Friday, October 28, 2011

Best Cornbread in Arkansas.

With the Arkansas Cornbread Festival coming up, it's time to take a look at some of the very best cornbread Arkansas has to offer.


Ashley’s.  Sweet.  Chef Lee Richardson’s place really heads back to Southern roots; pastry chef Tandra Watkins creates a sweet cracklin’ cornbread that goes perfectly with peas, greens or beans on any particular day.  It’s made from War Eagle Mill grain and it’s delightful.  
Markham & Louisiana inside the Capital Hotel * (501) 374-7474 * www.capitalhotel.com/ashleyswebsite * Read more here.

Bobby’s Country Cookin’.  Sweet.  The lines start forming around 11 a.m. each day for folks hoping to get their meat-and-two-veg on over at the Shackleford cafeteria.  The corn muffins are sweet and crumbly.  Have yours with some Great Northern Beans, some sweet tea and if you’re lucky some fried chicken.  
301 North Shackleford Road (Little Rock) * (501) 224-9900 * www.bobbyscountrycookin.com

Brown’s Country Store and Restaurant.  Sweet.  For 39 years the Benton landmark has been serving up a buffet featuring catfish, ribs, Southern cooking and fluffy sweet cornbread.  Goes well with a little margarine, or if you’re feeding a sweet tooth try some honey on the table.  
Exit 118 on I-30 (Benton) *(501) 778-5033 * www.brownscountryrestaurant. * Read more here.

Cock of the Walk.  Non-traditional.  It would be enough for Cock of the Walk’s cornbread to be the moist, somewhat cake-like jalapeno-tinged cornbread that it is; when it’s served up by a waitress who flips it in the skillet… well, that’s just different.  
7103 Cock of the Walk Drive (North Little Rock) * (501) 758-7182 * www.cockofthewalk.biz.

Cotham’s Mercantile.  Johnnycakes.  If you’ve only ever tried the burger at Cotham’s you’ve missed out on the full experience.  Cotham’s serves up its cornbread selection like unsweetened flapjacks with margarine; they’re nicely crusty on the outside and crumbly in the middle.  Get you a mess of collard greens with that.  
5301 Highway 161 (Scott) * (501) 961-9284 * Read more here.
1401 West Third (Little Rock) * (501) 370-9177 * www.cothamsinthecity.com


Eunice’s Country Cookin’.  Sweet.  Eunice’s serves up fabulous homestyle Beef over Rice and Chicken ‘n’ Dumplings, both of which are improved by the application of the restaurant’s sweet white cake-like cornbread.  You can even order a pan to take home with you.  
3325 South 74th (Fort Smith) * (479) 484-1465 * Read more here.

Franke’s Cafeteria.  Skillet traditional.  Here’s a true Arkansas favorite:  that great, crumbly skillet-fried cornbread from the state’s oldest continually operating restaurant.  Still soaking up all your butter next to your scalloped eggplant on your plate after all these years.  Bonus -- Franke’s is now doing gluten-free jalapeno cornbread muffins, too.  
11121 North Rodney Parham * (501) 225-4487 
Regions Center Building downtown * (501) 372-1919 * www.frankescafeteria.com * Read more here.

Fred’s Country Cooking.  Traditional.  A welcome haven for travelers in the western part of the state, this log cabin restaurant south of Waldron serves up fantastic catfish and burgers as well as some of the best traditional yellow cake cornbread you’ll find in the state.  
16538 Highway 71 (Boles) * (479) 577-2676 * Read more here.

Grandma’s Beans and Cornbread. Traditional.  Can you build a business on nothing but beans and cornbread?  Yes you can.  Though the little Eureka Springs shop has changed hands numerous times, it’s still serving up barely sweet cornbread alongside that nearly famous pot of pinto and Great Northern beans.  The combination is one of the cheapest and most filling dinners you’ll get in town.  
200 Village Circle (Eureka Springs) * (479) 253-6561 * www.grandmasbeansandcornbread.com

Homer’s.  Traditional and non-traditional.  This is sopping cornbread, the sort you want when you have a plate of candied yams and turnip greens.  Homer’s serves up meat-and-three plates with your choice of a roll (also good), the traditional unsweet Arkansas cornbread or a non-traditional variation with jalapenos.  Cornmeal never meets sugar here, not even in the hush puppies.  
2001 East Roosevelt (Little Rock) * (501) 374-1400.


Momma Max’s.  Traditional.  Beautiful, golden yellow and buttery, cooked up in a rectangular pan and served with love.  Momma Max’s thick cornbread is moist but crumbly and perfect with some Lima beans or PurpleHull Peas.
1102 West Main (Prescott) * (870) 887-5005 * Read more here.


Shannon’s Restaurant.  Sweet.  Better known for doing breakfast any hour of the day, Shannon’s also serves up great plate lunches, almost always with a choice of roll or cornbread (except on Fridays, when it’s hush puppies).  The sweetish cornbread is meant for sopping up bean juice and is great with turnip greens.  
5511 Dollarway Road (Pine Bluff) *  (870) 267-0000

No comments:

Post a Comment

Be kind.