Dale's Donuts Were The First Amazing Thing I Ever Put In My Mouth.

We're not talking about as a food writer, or even an adult. My first restaurant food memories are of this little shack on a triangle in Benton, Arkansas, and I still to this day can't walk into the place without overwhelming nostalgia.

Five Minutes Flat Pizza at Pie Five Pizza in Benton.

I get a lot of requests to cover chain restaurants, but I tend to defer to other food bloggers in Central Arkansas to cover the,  This time, though, I was curious about a single idea -- a pizza joint that can take your pizza order and make it in five minutes.

Seriously, this is a thing.  That's why Grav and I headed out to Pie Five Pizza in Benton Wednesday.  The restaurant was running a testing session before Friday's grand opening, which meant we had an advance opportunity to figure out -- is five minute pizza for real?

It's All Good at Jimmy's Diner in Benton.

My brother, when he was in high school, had a shirt that said "It's All Good."  It was written in some computerized script that made it appear to say "It's All 6000."  The phrase slipped into our lexicon, and my mom grew to hate it.

Where was I going with this?  Oh yeah, Jimmy's Diner.

I mention the phrase again because the sign outside Jimmy's Diner includes the line "It's All Good Too."  That's a whole heck of a lot of bragging, right?

Jimmy's looks like it's

always been on Edison Avenue on the southeast side of Benton, but it hasn't.  It sits a few blocks from the recently closed classic Burger Barn, in a building that has been there a very long time.  I think it had an insurance office in it a decade ago.

Even when you walk inside Jimmy's, you'd swear it'd been there nigh on forever.  The memorabilia on the walls is aged.  The photographs are ancient.  The place even smells like a diner that's been around a couple of decades.  But Jimmy's is only five or six years old.

I dropped in one Tuesday morning for a bite to eat while I was kicking around the area.  I sucked down a cup of hot coffee while trying to come to terms with the breakfast menu, which featured a whole lot of sausage and bacon.  As in, every dish came with a choice.  There was also a listing for a slice of country ham, which if as epic as I think it is, would be one of those inch thick plate sized slabs... but of course, I wasn't going for that sort of thing.

I did see mention of chocolate gravy and had considered that over biscuits, but then I saw Jimmy's offers a Garden omelet.  Okay, I was good with that.

While I waited, I listened to a crowd that was full of local hubbub.  Everyone in the place seemed to live in Benton, and that was fine.  Folks were happy.

One of the girls came out of the kitchen and asked me that since the breakfast potatoes were done for the day if hash browns would be all right.  Of course they would be.

And this is what I got... an omelet filled with sauteed onions, peppers and cheese -- lot of cheddar cheese, in fact.  A good, hearty three egg omelet with a fair scattering of hashbrowns and a biscuit.  I also got a bowl of cream gravy on the side, homemade cream gravy with black pepper in.

Now, my eggy plate was a whole lot of food, and the gravy was a massive bowl.  And I had coffee.  So, you'd imagine my surprise when I found my entire bill was just seven dollars and six cents.  Coffee, as it turns out, comes complimentary with any bill over five dollars.

While I quite enjoyed this repast, I quickly was warned by fellow diners that I had not quite come to the best of Jimmy's.  So I had to come back for lunch.

I didn't mind that.  What did surprise me was on my return visit I'd arrived to find most of the lunch special gone.  No worries, I'd also been told the burgers were good.  And they are.  They're not fancy, but that's all right.  The slightly charred smashy I got was glued to the top bun with cheese,

and underneath a stack of tomato slices, onion ringlets, pickles and a sturdy chunk of iceberg lettuce kept the meat elevated above the bottom, seedless, untoasted bun.  It was served up with chips -- though you can get it with fries and a drink in a combo.

I wanted dessert, too, and though I missed out on the homemade banana pudding and on the meringue and cream pies (one of which I'd glimpsed in a cooler on my previous visit), I did get a pie -- a nice, hot, powdered sugar-doused apple pie, which was warm and smooth.  There's a sugar free apple fried pie as well, along with sugared versions of cherry, peach and chocolate.

So, that was all pretty good, but I found I was still missing out on the real coup -- the Saturday morning buffet.  Seems that between the hours of five and eleven every Saturday, there's a $6.99 all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet of epic portions, including the likes of chocolate gravy and biscuits, breakfast casseroles, biscuits, pancakes, waffles, sausage patties and links, fried eggs and scrambled eggs, fried potatoes and hash browns.

It was interesting that the fellow patrons felt it important to share this with me.  See, now I know that it's not all good.  Jimmy's Diner may be, but it's not all good that I haven't been for breakfast buffet.  And since my schedule won't let me take that in for at least a month, I've decided to not make you wait on it.  Get on over to Jimmy's.

So I will go back.  But for now, amuse yourself with this garden omelet, bowl of gravy, burger and fried pie, and know that I will soon return to Edison Avenue.

Jimmy's Diner
821 Edison Avenue
Benton, AR 72015
(501) 776-8400 

Chef Bruno's Italian Joint Headed to Ed and Kay's.

It's been eight months since Kay Diemer closed Ed and Kay's on a Saturday afternoon.  Since then, the building on I-30 on the south side of Benton has sat there quietly, full of old memories.  In just a few weeks, it'll reopen as a different venture. The old Ed and Kay's has been leased.

"Bruno, he's a really nice guy," Kay Diemer told me this morning. "When I first closed down in March, he talked to me. He wanted to lease it and keep it as Ed and Kay's. I was hoping to sell the whole thing, but no one wanted to invest a lot of money."

The restaurant's location out on a service road on the edge of town was popular in its heyday, but with the way restaurants come and go, I can see why it seems a little risky as a full on investment.

Bruno is Chef Bruno Baqiri, the chef at Bruno's Italian Bistro on Bowman Road. That may be a bit confusing; the initial rumors circulating connected Vince Bruno of Bruno's Little Italy to the leasing of Ed and Kay's. While Bruno's Little Italy used to be located where Bruno's Italian Bistro is now, they are completely separate restaurants.

Many were shocked when Kay suddenly decided to close Ed and Kay's at noon on the morning of March 1st. I was among them. But she had a reason.

"My son was real bad sick, and I knew he was dying. And that day I thought, 'what in the hell was I doing here?' Something just told me to close the door at twelve o'clock. Here I was busy, cooking, having a big day. No one would close the restaurant at noon on a Saturday. But I knew he wouldn't live long..."

Her son passed away at the end of March.

"The good Lord takes care of you," she told me. For Kay, deciding to close meant she could spend that final month with her son.

She's thrilled to be able to lease the restaurant for this venture. "I'm glad Bruno's going to get it. I'm excited about him opening an Italian restaurant here -- we don't have anything quite like that here in Saline County. He's looking to start the first of the month. Everything's there, all he has to do is get everything he wants to set up. I really like Bruno and I hope it works out there."

Chef Bruno Baqiri, who I talked with this afternoon, confirms the acquisition but doesn't have a firm date on opening the new location.

Kay still has some plans. One of the questions I'm asked most about Ed and Kay's is, what's going to happen to those recipes? Well, they won't go to waste. "I'm in several books, people put our recipes, in. We gave them out. But we did a 10 inch pie, and most pies are smaller. We would have to work with them, test them to get them going. People ask 'what do you do with those recipes, Kay? They don't taste like the ones you cook!' Well, they don't use the same pot we use, or maybe it's not the same brand of things we use.

"(Bruno) didn't buy any recipes," she laughed when I asked if Chef would serve her pies.

"Thing of it is, we're doing several recipe books. I have three plastic boxes of recipe books we're in. Phyllis (Kay's former manager) worked for me for 32 years. We want to publish a cookbook. We want to do it in a humorous way, with pictures and all the crazy things we did all those 32 years."

I have a feeling that book will be a best seller.

Brown's Country Store and Restaurant: 40 Years, 100 Feet and Growing.

It is very possible that I had my first real restaurant experience at a place in Benton.  It’s likely, considering that’s where my parents lived in the early 70s, around the time that Brown’s Country Store and Restaurant was just starting to bud.

Pieday: PCP at Ed and Kay's.

This restaurant has closed.

Do you remember the first time you fell in love? How about with a piece of pie? I've had my share of pies from Ed and Kay's Restaurant down in Benton over the years — and have consumed many a piece of Mile High Pie goodness.

Breakfast, Lunch and Pie at Ed and Kay's.

This restaurant has closed.

Restaurant longevity is an amazing thing. Most restaurants have about a ten year lifespan, if you average out the start-ups that don’t survive the first year with the standards that keep on going. Longtime restaurants from my childhood such as The Shack, John Barleycorn’s and Casa Bonita are long gone… others like Brown’s Country Store and Restaurant and the Ozark Mountain Smokehouse have seen drops in quality or popularity.

But for more than 50 years now, Ed and Kay’s has been serving up hot breakfasts, filling lunches and great pies in Benton. It’s been in the southernmost Benton curve of I-30 that I can’t remember it not being there (well, I’m not over 50, so that makes sense) and I’ve seen a lot of good meals there. I’ve also had a great deal of fun there.

Years ago, back when I was a television producer, we sent our morning show down to the shop. I can quite clearly recall Kay Diemer telling tales to B.J. Sams, and how one of the pie ladies showed Robyn Richardson how to make that fabulous meringue. I also remember she licked the meringue off a spatula… but I won’t share with you the reaction of a certain pair of television directors over that particular activity.

Pie’s what convinced me to send the show down there in the first place. You’d be hard-pressed to find a taller pie in the state of Arkansas. The meringue is piled on thick and richly on coconut and chocolate meringue pies. They’ve become so famous, some people only know Ed and Kay’s as “the Mile High Pie shop.” And I can see why they say that. A little further down in this article I’ll tell you why I like the Mile High Pies, but why they’re not my favorite pies in the restaurant.

I like going to Ed and Kay’s for breakfast. I’ve had a great number of the breakfasts offered there, but the best one I have ever had was the one I shared with seven of my friends. We were all about to head down to Louisiana for the wedding of two of our friends. Everyone ordered something different. My friend Terri ordered the Kitchen Sink Omelet, just for the heck of it. It’s not really called that, but it might as well be. It’s listed as “Any or All” under the omelet section of the menu, and it’s $9.80. It includes (if you want it all) ham, bacon and sausage; Cheddar, Pepper Jack, American and Swiss cheeses; onions, green bell peppers, black olives, tomatoes, mushrooms and jalapenos. It’s served up with a bowl of cream gravy, fried potatoes and a choice of a pancake, toast or biscuit. It is a remarkably huge and colorful meal. She didn’t finish it. Her husband didn’t finish it, either. It’s just massive.

Me? When I go for breakfast I usually go for the Chicken Fried Steak combo breakfast ($7.80 with two eggs). It’s a nice crispy piece of tenderized beef covered in cream gravy. I usually get mine with a little extra gravy on the side -- the made-from-scratch cream gravy is great on one of Ed & Kay’s fluffy biscuits; I usually take home a biscuit half with gravy to savor later.

What never does make it home are the fried potatoes. They’re available with any meal, and they’re decadent -- julienne-style red potatoes with black pepper and herbs cooked up in butter. Oh, man. Some of my dining companions have chosen to doctor theirs up with ketchup and the like. I prefer mine as they are. So does Hunter, who has loved getting her hands in them since the first time she had them.

There’s also lunch and dinner -- usually a special every day. I’ve had the Hot Roast Beef before, smothered in brown gravy and served up with fried squash and macaroni and cheese. One thing I can always guarantee when I go to Ed and Kay’s… and that’s a lot of food. Side items that swamp the plate. Hot rolls or cornbread with every noontime meal. Generous entrée portions. It’s just good hospitality.

I recently went down to the restaurant with my daughter Hunter. That’s right, just me and a 26 month old toddler with a mind of her own. Right after we got there our waitress already had us set up with a cup of milk with a top on it for her, a drinking straw to get her started.

One of the kids meal options is a plate with several of the day’s “vegetable” options. My daughter knoshed on large portions of macaroni and cheese, green beans and those remarkably good fried potatoes. In fact, she had enough for another meal at home left over. My daughter can eat her weight in fried potatoes… but there’s limits even for her hollow legs.

Me? I went for the daily special, the Chicken Spaghetti plate lunch ($7.50), a big pile of creamy chicken spaghetti casserole with some fried potatoes and some PurpleHull peas… an Arkansas staple that doesn’t get its just due outside the state. It was judiciously warm and hearty, the sort of stick-to-your-ribs dinner that stays with you through the afternoon. I ordered up Texas toast -- as much as I like the jalapeno cornbread, the hot rolls and biscuits, my daughter is in a Texas toast sort of mood. And it was good.

And this is where I get back to the pie. From time to time Ed’s will run a dinnertime special -- meals after 3pm come with a free slice of pie. Doesn’t matter, I’d have ordered pie anyway. And it wasn’t the Mile High coconut or chocolate I ordered, nor the Lemon Meringue or German Chocolate or Fudge. I ordered the PCP -- a pie that’s so good… well. It’s one of the best pies I’ve ever had. It’s pineapple, coconut and pecan. It’s created like a pecan pie but with a pineapple-pecan custard and coconut baked right into the top and crust. It’s a best-of-everything pie, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

A 50 year old diner’s a pretty amazing thing, and if it goes on another 50 years it’ll be even more amazing. I just hope it’s there long enough for Hunter to take her daughter (should she have one) to when she gets to be my age. It’s just one of those Arkansas sort of places you just can’t keep passing up.

You’ll find Ed and Kay’s Restaurant along the westbound service road on the north side of I-30, west of the Sevier Street exit. They start serving up breakfast at 7:30 each morning, Wednesday through Sunday. Don’t bother going on Monday or Tuesday, they won’t be there. (501) 315-3663.

Dinerland.

Let's face it -- there are a lot of restaurants in Arkansas. Lots of good ones. A good number of them tend to the upscale crowd while others hit ethnic niches. But from my observations, lunch-goers tend to go where they know the food's good, cheap and comforting. That's right -- they head to their local diner.

I've been collecting diners to talk about for some time. For instance, I've already gathered and shared information on The Pancake Shop, Stout's, Ed Walker's, Stagecoach Grocery and the venerable Old South. But a comprehensive guide? That's hard to do. After all, there are so many places like Madea's Home Cooking and The New Green Mill Cafe out there...

But here's a shot. Most of these reviews were originally published on the Arkansas Times' Eat Arkansas blog. Others will likely be added here or there. If you have one to suggest, drop me a line at kat@tiedyetravels.com.


Bobby's Country Cooking (Little Rock)

There’s something to be said about comfort food… something that draws in lines of folks that stretch around a packed restaurant before noon on a weekday. That’s what I found when I dropped by Bobby’s Country Cooking one Friday -- a line that was backed up to the door at 11am.

There’s no set menu there… just four entrée items, a selection of sides, drinks and a case full of homemade pies. But that’s apparently enough to draw folks in.

That Friday’s specials included fried chicken, catfish, chicken fried steak, and hamburger spaghetti bake. I went for the latter, pairing up my choices with cornbread, white beans, and corn. The cornbread muffin was sweet, and the spaghetti was very much like what I’d expect if I was eating at someone’s house for dinner -- a very casual dinner. Hunter tried to eat her weight in the white beans. Thank goodness for ample portions.

The hubster went for the fried chicken, paired with mashed potatoes and gravy, a white roll, and fried okra. He says the okra was on the salty side, but what I sampled didn’t seem salty at all. The chicken wasn’t all that greasy, with a good flour batter and lots of taste to the meat.

“Meat and Two Veg” runs $7.25 for any combination, and iced tea is $1.50. Tax is figured into the price, so you’re not going to walk out with a lot of pennies. And those pies? Gotta tell you about the pies.

When we were picking up our plates, we eyed the pie case. All the pies are homemade, and it shows. Choices included peanut butter pie, mint chocolate pie, coconut cream pie, lemon ice box pie, and pecan pie. We went for a slice of chocolate cream pie and a chunk of cheesecake with cherry topping. Sure, the cherry topping was cherry pie filling, but the cheesecake was obviously homemade and had real substance to it. The chocolate pie was cool, creamy, and apparently pudding based. Good, though. Pie, by the way, is $2.25.

When we left, the line was actually out the door and onto the sidewalk. That should tell you something. You’ll find Bobby’s Country Cooking in the big orange shopping center at Markham and Shackleford. (501) 224-9500 -- lunch only.


Butter Lovins (aka Grandma’s Butter Lovins) (Cabot, AR)

This is a slice of decadent and lovely butterscotch pie from Butter Lovins in Cabot. It is one of the finest examples I have found of this sort of pie, and the first I've had in ages that included meringue. Not too butterscotchy-y... more like... well, honestly, first thing I thought of was how pound cake batter tastes. Good stuff. And the crust is flaky and not sweet.

The little restaurant is a nice example of the local lunch joint -- cheerily clean and bright, small, a few bar stools for counter service and several country-style tables. They have lunch specials (Monday it's Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Tuesday Ham & White Beans, Wednesday Chicken & Dumplings) for $4.25 and a mean Chef's Salad, too. But what people have kept telling me all about is the pie -- chocolate, coconut, whatever happens to be the flavor du jour, $2.79 a slice.

Just another great little place for lunch in Cabot. You'll find it on the west side of North Second Street a few blocks north of the Dancing Baby sign. Worth a drop-in.


Crazee's Cool Cafe (Little Rock)

Okay, I’ll give you this -- Crazee’s isn’t specifically a diner. It’s a bar. But for lunch, it might as well be a diner. Yes, it's one of those that allows smoking and doesn't allow anyone under 21. Yes, it has pool tables. But the lunch crowd I encountered were a friendly bunch -- filling most of the tables in the center of the room.

I went on a Friday afternoon, hungry for some comfort food. Just trusting my instincts, I sat down, ordered the daily plate special, and watched.

There's a popcorn maker by the door that's apparently free to everyone. A guy at the table next to me received the Half Pound Footlong Dog ($6.95) while I was waiting, and I momentarily lusted after it. My waitress brought me an oversized cup of iced tea and I watched sports highlights.

The Daily Special ($8.25) was chicken spaghetti, and my plate contained a nice sized bowl of it along with a salad that contained tomatoes, lettuce and onions. The Thousand Island dressing was pretty good. The spaghetti? Warmed me up and treated me like a lady. I was very happy with it.

The other special offered any day at lunch is the Burger Special -- you can choose any of the burgers from the menu and it comes with fries and a drink for $7.50. That includes hamburger, cheeseburger, BBQ burger with cheese and bacon, Mexican burger with jalapenos, Italian burger with Mozzarella and marinara and mushrooms, and Mushroom Swiss with, well, mushrooms and Swiss cheese.

I like the fact that the price on the wall when I came in was what I paid -- the sales tax was already figured in. No pennies to fiddle with.

Crazee's Cool Cafe is located at 7626 Cantrell Road, on the north side of the road west of Mississippi. (501) 221-9696.


Dan’s I-30 Diner (Benton, AR)

It took me a couple of months to follow up on a recommendation to try out Dan’s I-30 Diner. I’d been meaning to get out Benton-way, but every time I found myself in the area, it was after the restaurant’s 2pm closing time.

So one Tuesday morning I walked in and was told I could go sit where I liked. A rather thorough waitress came over and took my drink order. I asked her if I should go for breakfast or lunch, and she told me both were good but the biscuits weren't as fresh as she'd like them by this point of the day. I happily ordered lunch.

I know, I say a lot of things like "I was surprised that" or "it was remarkably good." I tend to cheerlead a bit over some of the restaurants I find. So let me put it to you another way. The combination of warmth, flavor, and variety in my lunchtime repast filled me not just with food but with pleasure.

There were several choices on the plate lunch special on the board -- hamburger steak, chicken or catfish tenders, or chicken dressing for entrees, everything from pinto beans to turnip greens for sides. I'd asked the waitress which she'd chose, and she'd suggested the chicken dressing, and she was right. By gum, it was some of the best cornbread-based dressing I've ever tried, with big hanks of pulled chicken and a little cup of cranberry orange relish served on the side.

The sweet potato casserole had this nice crunchy top of caramelized sugar and nuts on it. And the Devilled Egg Potato Salad was the best potato salad I'd had in quite some time, very tangy and eggy. My waitress also brought not only cornbread but a roll, told me she couldn't remember which I'd asked for. The roll was a little moist and very soft, of the Parker House category. The cornbread was Arkansas style, unsweet except from what sweetness came from the corn, and made from white flour.

This little repast set me back all of $6.95. I was disappointed... because I couldn't help but get stuffed and had to turn down a slice of homemade egg custard pie ($1.99).

So I get to the register to pay, and see this sign. Had to ask about it. That chicken dressing I had for lunch? Turns out you can order it for the holidays, $15.50 for a half pan or $27.50 for a whole one. Same for the sweet potato casserole or the apple or cherry cobblers. I'm going to have to give that some serious thought. I'm telling you, that dressing was good.

You'll find Dan's I-30 Diner on the westbound service road next to the Best Western in Benton. You'll have to take the Congo Road exit either direction to get there. They're open 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. every day except Sunday -- and, for those who already know about the diner but don't know this -- a sign on the door announced that they're now open 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. (501) 778-4116.


Dave’s Place (Little Rock, AR)

I'm all about a bargain, and maybe that's why I am keen on this Center Street dive. The long restaurant a block and a half from the Statehouse Convention Center is your usual soup-and-sandwich sort of place that dot downtown for diners with little time to spare and no desire to move parked cars.

Of course, it could be too easy to shortchange the place based on that assessment. So don't. Instead, go if you can (there's metered parking out front) and grab yourself a good sandwich or one of the specials (listed each day on the eatery's website).

I particularly enjoyed the Beef Tenderloin Sandwich ($5.50 with chips), nice and buttery soft and served up on Spinach Feta bread with a spread of horseradish sauce. But it was the Three-Egg Omelet ($6.25) that really won my heart. The restaurant offers just about everything it serves in the omelet, and you can choose the number of ingredients you want. I went for the smoked chicken on the waiter's recommendation — along with tomato, bell pepper and cheddar cheese. The omelet came out hearty and hot, accompanied by a fluffy blueberry muffin, a strawberry, and big slices of cantaloupe and watermelon. The smoked chicken was an excellent choice.

And don't miss out on having dessert. Each day, there's something different. I rather enjoyed this memory-evoking slice of Key Lime Pie. No, it wasn't some fruit-bit laden entity of out-of-state procurement, nor was it some creation that came packaged in a box from the freezer case. This was one of those Southern granny specials where Key Lime Juice meets sweetened condensed milk, and it made me very, very happy. Can't beat the price either -- just a buck. I've also rather enjoyed the housemade brownie, too.

You’ll find Dave’s Place at 210 Center Street in Downtown Little Rock. It’s only open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. during the week (and for a few more hours Friday nights) but they also do catering and the sort. (501) 372-DAVE.


E.J.'s Eats & Drinks (Little Rock)

It’s inevitable… if you get a reputation to be “into” food, you’re going to get recommendations. And one of the big recommendations I get anytime I mention that I’m going to be downtown is “you gotta go get lunch at EJ’s.”

Not that I’m a stranger to the sandwich-soup-salad shop in the old Lions Club building. Not at all. Friends have taken me many times, and I try to drop by when I have business in the Metropolitan Tower building. Problem has been that I tend to leave the camera packed away.

That’s because EJ’s Eats and Drinks is one of those local joints that’s way past being casual. It’s just “one of those places,” like a good bar (think “Cheers” for the sandwich set). The eclectic mix of dead comedian pics on the walls, the strange pinkness of the exposed second story, the laid back wait staff and the plethora of familiar faces just holler “don’t get so comfortable you take off your shoes in here.” It’s nice.

I do dig on their Reuben and their Big Steak sandwiches ($7.25 regular or $8.50 footlong). And their cornmeal-breaded onion rings ($2.75) are tasty. This trip around, though, I decided to try out EJ’s Cheeseburger ($6.25) and was pleased with the offering -- a decent patty cooked medium well with a choice of cheese, a couple of slices of tomato, chunks of lettuce and a thin slice through a purple onion.

But what really stands out are the chips… EJ’s makes its own, and seasons them, too (regular, BBQ or ranch). They come free with the sandwiches and burgers (though you can upgrade to fries or soup) and… well, there’s just something about a fresh skin-on potato chip just fried and dusted with sweet seasoning… it’s just… well… good. It’s thoughtful, much moreso than those places that put a twisted slice of orange or a sprig of parsley on a plate to jazz it up.

Maybe that’s why folks keep coming back. ‘Course, could be all the reliable choices on the menu, too. Oh, they have dessert, too -- but it’s something different every day -- cookies for 50 cents, brownies of different sorts for $1.50, and usually some pie or cheesecake or something else. The cookies and brownies are individually wrapped and available at checkout -- so you can grab one to go as you scuttle back off to the workplace. You’ll find it at the corner of Center and 6th, two blocks off Broadway. They do the call-ahead thing (501) 666-3700 -- and you can check them out on the web.


The Finish Line Café (Alexander, AR)

Quiche. Stuffed Bell Peppers. Tabouleh. Hand-thrown pizzas. Squab. Crawfish Etouffee. Chicken Fried Steak. Bread Pudding. Fried Broccoli and Cheese. That’s a pretty wide menu with some pretty crazy items on it. Chances are, you’d expect to pay quite a bit for a restaurant with this sort of variety.

Would you believe me if I told you the chicken fried steak plate above cost just $6? Yes, I was surprised… even though my brother had been telling me about this place for months. About huge reasonably priced breakfasts, a case full of take-and-go meals, a wide selection of beverages, and the unusual. So I finally decided to go out and meet him… at school.

That divine everchanging menu is what you’ll find at the café at Pulaski Tech’s South Campus, The Finish Line. It’s run by students of PTC’s culinary school. Hence that variety.

The day we went we had to wait a bit -- students had just left class (there are indeed other programs on the campus, including the car mechanic school that my brother is attending) and were grabbing hot meals before their next stop for the day. Unlike the cafeteria where I pursued my higher education, this really looks more like a café, though its “courtyard” is actually just a fenced in area outside the café within the halls of the school.

My brother’s plate (the chicken fried steak) came with two sides and a drink for $6. Doesn’t matter what they serve at Coupe de Grille (the station where you get hot “home cooking,” it’s still $6 ($4.25 if you just get three veggies and a roll). Which isn’t bad.

I was tempted by many things when I took my turn through the line… the quiche selection was pretty grand, as was the desserts. There’s a salad bar and a hot dessert station. I almost passed on something unusual, though. As I was glancing down into the take-and-go case, writing on the boxes caught my eye. I dare say, it’s the first time I’ve ever seen squab sandwiches offered, anywhere. Of course, I had to try it… along with the equally unusual to me Fried Broccoli and Cheese. And Blueberry Crunch… it looked good, so I figured I’d try it. Along with my iced tea, my meal came to less than $8.

And I was thrilled with the quality. On occasion I’ve spent more for a “deli lunch” downtown and didn’t get anything half as good.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, they have pretty good pizza, too… hand thrown and covered in plenty of cheese. And I understand their gourmet hot dogs are also splendid.

PTC also offers dining options this at the Big Rock Bistro at PTC’s Main Campus.

You’ll find The Finish Line inside Pulaski Tech’s South Campus. If you’re coming from Little Rock, you’ll need to take the Otter Creek exit off I-30 and ride the access road to the entrance (you can’t get there from the County Line/Alexander exit). It’s just inside the main entrance. Weekly menus are posted on their website.


Frontier Diner (Little Rock, AR)

I was searching out comfort food in the Baseline Road area, and found it along I-30. You know you’re going to have a good comfort food experience when you see “PurpleHull peas" listed as the vegetable of the day. Can't go wrong with that.

Mind you, I was a bit late for the lunch rush -- the restaurant closes at 1 p.m., and this was around 12:20. But most of the stuff on the lunch board was still available -- pork chop, chicken fried steak, meatloaf -- only the chicken spaghetti was gone.

Well, as I mentioned, I was looking for comfort food, so I ordered the meatloaf. Spent a few minutes looking around, too.

The Frontier Diner is one of those places that's been around forever. Its kitschy decor and Route 66 inspired décor is the perfect sort of place for a guy working out on a job to come grab a quick breakfast or lunch and head out somewhere else. I've been before... several times. I like the "World Famous 1/2 Pound Cheeseburger" and the battered fries are pretty good, too.

This time around, I got that meatloaf, and was surprised not only at the quickness of service (less than three minutes) but the size. My chunk of meatloaf rivaled the dimensions of a typical brick -- maybe not as long, but a bit thicker and covered in a tangy tomato sauce. Potatoes were creamy, the peas were fantastic with bits of onion, and I got less than halfway through that meatloaf before I started begging for a box.

Oh, and I had dessert. Before I really had dug into the meatloaf a couple of the waitresses had asked if I was going to have the special of the day, the Tiramisu Cheesecake, and they talked me into it. And I am glad they did... layers of espresso and chocolate and cream and cheesecake were hard to ignore, and I finished every last bit of it. It was wonderful.

The lunch special is $6.29 and comes with a couple of side items and a roll or cornbread (cornbread's on the slightly sweet side and served with Land O' Lakes). Desserts are under $3. And the waitresses are nice and chatty.

You'll find Frontier Diner on the westbound access road of I-30, just west of Baseline Road (over by AHTD). They're open for breakfast and lunch. (501) 565-6414.


Home Plate Diner (Bryant, AR)

The recent laments over a lack of good local places to have a cheap breakfast or lunch lead me to Bryant’s Home Plate Diner -- that, and all the signs proclaiming it the town’s best place to eat. Sometimes, you gotta check these things out.

Now, when I think “diner,” I think lunch counter. I think bare bones. I think hot coffee and pastries and an open griddle. But at Home Plate Diner, it’s ‘50s and ‘60s décor, jukebox, teal blue walls and chrome. More like an upscale diner-type restaurant. The décor caused my wallet to get nervous.

No need. The prices within were actually a lot closer to what I expected. I was disappointed, though, that we had missed the 10:30am breakfast cut-off. Instead, my traveling companion and I split on our orders, he ordering up a burger with onion rings and myself going for the daily lunch special.

There are Trivial Pursuit cards on the tables to help you pass the time while you are waiting. You seat yourself, and your waitress comes to you. Ours did okay, except for initially forgetting to put in the onion rings order -- which meant my companion ended up with rings and chips.

His Hamburger ($4.79) came with chips -- other options would have been fries (+$1.29), sweet potato fries (+$1.89) or the onion rings (+$1.99). The half pound of meat was impressive, as was the chunk of Jack cheese and lettuce on top of the burger. Not a lot of seasoning on the meat, but once you add all the accoutrements it isn’t bad. Besides, c’mon, it’s a half pound.

Onion rings are battered in flour and deep fried. Ours were a little on the salty side but the sweetness of the onion balanced it out okay.

The lunch special was Chicken Fried Steak or Hamburger Steak ($6.49), so I went with the former. I chose macaroni and cheese and sweet potato casserole as my two side items. Diners usually get a choice of roll or cornbread, but the place had already run out of rolls for the day. That was okay, because the sweet cornbread was pretty good. The mac and cheese wasn’t spectacular, but the chicken fried steak was crispy outside and falling apart on the inside, and smothered in white gravy, a real stick-to-your-ribs sort of meal. The sweet potato casserole, though, was incredible -- with little caramelized sugar and pecan bits. Definitely the best part of the meal.

The place hasn’t been around all that long, and their hours are a bit short -- 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and 6:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday. It’s clean, it’s bright, and the food is decent. They do take-out orders, too. (501) 847-3331 or you can check out their website.


Wagon Wheel Restaurant (Greenbrier, AR)

The family dining experience… hometown restaurants that include ads for local businesses on their menu, where trophies and plaques for school sports dangle on walls and there’s sometimes even an item on the menu named after a school mascot. Many of these places bear a lot of merit. Others are simply in-town way stations of food, a place to eat when one does not want to venture forth outside of city limits.

Wagon Wheel Restaurant in Greenbrier is a good family sit-down with a wipeboard on the wall advertising the day’s specials and the choice of vegetables. There’s a cooler case with meringue-piled pies within easy eye distance, tempting from afar. The restaurant is loud with the buzz of conversation and alive with a varying cast of regulars and road-weary travelers looking for a place to light and hover for a bit.

Fortunately, good sustenance can be found in such a location. The restaurant offers a fine selection of breakfast items and dinners. But on one particular Monday, we were craving burgers… big ones, hand patted ones, and we were not disappointed.

Of course, one of my companions had to choose the namesake burger for the place, the Wagon Wheel Delight ($5.25 with fries). It sounded odd to me, a burger of sour cream, mushrooms, and green onions, but it was indeed a delight and worthy of a place of honor on the menu.

I chose the Cowboy Delight (also $5.25 with fries) and was delighted with a long sesame seed roll filled with plenty of hand patted and seasoned ground beef, Monterrey Jack cheese, and sautéed peppers and onions. I opted out of the offered mustard but ended up with pickle on my burger (also comes standard) but this was not an unwelcome thing. In fact, it gave the burger an unexpected tang that was pretty decent. The accompanying fries were big almost unseasoned planks of hand cut potato that sat up and begged for ketchup.

My other companion was the bravest… going for the Hotty Burger ($4.25 without fries) and adding on an order of onion rings ($1.95). His fat burger patty was smattered with pepper jack cheese and jalapenos and plenty of them. It was fun to watch him start to redden and sweat as he savored the peppery goodness. The onion rings, by the way, were similar to some I have experienced lately where the batter includes what tastes suspiciously like French onion soup mix. Here it works okay in a cornmeal and flour batter with chunks of hand-cut onion sections.

I wanted the pie… I really did… or shall I say my eyes did, because my belly wasn’t having any more of it. Too much food! I was only disappointed when I saw one of the waitresses change a selection on the wipe board from “Ham” to “Country Fried Veal.” THAT would have really been interesting.

Oh, we also tried the squash, and were very happy with the salted and battered deep fried rounds. Within the batter the squash was mush, but good flavored mush.

On a subsequent visit, I finally got a shot at that pie… mighty fine, mighty fine as one of my former co-workers would have said. I’d just suggest you order it first, lest you miss out on a chance at all that goodness.
You’ll find the Wagon Wheel Restaurant on the right side of the road as you head up Highway 65 into Greenbrier. (501) 679-5009.