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Restaurant Development in NW Arkansas


mcheiss

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I heard that the Little Bread Company has closed its two locations. Bummer. I really liked that place. They were always completely packed during Farmer's Market on Saturdays, but I guess they weren't getting much biz the rest of the week. Boo.

The problem was apparently their Eureka Springs location. They used all the profits from the Fayetteville store to prop it up. If they had just stuck to their Fayetteville store I think they could have weathered this current market.

In other restaurant related news, Fayetteville has now made it legal for restaurants to use A-frame business signs for restaurants. Some already had been using them but if somebody complained they had to take them down. But apparently some restaurants never had any complaints and have had them up for a while. But anyway now it's legal as long as they aren't an obstacle to pedestrian traffic.

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That's disappointing. I admit I never tried them but had heard good things about it. It was also one of those places that didn't have a presence anywhere else in Arkansas but NWA.

Actually, it was not all that great, except their Sunday Brunch. That was one of the best brunches anywhere in NWA. I wish they would tear it down and build a Cheesecake Factory, which we really need in NWA. I know that won't happen there, but at least I can dream!

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The problem was apparently their Eureka Springs location. They used all the profits from the Fayetteville store to prop it up. If they had just stuck to their Fayetteville store I think they could have weathered this current market.

I drove by and saw a sign on the Little Bread Company's door. Apparently they had to close due to nonpayment of sales taxes. There was a sign from the state posted, along with a sign from the LBC, basically explaining the reason for closing and thanking their customers for a great year and a half of business.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but Bourbon Boys and (I think) Alligator Ray's on West Ave both got shut down for not paying their sales taxes. I don't get it. Does this happen accidentally, or do business owners actually think they can get away with not paying? Anyone have any insight?

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I drove by and saw a sign on the Little Bread Company's door. Apparently they had to close due to nonpayment of sales taxes. There was a sign from the state posted, along with a sign from the LBC, basically explaining the reason for closing and thanking their customers for a great year and a half of business.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but Bourbon Boys and (I think) Alligator Ray's on West Ave both got shut down for not paying their sales taxes. I don't get it. Does this happen accidentally, or do business owners actually think they can get away with not paying? Anyone have any insight?

Actually, i can offer something here. I was a Sales, Use and Corporate Income tax auditor for the state for 8 years before I became a Mom. It varies. Sometimes it's an accident; many times they don't realize they have to pay Use tax on supplies and equipment purchased from out of state vendors who don't charge Arkansas tax (the vendor is not required to do so if they have no physical presence in Arkansas). Other times, they don't collect the proper rate, or they collect the tax, and don't send it in because they need the cash at the moment. They think, hey, i can use this money to cover expenses, and make it up next month. Sometimes it's sheer incompetence. Occasionally I would run across a business owner who thought the tax money was theirs to keep. Sometimes it's an accounting error; they collect $100, but accrue it as $80 in the books, or whatever.

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Saw an interesting write up for a Vietnamese restaurant in the newspaper yesterday. Pho Quyen apparently opened at the end of July over in 6th St in Fayetteville. While there are some restaurants serving a little Vietnamese food in the area I think this may be the first that focuses on it.

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We went to Ruth's Chris in Rogers last night. Probably now this is NWA's best restaurant, even though it is a chain. Not cheap--dinner for two was $190, plus tip. One would not know a recession is on in NWA as the place was crowded.

I also went to the burger joint in the former Chubby's Coney's location at Joyce and Crossover. Very austere interior not befitting of that strip mall but the food was pretty darn good. Chili burger, onion rings, etc. A good, old-time place with low prices. Only open 'til 2 pm daily.

Mark

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We went to Ruth's Chris in Rogers last night. Probably now this is NWA's best restaurant, even though it is a chain. Not cheap--dinner for two was $190, plus tip. One would not know a recession is on in NWA as the place was crowded.

I also went to the burger joint in the former Chubby's Coney's location at Joyce and Crossover. Very austere interior not befitting of that strip mall but the food was pretty darn good. Chili burger, onion rings, etc. A good, old-time place with low prices. Only open 'til 2 pm daily.

Mark

I heard on the news the recession has yet to affect NWA. I wish the rest of the state was so lucky.

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I heard on the news the recession has yet to affect NWA. I wish the rest of the state was so lucky.

Don't mean to get us off topic here. But yeah overall the recession hasn't been too bad in NWA. I think overall the biggest effect is that developers can't get loans so you don't see too many big projects happening anymore. Perhaps one of the bigger factors is that Walmart is very successful in these types economic times and of course plays a big factor in NWA's economy.

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I heard on the news the recession has yet to affect NWA. I wish the rest of the state was so lucky.

I don't know how it hasn't affected it, as the real estate, construction, and banking industries have taken a pretty good hit.

Question for you NWA guys:

Does it bother those of you living in Fayetteville (or conversely in Bentonville) to have to drive to the other side of NWA to go to certain types of restaurants or bars?

If I lived in Fayetteville it would bug the hell out of me to have to drive to Rogers to go to Ruth's Chris or PF Chang's and likewise for those in Bentonville I would get tired of driving to Fayetteville to go out and get a drink.

Does it get old?

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I don't know how it hasn't affected it, as the real estate, construction, and banking industries have taken a pretty good hit.

Question for you NWA guys:

Does it bother those of you living in Fayetteville (or conversely in Bentonville) to have to drive to the other side of NWA to go to certain types of restaurants or bars?

If I lived in Fayetteville it would bug the hell out of me to have to drive to Rogers to go to Ruth's Chris or PF Chang's and likewise for those in Bentonville I would get tired of driving to Fayetteville to go out and get a drink.

Does it get old?

Thats kind of a weird question. Well, considering I've never driven to Rogers for Ruth's Chris or PF Chang's I'd say no.

I don't know that people from Bentonville typically drive to Fayetteville to go out and get a drink. Some probably do, but there's plenty of places to get a drink in Benton County. When I visit friends in Rogers, we don't drive back to Fayetteville to get a cocktail. Almost all of the places in Benton County are restaurants with bars, but so are the places I go in Fayetteville. I think people more or less might go from Fayetteville to BenCo or vice versa for a change of pace. Something out of the ordinary. I don't think its the typical NWA resident's pattern so I doubt people would say it gets old.

Some younger Benton County people probably do go to Dickson a lot. A lot of them maybe go once or twice a year. But its really no different than people from Conway, Jacksonville, Benton, North Little Rock etc going to the River Market in Little Rock.

Would it be nice if we had a PF Changs or a Ruth's Chris in Fayetteville? Sure. I'm happy with Herman's and Doe's enough to not feel like a 20 minute drive is required to get a good steak.

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Thats kind of a weird question. Well, considering I've never driven to Rogers for Ruth's Chris or PF Chang's I'd say no.

I don't know that people from Bentonville typically drive to Fayetteville to go out and get a drink. Some probably do, but there's plenty of places to get a drink in Benton County. When I visit friends in Rogers, we don't drive back to Fayetteville to get a cocktail. Almost all of the places in Benton County are restaurants with bars, but so are the places I go in Fayetteville. I think people more or less might go from Fayetteville to BenCo or vice versa for a change of pace. Something out of the ordinary. I don't think its the typical NWA resident's pattern so I doubt people would say it gets old.

Some younger Benton County people probably do go to Dickson a lot. A lot of them maybe go once or twice a year. But its really no different than people from Conway, Jacksonville, Benton, North Little Rock etc going to the River Market in Little Rock.

Would it be nice if we had a PF Changs or a Ruth's Chris in Fayetteville? Sure. I'm happy with Herman's and Doe's enough to not feel like a 20 minute drive is required to get a good steak.

It's not at all a weird question, I've had this discussion with lots of people. Most places people that living in high end areas are right up the road from these places. In West LR that's the case, the chain restaurants and a lot of indies are there but going downtown would only take 15 min.

It's kind of one of those "where would I live, Fayetteville or Benton Co?" things that crosses your mind. I stay up there every weekend there's a UA football game and actually thought about taking a job there. Neither place strikes me as the epitome of convenience. In LR, I live in West LR - it's the biggest no-brainer to me. If not there then Maumelle would be OK, and it's close. Either place I would live in NWA kind of comes with a sacrifice.

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Question for you NWA guys:

Does it bother those of you living in Fayetteville (or conversely in Bentonville) to have to drive to the other side of NWA to go to certain types of restaurants or bars?

If I lived in Fayetteville it would bug the hell out of me to have to drive to Rogers to go to Ruth's Chris or PF Chang's and likewise for those in Bentonville I would get tired of driving to Fayetteville to go out and get a drink.

Does it get old?

For me yeah, I'm just not real big on having to drive that far to do things like go to a restaurant. I'm much more likely to eat at a Fayetteville restaurant and tend to go to Rogers on a special occasion. Granted Fayetteville doesn't have some of the restaurants Rogers does and if there was little in Fayetteville I might feel differently. But there's some good choices in Fayetteville as well. I guess it would mainly just be a problem if you were really in the mood for a particular restaurant in Rogers. Now that there are more options in Rogers I imagine there's a lot more people from Benton County who don't come down to Fayetteville as much either. Although Fayetteville still has Dickson St and I Rogers can't replicate that.

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It is a weird question because I don't find either end of the metro lacking in good places to eat and drink. I think the question would make more sense if I lived in Siloam Springs or somewhere. I don't have to drive to Rogers to get a good steak.

Do LR people get tired of driving to NWA or Memphis to eat at Ruth's Chris? Do you get tired of not having Thai food readily available? I get Thai carryout 3 minutes from my front door. Does it suck that you can't? Is that a weird question?

The premise of your question was to make a comparison between the compactness of LR and NWA. Why not just do that in the original post? If we all said in unison YES WE GET TIRED OF IT, or NO WE DON"T GET TIRED OF IT....whats the point? What are you getting at if not an opportunity to say "LR has lots of good eats within 15 minutes of my house." Just say it.

The majority of people counted in the LR metro area probably do not live within 15 minutes of the River Market or W. LR.

The majority of people in NWA probably can be in both Fayetteville and Rogers within 15-20 minutes. There isn't some wide chasm of difference between the two.

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I have to agree, the distance between Rogers and Fayetteville is not much, especially having grown up in the Chicago area. Yeah, in any metro you can find areas where a lot of good stuff are nearby, but not everyone can live in those spots. Living close to something in Chicago often meant still needing a half hour with traffic. :)

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I thought it was an interesting question actually. This topic has been a bit slow recently anyway. Overall I think we've just basically grown to where there are two 'centers' for the metro. Now Benton County residents don't have to come to Fayetteville like in the past because they have a good selection of options now. But at the same time Fayetteville has enough options as well to keep many of it's residents at home as well it seems.

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I thought it was an interesting question actually. This topic has been a bit slow recently anyway. Overall I think we've just basically grown to where there are two 'centers' for the metro. Now Benton County residents don't have to come to Fayetteville like in the past because they have a good selection of options now. But at the same time Fayetteville has enough options as well to keep many of it's residents at home as well it seems.

Fayetteville has a lot more quality independent restaurants whereas Benton Co has the high-end chains. I think I would get tired of the limited offerings in one or the other if I lived either place and would want to spend some time in the other.

I think I prefer Fayetteville but frankly my wife would prefer the places near PHP for shopping and dining. How long does it really take to get from the NWA mall area up to PHP? I may be exaggerating this in my mind a little bit.

Yeah, the distance isn't much compared to Chicago or DFW but in those areas you generally have everything you want within a short distance as well. If you live in Southlake or Plano you don't need to drive to Dallas or Ft Worth.

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Fayetteville has a lot more quality independent restaurants whereas Benton Co has the high-end chains. I think I would get tired of the limited offerings in one or the other if I lived either place and would want to spend some time in the other.

I think I prefer Fayetteville but frankly my wife would prefer the places near PHP for shopping and dining. How long does it really take to get from the NWA mall area up to PHP? I may be exaggerating this in my mind a little bit.

Yeah, the distance isn't much compared to Chicago or DFW but in those areas you generally have everything you want within a short distance as well. If you live in Southlake or Plano you don't need to drive to Dallas or Ft Worth.

Yeah in a city you're traveling around in a highly developed area. But traveling between Fayetteville and Rogers, you have open, undeveloped areas which makes it feel different than traveling in a big city as well. But anyway traveling time depends on what time of day it is. If you took the trip during a slower part of the day when not as much traffic is out you could probably travel between the two areas in 20 minutes. But traffic conditions could really prolong it as well.

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I find that we have the opposite problem, actually. Considering that we have a family, and I cook most nights, we can't possibly get around to all the restaurants even in Benton County as often as we'd like. We eat out once or twice a week, and constantly find ourselves debating between our old favorites and the newest offerings. Of course, we are not picky people; we enjoy all types of cuisines and service levels, chains and independents. Even if you consider only the nicer sit-down restaurants in Benton County, you could eat a different place every week and maybe not even have to repeat once in a year. There are some good lesser known independent restaurants in Benton county as well. Mr B's steakhouse, Thai Kitchen and Crumpet Tea Room come to mind. I guess it's all relative. We've been here since Bonanza was the nicest restaurant in town :)

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I find that we have the opposite problem, actually. Considering that we have a family, and I cook most nights, we can't possibly get around to all the restaurants even in Benton County as often as we'd like. We eat out once or twice a week, and constantly find ourselves debating between our old favorites and the newest offerings. Of course, we are not picky people; we enjoy all types of cuisines and service levels, chains and independents. Even if you consider only the nicer sit-down restaurants in Benton County, you could eat a different place every week and maybe not even have to repeat once in a year. There are some good lesser known independent restaurants in Benton county as well. Mr B's steakhouse, Thai Kitchen and Crumpet Tea Room come to mind. I guess it's all relative. We've been here since Bonanza was the nicest restaurant in town :)

I grew up with family in Rogers and 20 years ago you had to drive to Fayetteville for pretty much anything nicer than Bonanza. We went to Stephenson's Cider Mill on the Missouri border when we wanted to go somewhere nice. Boy have times changed.

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