. The building will also house the company’s corporate headquarters.
And in our senseless-direction department, last week’ssquib on Salut had it on the wrong side of the city. It’s at 1501 N. University Ave., Little Rock.
Has a restaurant opened - or closed - near you in the last week or so? Does your favorite eatery have a new menu? Is there a new chef in charge? Drop us a line. Call (501) 399-3667 or (501) 378-3513, or send a note to Restaurants, Weekend Section, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203. Send e-mail to:
eharrison@arkansasonline.com
This article was published Friday, September 12, 2008.
Weekend, Pages 71 on 09/12/2008
