Lum and Abner, an Arkansas Original.

Before Martin and Lewis, before Abbott and Costello... there was Lum and Abner. The pair were voiced by two Mena natives - Chet Lauck, a banker  - and Norris "Tuffy" Goff, who worked in the family grocery business. The show they created would become a beloved part of American life for nearly a quarter of a century. Here's more on Arkansas's early claim to radio fame.

94 Years and Counting for Skyline Cafe in Mena.

At 94 years old, Skyline Cafe in Mena ranks amongst the oldest restaurants in Arkansas. Take a look inside this cafe in Western Arkansas and see what shines on its menu.

The Arkansas Bucket List - 11 Must-Take Trips for 2016.

Everyone has something they've always wanted to do.  Those daring acts and adventures you'd like to tackle is often called a "bucket list" (things to do before you kick the bucket) -- and it usually includes a good deal of places people want to go, see and do in their lifetime.

A First Look Inside Queen Wilhelmina State Park Lodge.

Over the years, a series of lodges have sat atop the tallest peak along the Arkansas-Oklahoma

What a view.

border. Today, I had a chance to tour the latest of these lodges, the brand new lodge at Queen Wilhelmina State Park. And it’s a knockout.

Spinelli's Italian Steakhouse - Delicious Eats in Mena.

This restaurant has closed.

An unlikely eatery along Arkansas’s western border deserves attention and praise… and a visit when you’re in the area.

Mena’s a long drive from the heart of the state, whatever way you slice it. An hour and a half from Fort Smith or Hot Springs, two hours from Texarkana and two and a half from Little Rock, it’s not the sort of town you’re just going to dart over to for dinner if you live in the heart of the state. But if you’re closer by, or if you’re planning to vacation in the Ouachitas or take a ride along the Talimena Scenic Byway, it’s a great place to go.

On the northern outskirts of town, you’ll find a charming bungalow of a restaurant, spread out over a lot. There’s a little parking up front and a lot of parking in the back, and inside you’ll find classic Italian dishes served up with good wine, good soups and a generally good attitude.

This is Spinelli’s. Opened the day after the major tornado that tore through downtown Mena in 2009, the eatery provides an oasis from everything else.

Within the house converted into a restaurant are several rooms decorated in Tuscan colors, walls bedecked with local art and, outside the back door, a large patio with pergolas and vines and… well, it’s actually quite lovely.

On this trip, we spent way too much time looking through the menu. A lot of Italian restaurants have these big menus with dozens upon dozens of items, and Spinelli’s is no exception. We debated between Eggplant Rollatini and Chicken Marsala and a host of different items on the Choose Your Own Pasta option (which includes, in case you’re wondering, your choice of angel hair, spaghetti, penne, linguini or whole wheat pasta with marinara, meat sauce, alfredo, vodka cream, garlic and oil, garlic butter, red pepper cream, butter garlic and lemon sauces), $6.95 for lunch or $8.95 for dinner with a choice of add-ins (meatballs, shrimp, chicken, broccoli, Italian sausage, mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes or mixed vegetables) for an additional cost.

Instead, once we saw the seafood platter, we had to go for it. We were warned, though, that a full order of any of the pastas on the menu were going to be large enough to not need an appetizer (an odd suggestion from a waitress, but we took it to heart). She also suggested a compromise – why not split our dinner?

You know, it’s really not normal for a business to suggest you spend less money. I’m all about that.


So we got the Seafood Sampler, a platter of fried calamari, coconut shrimp and crab cakes. It was served with a butter sauce and marinara sauce, and it was obviously handbattered and created right there. The calamari were gnarly and colorful with such a light breadcrumb breading, the coconut shrimp a little sweet and tangy. But the crab cakes were especially fantastic – with just a hint of breadcrumbs and filler and lots of pulled lump crab meat, a bit buttery and a little lemony.

We also opted for soup rather than salad on this venture, and were rewarded with a thick, rich creamy mushroom bisque, the soup of the day, and a hearty and lightly spicy minestrone. While the bisque was a bit thicker than it needed to be, the minestrone was absolutely delightful, with lots of vegetables and shell noodles within.

We also shared the Chicken Fra Diavola, which unlike many of the other varieties we’ve experienced across the state, was more of a spicy Alfredo dish than a spicy marinara pastiche. No worries. The hot roasted chicken sliced atop the thickly cut noodles and their equally thick sauce were a nice combination.

We failed to save room for desserts, though we were told that the cannelloni cannot be beat. Next time we’re in town, we’ll give it another shot.

Spinelli’s may not be a high-end palace like many of our capital city’s lush Italianate eateries, but it is steady and the price point is very reasonable. With Queen Wilhelmina State Park’s new lodge expected to open next spring, you’ll want to make a note.

Of course, my suggestion is to make it a destination along your foliage-seeking drives in the coming months. Every path to get to Mena takes you through lush forests, and Spinelli’s seems to be the sort of place to reach on such journeys.

Don’t discount the rest of the menu. Though we didn’t get to the steaks, salads or seafood also offered on the menu, they’re worth exploring.

Spinelli’s Italian Steakhouse
1411 Highway 71 North
Mena, AR 71953
(479) 394-3737
Website

Burger joint of the week: Myer's Cruizzers in Mena.

Sonic may currently have the corner on chain operations attempting to replicate the historic pull-up-and-order drive-in, but a little operation in Mena does the chain not one but about eight better. Myer’s Cruizzers, in short, has it going on.

This article was originally posted here alongside a digital copy on the Arkansas Times' Eat Arkansas blog in May 2011. Prices have changed since then.

The old style order-at-your-station restaurant carries what you’d expect at such an operation — burgers, fries and tots, shakes and drinks and dogs. But there’s a whole depth of menu going on that caught my notice on two different visits to the southwest Arkansas city.

The menu is loaded — and your passenger won’t really be able to see everything on it unless they have very good eyesight and can read everything on the backside of the next stall’s menu board. Crazy things like Nacho Nuggets ($2.59/3.49, not a clue what they are); a Country Boy sandwich ($3.89) with beef, ham, American and Swiss cheese and fixings; the Flaming Cruizzer Dog ($3.59) with its selection of grilled onions, bell peppers and BBQ sauce on a Polish sausage. There are Pickle-Os and Texas Toothpicks and fried zucchini and fried green beans and whatnot. The menu is vast.

Yet the best way to tell the value of any operation like this is to try their burger. Myer’s delivers here. The single (#1 with mayo, #2 with mustard or #3 with hickory sauce) is $2.49 — 40 cents more with cheese. We took advantage of the special: a double cheeseburger, tots and beverage for $4.79, done up #1 style.

It’s a big flat burger. There’s a reason for this that dates back to the golden age of drive-ins. With a small griddle and large volume, patties that can cook quickly are a bonus, and the thinner they are the quicker they cook. This tight flat burger contained not one but two patties of ground beef in a very smushed round; shredded lettuce, a slice of tomato, ridgy dills and a few onion ringlets sat under the patties; two slices of American cheese glued the patties together and to the top bun. The toasted bun was buttered. Very classic.

The meat? Not a whole lot of room for flavoring, just the salt and pepper treatment and the flavor picked up from a grill used constantly every day. Yet it works — because it’s a drive-in burger. It’s meant to be eaten out of a foil and paper wrapper without falling in your lap. Oh, the tots were decent, too.

But if you drive all the way to Mena and don’t get a shake, you have made a critical error. Myer’s Cruizzers offers around a dozen different shake flavors — the expected ones like chocolate and vanilla and strawberry, pineapple, butterscotch, hot fudge and banana. But peanut butter? Mocha chill? We had to try the blueberry… and boy, were we surprised. Not content to just put a little blueberry syrup in the mix, it’s a blend of blueberries in their own sauce, vanilla ice cream and graham cracker, giving it the flavor of a blueberry cobbler or pie. Irresistible.

And you can have it malted.

Then there are the sizes to be considered — not content with the standard sizes Sonic uses (14 and 20 ounces), Myer’s Cruizzers offers its shakes in 32 and 44 ounce versions as well. That… that’s a ridiculous amount of shake. You were planning to share that, right?

I have been enamored with the cherry phosphate and with the dipped cones (though I wish they’d dip them a little deeper and get the shell down onto the cone itself), but I just don’t feel like I’ve done enough research. Going to have to go back, I guess.

You’ll find Myer’s Cruizzers at 409 Highway 71 North. No website, no Facebook page but you can call (479) 394-5550.

Click to enlargen menu (2011 menu)