Astronomical Success at Rick's Bakery in Fayetteville.

These are the prettiest tie dye cookies you will ever see.  And they were created by a rocket engineer. It's time for the story of Rick's Bakery in Fayetteville.

A Plateful of Filling at Holly's Country Cookin' in Conway.

Locals swear by this lunch-only, weekday-only cafeteria on south Harkrider - by the fried chicken, by the mac and cheese and by the pies. They aren't wrong.

The Milder Marinara is at Mama Z's in Tontitown.

The northwest Arkansas city of Tontitown is where the Ozark traditionn of fried chicken and spaghetti took off. Today, two restaurants carry that tradition onwards - and of the two, Mama Z's is definitely the more mild.

25 Magnificent Arkansas Pies You Have To Try Right Now.

We all love pie. And in Arkansas, we all love pie a LOT. Come check out some of the best pies in the state and where to find them.

I love pie. I'm constantly asked which is my favorite. Now, I can give you a couple of handfuls of answers. Dig through this list for great pies you can find all over The Natural State.

Monster Melts and Peach Shakes at Fat Dawgz BBQ and Something Sweet in Clarksville.

Johnson County is a prime destination this month with the Johnson County Peach Festival on the way While you're in town, grab a bite to eat at this comfortable joint on the downtown square. It also has great pie.

A Snickety-Snack at Pirate's Cove Cafe in Greenland.

At the end of a whirlwind trip through northwest Arkansas, Grav and I found ourselves a bit munchy. So we pulled in at a friendly looking cafe south of Fayetteville for a quick bite.

Poking Around Front Porch Bakery in Caddo Valley.

While traveling our epic Spring Break on 7, Hunter and I ducked in for a few minutes to check out Front Porch Bakery - a house, a flea market, a consignment shop, a bakery all rolled into one.

Nana Deane's Pride and Joy at Ray's Dairy Maid in Barton.

A little dairy bar on US Highway 70 is the single spot where Alton Brown had an Arkansas bite when he Feasted On Asphalt along the Great River Road. But the woman who runs the place and the pie she makes are both worthy of tales to share. Let’s visit Ray’s Dairy Maid.

Strawberry Icebox Pie at The Lunchbox in Searcy.

This restaurant has closed.

The buzz around Searcy is that there's a new great place for catfish in town.  That place is The Lunchbox, and it's less than a year old.  But its recipes and catfish roots go straight to the famed and now defunct Georgetown One-Stop, the final word in all things catfish in Arkansas.

The Delta Trifecta of Barbecue, Cheese Dip and Pie at Nick's BBQ and Catfish in Carlisle.

This popular joint off I-40 east of Little Rock is a good place to get your fill of plenty of Arkansas favorites, from fried green tomatoes to pecan pie. Let's check out Nick's.

Chocolate Dream Pie at Paula Lynn's in Bryant.

This restaurant has moved.

The Jones family in Bryant is famous for barbecue... and now they're well known for something else. Paula Lynn's Really Homemade Sandwich and Sweet shop serves up sandwiches, cookies... and marvelous pies.

As hard as it may be to skip Doozies (homemade sandwich cookies), deluxe dogs and killer cakes, you must -- because the restaurant serves up one of the few possum-type pies in the state that isn't really playing possum.

What it is, is a fantastic chocolate mousse on top of a cloud of delightfully light cream cheese in a double-layered blind-baked flour crust. What makes it different from a possum pie is the fact that there's no whipped cream on top to obscure the chocolate -- or pecans in the pie. Still, so good.

Paula Lynn’s Reall y Homemade Sandwic h & Sweet Shop
304 North Reynolds Road
Bryant, AR 72022
(501) 847-2066
www.PaulaLynns.com

Peanut Butter Pie at Three Sams in Mabelvale.

Walk into the Mabelvale Mecca, elsewise known as Three Sams' Barbecue Joint, and you may be overcome with the desire to have yourself a slice of Italian cream cake.  There will be everything brownies to tempt you, and divine peanut butter cookies all stacked and ready to go.  Then you will be inundated with the scent of good barbecue spice, and you will begin to drool.

It is essential, at this point, to not lose sight of the ultimate goal.  So here's a photo.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to acquire a slice of this heavenly goodness, packed top to bottom with peanuts and a smattering of peanut butter cups, before you leave the property.  Fail, and you will be crying about it for days to come, until your path takes you once again to the mecca.



Three Sam’s Barbeque Joint
10508 Mann Road
Mabelvale, AR 72103
(501) 407-0325

Quick Stop: The Amish and Country Store at Dermott.

A little wooden cabin alongside US Highway 65 between McGehee and Lake Village serves as a nice spot for a road break or snack. But this country store has one thing that really sets it apart - handmade fried pies.

Pieday: Grasshopper at The 178 Club.

Great restaurants make stuff from scratch. 178 Club in Bull Shoals makes its sauces, its dressings, its pastries, its rubs and a whole host of other things from scratch, including an ever-changing array of desserts.

Pieday: Chocolate Meringue at The Country Rooster.

Folks have been pestering me about heading up to Green Forest for pie at a very unusual little restaurant. The Country Rooster is, after all, not just an eatery. It’s also a little antiques and flea market sort of store.

The glorious goodness of Hunka Pie.

This restaurant has closed.

See, I could start this off so many ways, but I’ll start this way — the worst thing about Mondays for me is the fact I can’t go get my favorite pie. Seriously. Though honestly, Chris Monroe hasn’t always baked that pear-ginger pie and I don’t always get over there when he does.

Dinner For The Indecisive Can Be Found At Morrilton Drive Inn Restaurant.

Family dinners out can be frustrating. If your family is anything like mine, you probably spend more time discussing where you're going to get dinner than you do in transit to your dinner.

Fortunately, Morrilton residents have a better choice.

The Morrilton Drive-Inn Restaurant has it all. It proudly proclaims some of its many specialties on the large sign above the door - "Bar-B-Que*Catfish*Burgers." Some have believed this means the restaurant offers a barbeque catfish burger. Well, not yet, but I bet if you asked for one the good folks behind the counter would oblige.

The restaurant, a longtime standard of the area, sits right off Interstate 40, cattycorner from Love's Truck Stop. The unassuming brick building's parking lot is often full of vehicles, and there's inevitably someone at the drive-thru window. But don't let the cars discourage you -- you'll want to stop and eat here.

The restaurant, like many drive-inns and drive-thru of the carhop area, sports a varied board of burgers, dogs, and assorted edibles. But instead of sporting that sign above an order window outside, the window here is in the climate controlled dining room. And you'll want to come in.

It's not uncommon to see groups of people standing off away from the window, mouthing the names of the extremely long list of delicacies posted on that board. If there weren't enough choices there, there are certainly enough when you count in every hand-printed sign below and to the sides of the order window. Deciding on an appetizer or meal is something that could take hours of contemplation.

But no doubt you'll be here when you're hungry - and whatever you're hungry for, you're likely to find it here. The menu includes a large selection of cold sandwiches (turkey club, chicken club, ham, tuna fish, pimento cheese), hot sandwiches (ham and cheese, grilled cheese, roast beef, chicken, fish), burgers (hamburger, cheeseburger, double, jumbo, chili, chili cheese, pizza, magic, super), barbeque (sandwiches, ribs, pulled beef, pulled pork, barbeque salad and stuffed potato), salads (grilled chicken, taco, steak), and Tex-Mex fare (taco basket, burrito supreme, grilled chicken tacos).

And that's not all. There are also a fine selection of catfish options, and plenty of dinners (chicken fried steak, pork chops, ribeye steak, hamburger steak) with hearty vegetables. There are unusual things like the chili steak sandwich and the hot beef dinner. And there are loads of appetizers -- stuffed peppers, fried cheese, frito pies, crinkle fries, and onion rings. Add in the list of desserts like fried pies and hot fudge cake and a long list of Cyclones (thick ice cream shakes) and you can see they offer just about everything outside of caviar and creme brulee.

With a list like that, you can understand why there's usually a line of indecisive folks pondering the meaning of catfish or the existance of ribs. Fortunately, most folks have a good incentive for making a quick choice -- the delicious smell of good food and the sizzle of a primed grill.

Some days, the wait for your food can be as long as 20 minutes. But most days, it's more like five to ten -- depending on what you order.

Many of the customers that pass through here are truckers who have been let in on the secret of the restaurant, and residents of other I-40 towns who pick up an order on their way from point A to point B. I've been guilty of this myself. Oftentimes, on the road to my father-in-law's place, we'll call ahead and ask him what he wants for dinner. This restaurant is one of his favorites, and his favorite food at the restaurant is the hot fried catfish.

My husband likes the burgers, so on this particular December day I stopped in on my way home to Little Rock to pick up dinner. After a busy day of looking for places to feature in Tie Dye Travels, I had worked up an appetite, and though I'd keep my entree for our mutual dining experience when I arrived home, I just had to grab a fried pie.

These may not be as good as the ambrosial pies at Ms. Lena's, but they are generous and tasty. I sat down at one of the open booths and proceeded to consume my cold pie while I waited for my order to come up. I also listened in to conversations by some of the regulars, at this time debating the fate of Houston Nutt and the Hogs. Morrilton may be geographically between the UCA Bears and the ATU Wonderboys, but folks around here proudly bleed Razorback Red.

About seven minutes later, I had my precious cargo and was ready to hit the road.

The repast from the Morrilton Drive-Inn Restaurant counts as what my husband and I call "kitchen food," food that rarely leaves the kitchen before consumption. He was happy to see me, but even happier to see the Super Cheeseburger I'd bagged during my travels.

The Super Cheeseburger ($5.49) may appear relatively small in this picture, but don't let that fool you. It may not be an Ed Walker sized monster, or compare with the Sasquatch Burger at the Big Foot Lodge. But this is still more food than the average person could consume in a sitting. A full pound of black pepper-laden ground beef is hand-formed and slapped onto the grill, then squished between big lengths of paper towel before being plopped onto a big bun. American cheese is flopped down on top while the meat is still hot, allowing the creamy cheese to spread into the crevices on the surface.

The burger comes with hefty slices of tomato, shredded lettuce, hamburger dills and doses of mayo, mustard, and ketchup. Think that's a lot? The restaurant also offeres a Double Super Cheeseburger. Both of these big burgers are wrapped carefully in an almost-too-small foil wrapper and encased in their own separate Styrofoam containers. Add in some tater tots, and you really do have a meal for two.

But not on this night. I let Paul manage with the burger as I dug into my own favorite from the restaurant -- the Stuffed Barbeque Potato ($4.29). This monsterous spud would already be a tight fit in its own Styrofoam box without the add-ins, but with them it takes up almost every bit of space inside. Before the main event is added, the potato is broken open and lubricated with butter and sour cream. Then on goes a layer of barbeque meat (be sure to let them know whether you prefer pork or beef), an ample dousing of the restaurant's smokey and savory sauce, and a handful of shredded cheddar cheese. The kitchen crew doesn't skimp on the meat -- there's easily half a pound of hand pulled smoked beef on the potato, and it's a definate struggle to finish.

If that weren't enough, I also imbibed a little, adding on an order of fried mushrooms. While not exclusive to the restaurant, these offerings are properly cooked and served with their own plastic ramekin of ranch dressing.

The price for this repast? With the burger, tots, potato, mushrooms, and pie, my total came to less than $20. Prices are more than reasonable, and the servings are ample.

To get to the Morrilton Drive-Inn Restaurant, take I-40 to the Highway 95 exit. It's about two blocks south of the interstate. Look for the red roof. And if you know what you want in advance, they do take call-in orders to (501) 354-8343. Be sure to arrive hungry.

UPDATE 9-7-17 with photo credits and color correction. Also, there's now a Facebook page.

 

Pies worth giving up Saturday morning cartoons.

Throughout Arkansas, there are unusual and delicious pies to be found. Whether it's Ed and Kay's fabulous Mile High Pie with its thick and lofty meringue, or the burnt sugar pies at Charlotte's Eats and Sweets in Keo, or any of the amazing cream pies from Chip's Barbeque in Little Rock, you're not going to go wrong with pie in Arkansas.

But there's just one place to think of when you're talking about the queen of rural fast food desserts. Just one place to consider when you're talking about the down-home yet delicate and delicious morsel we like to call the fried pie.

That place, hands down, is Ms. Lena's Pie Shop in DeValls Bluff.