Soul Shine: David Family Kitchen in Little Rock.

A family run operation serves up soul food on the south side of downtown Little Rock. Kat and Grav check out David Family Kitchen.

Little Rock has recently undergone a restaurant renaissance – with the introduction of the local foods movement and a bevy of new eateries making their mark across the Heights, Hillcrest, the River Market and the South Main District. But there’s a longstanding family operation that’s worth checking out – especially if you like good home cooking and soul food.

David Family Kitchen looks a little odd from the outside. Housed in an old white building on south Broadway decked with the line “with God, all things are possible,” it doesn’t look like much. There’s a tag on the door admonishing certain diners to not let their pants sag.

Still, the scents that welcome you even before the door is opened will convince you that this is where you’re eating today, no matter how hungry you might or might not be.

Forget curtains or tablecloths – here it’s a cafeteria-style bar to the right, old tables to the left and… well, what does the rest of it matter, because there’s a mature lady manning the stove and vittles galore under the heat lamps. Oh golly, it’s lunchtime.

David Family Kitchen was opened in 1998 by Stoy and Pearl David, who saw a need for more good eats in a neighborhood vacated by most chains. The place is open every weekday for breakfast and lunch, and every Sunday for brunch. Don’t come between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. – it’s reset time, when the eggs and biscuits are put away and the oxtails and pork chops are put out.

I picked up my first recommendation on the case about five years ago, specifically on the need to go get some greens. What I did find when I got there stunned me – the fattest, largest chicken legs I had encountered at a commercial operation in Little Rock, tender and juicy and clad in a fine light and crispy crust. They were paired with yams almost impossibly sweet and syrupy and big fat fluffy rolls for sopping. Those legs have to be the best soul food chicken in Little Rock, in my humble opinion.


Oh, but there are other things. The fall-apart marrow-filled oxtails are to die for. Meatloaf is just like your mother’s if she’s a good home cook. Smothered pork chops are big and sloppy and I have seen people suck the bone. And chicken and dumplings would be a sin if they weren’t so holy.

So head south of I-630 on Broadway and look for that white building on the left. Consider breakfast – croquettes sit alongside chicken and waffles and all sorts of breakfast classics there – and be sure to wipe your mouth. Good stuff.

You'll find David Family Kitchen at 2301 Broadway in Little Rock. For more information, call (501) 371-0141. The restaurant is open 6:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11 a.m.-4 p.m. on Sunday.

Seven Places You Must Try Fried Chicken in Arkansas.

Arkansas has its own flavor... and much of it is rooted in Southern culture.  And there’s nothing more Southern than fried chicken.

I could sit down in any of a hundred kitchens around my home state and have pan fried chicken so good you’d lick the plate.  But truly great fried chicken is a hard thing to find in an Arkansas restaurant.  Sure, a lot of restaurants try, but just a handful do the dish justice.

Here, in my honest opinion, are the seven best places to have fried chicken in Arkansas.  They’re not numbered because, frankly, they’re all dang good.

Dew-Baby’s. Oh, what a flavor. The little Stuttgart restaurant may not look like much, but it's eight sisters' tribute to a mom who shared it all. The fried chicken there has the tenderness and flavor of being buttermilk-soaked, a very light bit of spicing  with a hint of lemon pepper.  Juicy, flavorful, tender and golden.

AQ Chicken House. Chicken is prepared multiple ways at this 75 year old Springdale establishment, but you'll find the best version is the original: pan-fried, tender, simply seasoned and golden crusted. If you really must have other chicken there, try the Chicken Over The Coals -- strongly seasoned, lemon pepper tinted, slightly blackened and completely decadent.

Monte Ne Inn Chicken Restaurant.The crust of the chicken at this family-style sit-down pass-the-plate restaurant is deep brown, almost russet red. Batter-tight skin like a good pan-fried-and-baked chicken is flavored with paprika, black pepper and special seasoning. There's a flavor that permeates the chicken, even the breast, that gives it a supple flavor equaled only by the tenderness of the meat itself.

Myrtie Mae’s. Mouth-dabbingly moist, lightly golden fried and buttermilk battered, this Eureka Springs restaurant is serving up the same recipe that Myrtie herself started to use on travelers who showed up at her dinner table in the early days of travel for fun in the Ozarks.

David Family Kitchen. I don't know where they get their pieces, but somehow the folks at this soul food cafe in downtown Little Rock manage to pick the fattest chicken legs and thighs for their salt-and-pepper batter. It's juicy enough to worry about having wet elbows when you are done.

Holly’s Country Cooking. Crispy, thickly battered fried chicken that manages to still be light enough to keep you moving back out the door of this Conway mainstay. Available only at lunch, the slightly sweet and salty batter on this chicken will win you over.

The Skillet Restaurant. The latest addition to my chicken list, this is good Ozark style fried chicken -- a little paprika, a little salt, a little black pepper and a lot of buttermilk. I'm told they have to watch out and make sure to have extra wings out on the buffet each Sunday, because those wings are the first to go. You can find it at the Ozark Folk Center in Mountain View.

Downhome and deep-fried: David Family Kitchen.

• KAT ROBINSON
• FILLING: Fried chicken and vegetables at David Family Kitchen

There’s a time and a place for fancy foods, for upscale dining, steak, seafood, sushi and sauerbraten. There are business lunches, anniversary dinners, celebratory suppers and the occasional working breakfast. David Family Restaurant does none of these.

It doesn’t have to. It’s comfort food central south of downtown, a downhome friendly place where there’s too much sugar in the peas and tea and too much grease in the chicken. And that’s all right.

It’s soul food, cheap and tasty.

• KAT ROBINSON

There are plenty of breakfast items for those who care to venture out at 6 a.m. or later — pancakes and omelettes and lots of bacon and ham. For lunch, the menu changes daily. The day I went, the lunch entrée choices were fried chicken (dark $6.25, white $6.49 or two breasts $7.49), fried pork chops ($7.49 for two, $6.45 for one), beef oxtails for $11.50 (which I was sore tempted to get), meatloaf with red sauce ($6.99) and smothered pork chops ($6.49). Each entrée comes with two sides and your choice of cornbread or roll. I got the sweet peas and yams; other choices were cabbage, mac and cheese, black eyed peas and mashed potatoes.

• KAT ROBINSON

You order up front with a tray (or ask for a to-go box) and pay. A gentleman will serve up your beverage at the far end of the counter and you find yourself a seat.

I noticed right away this strangeness — each table with a black gold-printed label. I actually asked my Facebook fans about this and was told it’s an old wait service thing, something to identify tables. Neat.

• KAT ROBINSON

• KAT ROBINSON

I went for the dark meat fried chicken — what can I say? I love some chicken thighs. The meat was thoroughly

• KAT ROBINSON

juicy in both leg and thigh, with a crispy salt-and-pepper buttermilk-type batter on the outside. The chicken portions were larger than I expected — a big manly chicken leg like that is a pretty decent amount of meat. The meat hadn’t picked up much seasoning but the battering compensated.

I had expected the yams to be sweet and they were — almost candy-like in their orange blush of goodness. What I hadn’t expected were the sweetness of the sweet peas.

• KAT ROBINSON

Sweet peas are by definition sweet. These had obviously been doctored up with more sugar and some butter — I’m not complaining, it was just rather unexpected.

What I really liked, though, was the big fluffy house roll. I’d asked when I went through the line whether I should choose a roll or cornbread and the lady on the other side told me she never ate the cornbread no-how.

• KAT ROBINSON

The roll was flaky and tall and soaked up a bit more of that chicken grease that if I had been wise and more health conscious I woulda left on the plate. Then again, if I had been health-conscious would I have been eating fried chicken with sweet-sweet peas?

• KAT ROBINSON

It was more food than I could finish. It was filling and full of care, and I waddled out of there without finishing my yams. Cost me $10 with the tip I left on the table. Not bad.

David Family Kitchen is open for breakfast and lunch every day except Saturday. You’ll find it at 2301 Broadway, a couple of blocks north of Roosevelt. (501) 371-0141.