Small and Sweet: The Berryville Ice Cream Social.

I’ve been to some of the nation’s largest festivals, and now I’ve been to one of the smallest in my home state. Though I can’t imagine why the Berryville Ice Cream Social doesn’t have droves at its doorstep.

The annual event on Berryville’s town square is a great way to kick off the summer with music, arts and crafts and plenty of ice cream.

It starts off on Friday, really in the afternoon in evening with all sorts of
vendors selling everything from wind chimes to bracelets, kids playing in the park and an evening of local musicians jamming outside the Heritage Museum. On Saturday morning there’s a 5k run, tours of historic Berryville via tram, pony rides and a climbing wall for the kids. There’s music and dancing in the streets. And of course there’s ice cream.


This year I got the chance to be one of the judges for the annual cooking competition. The theme was berries. Last year there were more than 50 entries. I was a little surprised to see just 7 entries on the tables laid out for the judges to sample. No worries, though.

I was introduced to the other
judges, and we all took a look at the seven entries and did our judgments of appearance. From there we sat down, and the volunteers from Community First Bank came and brought us sample after sample of each dessert for us to try and judge on taste, creativity and overall.


There were many different delights. There was a chocolate ice cream confection with bits of berry in it, a strawberry cream cheese casserole dessert, a berry trifle with cream cheese and candied pecans, a selection of chocolate and strawberry parfaits, a whipped topping frosted cinnamon-infused pound cake with strawberry adornment, a Dutch oven blackberry cobbler, a selection of light pastry creations with blueberries and a strawberry cream cheese pie. We tried each one in turn, using tart green grapes and water to cleanse our palates between selections.

The votes tallied, we discovered that the little blueberry pastries from Maria Romero were our top choice. Maria won a $200 prize and bragging rights. Shirley Clark took the honorable mention and earned a $100 grocery gift card for her efforts.

After the judging, we went to hunt down another story at the festival. Along the row of vendors (including the Cattleman’s Association serving up brisket, a cart selling funnel cakes and pork tenderloin sandwiches and the Weinie Wagon) we found the Cajun Lunch Box cart.

My photographer had discovered the vendor while I’d been involved in the judging. He’d already procured two hand pies -- a shrimp fried pie and a crawfish fried pie -- and shared them with me. I had to go back and see what was up with this.

Turns out the Lejeunes travel to these smaller festivals in the area. They live in Oxford, AR but Mr. Lejeune is from far south Louisiana, south of I-10 and with that unique Cajun accent that’s almost incomprehensible. He and his wife were very sweet, though, and answered my peppering of questions.

The specialties served up at the Cajun Lunch Box are all authentic South Louisiana staples. They include Gator on a Stick (sold out long before we got there), etouffee, cajun sausages cornmeal battered and served up like corn dogs, gumbo, red beans and rice, boudin links, Po’Boys and sweet tea.

Unlike a lot of other immigrants from these parts, they didn’t come up because of Katrina. Seems Mr. Lejeune found himself a mate and partner and he came this way because of love. At least that’s what I was getting from the conversation.

The Cajun Lunch Box doesn’t make a whole lot of appearances. It’ll be in Melbourne for the festival up there in a few weeks and maybe a few more places but then they’ll pack it in for the season before it becomes truly hot.

Now how about those pies? They were awesome. The shrimp was good enough in its rich broth with rice and green peppers -- but the crawfish pie just blew me away with its low heat and lovely flavor. The pies are made from the etouffee. The dough is actually stretched out and rolled out when you order one, the filling dolloped onto the dough and the dough crimped by hand before the pocket is dumped into the hot grease. The whole thing is topped with nacho cheese sauce and handed out the window in exchange for $3. I found the dough satisfactory, even crisp despite the cheese sauce. It was filling and tasty, though I didn’t want to think about how much cholesterol was going into my system!

The social, which had been full of kids when we arrived, was slowing down. Claps of thunder and the occasional squall of a downpour had chased off many of the participants and attendees, but the folks with Community First Bank were dividing up the creations from the berry dessert contest and preparing to serve them for free to the crowd. The Cattlemen’s Association folks were huddled under the tent, the scent from the smokers almost hypnotic. I saw couples out by the gazebo, a few a little muddy from the rain, talking quietly.

I want to come back to this festival. I understand numbers were down this year, but that has a lot to do with the weather and goings-on elsewhere. Maybe spreading the word might get a few more folks to come park off the square and enjoy a day of it next year. I betcha that could happen.

Architectural and Culinary Restoration at The Grand View Hotel.

Ever just have a dream you want to follow? Ever been brave enough to follow that dream? Alexander Virden has been following dreams for a while. His latest dream could change the face of downtown Berryville.

Virden used to work on oil rigs off the Louisiana coast. He lived in Algier’s Point, just a ferry ride from New Orleans’ French Quarter. Injuries forced him to leave his job as a diver, but he continued on by working to restore homes here and there.
Virden did eventually leave Louisiana, setting off in an RV and just driving where he felt. Something made him stop at Berryville, and that’s where his roaming ceased.

“I asked about this building,” he told me one Saturday afternoon during a late lunch. “I asked about this big building, and no one could remember what it was. I said “you know that building between that little shop and the post office? And people had just ignored it.”

That building was the old Grand View Hotel. It started off life as the Saint George Hotel back in 1902. Though it received an auspicious start with a gala dance in its grand ballroom, the property passed through a number of hands in its first decade. M.M. Hoagland added the balconies and porches to it shortly after he took it over in 1910. Mr. & Mrs. L.C. Smith bought the place in 1926 and renamed it The Grand View Hotel.

Dr. John H. Bohannan bought the hotel in 1943... He eventually added the commercial spaces in front of the hotel for more revenue. But by the early 70s the hotel was closed.

It was purchased in 1984 by Phillis and Carl Loehr, who attempted a massive reconstruction of the building but were unable to finish. It sat fallow for the better part of two decades, gathering bird droppings and an amazing amount of stored away junk. “You couldn’t walk straight through anywhere,” Virden told me. “You’d have to turn sideways. To get through this dining room there was a path from here to the hall. There was scaffolding, there was stuff packed all the way up to the scaffolding and then stuff on top of it. On the stairs it was packed so tight you only had a path just wide enough to go up or down. We hauled out more than 250 cubic yards of junk.”

“We” in this case would be Virden and his partner, Sandra Doss. While we were there for lunch we heard muted noised from the kitchen where she was working. I got the impression she was very shy.

Virden’s dream when he saw the hotel was to refurbish it - not just as a potential hotel but as an art space. He wants to encourage the arts in the small town. He also owns a space down the street, Ozarts.org, 2900 square feet of gallery space and kitchen for local artists. Unfortunately thanks to all the demands and a slow economy he may have to part with that artspace soon.

The hotel, though, had so many possibilities. There are 14 rooms with ensuite baths above the first floor, still in the renovation process but so much further along than they were when Virden first bought the place in November 2005. On the fourth floor there’s a grand open space Virden hopes to utilize as event space -- a large area with its own kitchen that might host artists receptions, weddings and the like. The rooms could be let to artists in residence, possibly. Possibilities seem to be the order of the day at the hotel.

But the main focus these past three years has been on the restaurant. 302 on the Square is part of Virden’s dream -- not just as part of his hotel complex but to finance the completion of the renovations. It’s a time consuming effort, running an eatery -- and it’s eaten into time for actually working on the hotel. But it’s also a labor of love.

The recipes at 302 on the Square are family recipes. The restaurant itself is billed as a “Cajun-American” eatery. “We do the American favorites, hamburger and hot dogs. And we do the kind of food I know from Louisiana, the red beans and rice and stuff.”

I’ve dropped into the 302 before, a couple of summers ago while headed to Eureka Springs. I was taken by a singular dish, the South Carolina Strawberries & Cream ($4.50), only available when strawberries are in season. The marinated berries and heavy cream were served up over a hot flaky biscuit rather than the expected shortcake. The saltiness of that biscuit balanced perfect with the sweetness of the cream and the tart of the berries. It had made an impression upon me.

We dined at the 302 this particular Saturday on many of the eatery’s signature items. We started with simple Grand View Salads ($1.50/$3/$5 based on size), a nice mixture of green leaf lettuce, spinach, red onion, tomato and cheese with a choice of dressings. I went for a simple balsamic vinaigrette and was pleased.

What came out next though was something I can only describe as a momento of my childhood. The dish, listed on the menu as Louisiana Chicken and Gravy ($7.50), was straight out of my grandmother’s recipe book. The thick skillet pepper gravy, smothered free range chicken (all the restaurant’s poultry comes from Little Portion), that flavor of homemade poultry seasoning and a little thyme and butter, all served over a mound of extra long grain rice… that’s the sort of thing that will take me back. It was exactly what I remembered, very warm and hearty and peppery and… I lost myself in the dish. I really did. I took some of the gravy and ladled it onto a piece of the flaky biscuit that comes with the dish. This is the sort of thing that should be well preserved. This.

My dining companion’s selection was the Authentic Cajun Red Beans and Rice with Andouille Sausage ($7.50), served up with a sweet corn muffin. This too was served over the long rice. The roux in the dish was evidently perfect, a gravy-thick base to the substantial heft of the beans and the salty well-seasoned Andouille.

By themselves, the beans wouldn’t have been seasoned enough and the sausage would have been overwhelming. Together they were perfect.

The cornmeal muffin, yellow cornmeal, was sweet but not so very sweet as to be Northerly offensive. A pat of real butter made it even softer. Very nice.

Of course, being a restaurant in Arkansas there was of course a Reuben sandwich. This one ($6 served with kettle chips) was one of the better examples I’ve encountered. The sliced corned beef is tender and cut against the grain so that it falls apart in your mouth.

I liked the variation of chopped slaw -- which made it far easier to get a good bite out of the sandwich without mess. The dressing was tangy, and the Swiss cheese was more than ample -- a definite contender to the sandwich rather than an accompaniment or afterthought, a mistake many make with their Reubens. The very soft marbled rye was a nice touch.

And then came the catfish. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a big fan of fried catfish. It’s too often done badly -- whether from improper cleaning or a badly chosen source. I just usually don’t order it. But here, I was happy with it.

The batter was light but thoroughly seasoned with salt and pepper, a cornmeal batter that wasn’t overdone. And the fish itself… it… it was clean and flaky and properly cooked, good enough for me to convert.

The catfish is new on the menu… it wasn’t there when I’d made my previous trip. Just another branching out for Virden and Doss. “We get our catfish from Mississippi,” Virden told me. “We make sure it’s clean. That’s a family recipe we use for it.”

The hush puppies that come along with it are yellow cornmeal orbs with chunks of white onion and a little sweetness to them, an inch and a half in diameter. I’d consider the hush puppies and fish to best be eaten with the terrific green tomato relish offered with them… but then again, I love tomato pickles like this. That’s what I grew up on. My dining companion was not as convinced, preferring a little cocktail sauce with his fish.

There were French fries, and they were decent -- but then there was the coleslaw. I am used to coleslaw either being crunchy or very soft, and if it’s crunchy there’s a real lack of flavor to it. Not here. Somehow or another Doss has managed to make this a worthy coleslaw. “She makes it all up in small batches,” Virden told me. “She cuts up the cabbage and stuff and makes up the dressing separately, and she only combines them a little bit at a time as we go along.” It works. The crunchy vegetation is matched with a sweet and creamy dressing that doesn’t have any hint of staleness to it.

And then there was dessert. While strawberries were undoubtedly out of season, there were other options on the menu -- including several ice cream treats. One of the desserts we sampled was The Grand View Brownie Bar ($2.50, an additional $1.75 a la mode). This long brownie was topped with a thick chocolate frosting, and there was just about as much chocolate inside. It’s a smack-your-lips chocolate concentration. The premium vanilla ice cream comes from nearby Highland Dairy.

I forgot about the brownie (until I looked at the notes and photos) once I tried the Dang Good Pie ($3.50, a la mode for $1.75 more). The recipe comes from a friend, whose grandmother's grandmother had it in her collection. Five generations back, a recipe dating back to the 19th century… and well now. We’re talking about a pineapple-coconut pie. My first thought when I tasted it was how buttery it was. It was very much like pineapple upside down cake -- but with coconut. It was almost meaty in texture, with such a strong and delicious brown sugar flavor to it. The crust was handmade, too, unsweetened butter crust nice and crisp, with a little dotting of whipped cream to top it off. I loved this pie. This is one of the best pies I have ever had in Arkansas. And it’s generational. Wow.

It was an impressive meal -- especially for lunch -- and much of it went back with us as leftovers.

There’s far more work to be done on the hotel. Virden’s next project is to complete the renovation of the Garden Room on the back of the first level and to add a small greenhouse off the back so he and Doss can start growing their own herbs and vegetables to use in the restaurant. That’s going to be quite a bit of work, but I’m sure they’ll manage.

I enjoyed the chance to sit down with Alexander Virden but lamented one thing. This was the second time I’d attempted to make it up on a Friday night, but both times snow on the roads had postponed my trip. I have to go back -- and probably will -- come this April or May. I have to go enjoy the Hootenanny.

That’s right, every Friday night starting at 7pm local musicians come in and jam the way the hollows around these parts have been jammed for more than a century -- with good local folk music played on local instruments. I want to hear the hoot and holler and kick back with a sing-along or two. This experience will have to wait for another time, sadly. Seems I keep bringing snow to north Arkansas this year.

There is more you can learn about The Grand View Hotel… on the website documenting its rebirth. You can also find a complete menu for 302 on the Square and start planning for your next run through town. I doubt you’ll be disappointed. Both can be found on the Berryville Square. For more information you can call (870) 654-3952.