What Stores/Restaurants does LR still need?

[theman]

^

I don't know about Cheesecake Factory, the LR market seems a bit small for one IMO.

Abuelo's Mexican Embassy, O'Charley's, Copeland's, Fuddruckers, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, Fish City Grill, and Buffalo Wild Wing's look like good choices for the LR Market.

I would agree with many of these choices but would add Johnny Rockets to the list.

As far as retail goes, Little Rock needs another major department store to come in and compete with Dillard's so Macy's needs to come into the market. Also count me in for Super Target. And for my wife, a Nine West store.

[Hillcrest_LR]

I would like to see an Armani Exchange, Kenneth Cole and Calvin Klein. I just wish some store would carry these brands let alone outlets. Dillards stopped carrying Kenneth Cole and are very light on Calvin Klein. I would like to see a nice restaurant/club in that triangular building where Kavanaugh splits from Markham, there is a wallpaper store and thrift shop there now. Everybody always talks about how it would be a great place for a hip restaurant. Hey,that could be a new thread. Adaptive re-use of an existing space. The sky's the limit.

Has anybody been to the new lounge in the basement of Willy D's in the River Market? 7500 square feet of space.

[mcheiss]

Sorry Schwilj, You're post was accidently deleted. I did manage to save the content for that:

Quote Schwilj:

I'd love to see most the stores mentioned already. I would really love if there were some development using the downtown area. A nice shopping district in Downtown Little Rock would be sweet.

Let's hope some of these new developments that are just now being planned or re-evaluated can incorporate more than another Starbucks, Cingular/Alltel, etc... the crap we have enough of.

I too wonder why we don't have JCrew, which LR I think could support.

Buffalo Wild Wings and Red Robin have both been named as coming soon, I believe. The NWA Red Robin does well from what I have seen, so LR would probably be a good market for it, and a Buffalo Wild Wings for UofA game days would do well IMO (even if I am not a native Arkansas child who really doesn't care about the hogs, I know it would do well on College game days).

[Aporkalypse]

I would like to see an Armani Exchange, Kenneth Cole and Calvin Klein. I just wish some store would carry these brands let alone outlets. Dillards stopped carrying Kenneth Cole and are very light on Calvin Klein. I would like to see a nice restaurant/club in that triangular building where Kavanaugh splits from Markham, there is a wallpaper store and thrift shop there now. Everybody always talks about how it would be a great place for a hip restaurant. Hey,that could be a new thread. Adaptive re-use of an existing space. The sky's the limit.

Has anybody been to the new lounge in the basement of Willy D's in the River Market? 7500 square feet of space.

Is it part of Willy D's or completely different? What kind of atmosphere does it have?

Man, LR has more bars in one place now than Dallas does.

[mcheiss]

Is it part of Willy D's or completely different? What kind of atmosphere does it have?

Man, LR has more bars in one place now than Dallas does.

What's that large stretch of chain restaurants in Dallas?

[schwilj]

Sorry Schwilj, You're post was accidently deleted. I did manage to save the content for that:

Quote Schwilj:

It's ok... hope that admitting I wasn't a Hog fan was not why it dissapeared

[Hillcrest_LR]

Is it part of Willy D's or completely different? What kind of atmosphere does it have?

The owners are the same people that have Willy D's but does not have dueling pianos. I think they are going to have a dj spin but I may be wrong. It is supposed to be very hip and urban but not a dance club. Think some of the clubs in Deep Ellum in Dallas in the 80's and 90's (are they still like that?) Very underground. Not sure where the entrance is.

[Aporkalypse]

The owners are the same people that have Willy D's but does not have dueling pianos. I think they are going to have a dj spin but I may be wrong. It is supposed to be very hip and urban but not a dance club. Think some of the clubs in Deep Ellum in Dallas in the 80's and 90's (are they still like that?) Very underground. Not sure where the entrance is.

Deep Ellum is taking a drastic downhill slide. Many of these places still exist but it's down from its late 1990s peak. The legendary club "Trees" where Nirvana first played Dallas is closed.

There are probably more bars in the River Market now than Deep Ellum, strange as it may seem.

[Cru Jones]

Will future bars/restaurants grow to the east along Clinton Ave. or west towards Main and beyond? Any educated guesses?

It would be nice to eventually have some continuity between the River Market/Markham all the way down to Union Station. The pleasant revitalized feel of LR drops off immediately once you get west of Broadway.

[Aporkalypse]

Will future bars/restaurants grow to the east along Clinton Ave. or west towards Main and beyond? Any educated guesses?

It would be nice to eventually have some continuity between the River Market/Markham all the way down to Union Station. The pleasant revitalized feel of LR drops off immediately once you get west of Broadway.

As for bars, I think I liked what we have but I'd like to see a true Irish pub with imported woodwork, etc.

I would like to see more upscale national/regional chains like Bosco's or really innovative local places like Nu or Sonny William's in the restaurant scene.

There is a bad patch on Markham west of the police station and East of the train station. Unfortunately a homeless mission there really drags down the area as there are vagrants loitering most of the day. That is impeding growth in that area and needs to be corrected. I'd like to see the trolley line extend to the train station and the rest of the street named after Clinton as "Markham" is really confusing to tourists.

[dimebag1980]

Deep Ellum is taking a drastic downhill slide. Many of these places still exist but it's down from its late 1990s peak. The legendary club "Trees" where Nirvana first played Dallas is closed.

There are probably more bars in the River Market now than Deep Ellum, strange as it may seem.

I wondered why I haven't heard anything about Trees in some time. I wonder when it closed? I used to hear about it a lot in the 90s.

I hate to hear Deep Ellum's going downhill. I'm going to try and breeze through there this weekend and hopefully get some photos of it before it's gone.

[schwilj]

What LR needs is a good mall. Park Plaza is a good mall, especially with the rennovation, but there is really no room for future expansion (unless you go up but that would not be a realistic move). All the mid-size developments in town are bringing some new faces (Midtowne...) but lot of the stores mentioned here are less likey to come unless there is a big draw to one space - a large mall or something of that nature.

I'm also surprised there are no "good" outlet malls anywhere. I would have liked if Hot Springs, being a nice tourist town, would have had a successful outlet mall.

Due to the fact I didn't really pay attention, what was the issue with Summit mall? Did no one want it in their neighborhood, or did the other malls in town shoot it down? What happened? (Sorry, I wasn't really payting attention back then, I was in college and a little busy with all that)

[Aporkalypse]

I wondered why I haven't heard anything about Trees in some time. I wonder when it closed? I used to hear about it a lot in the 90s.

I hate to hear Deep Ellum's going downhill. I'm going to try and breeze through there this weekend and hopefully get some photos of it before it's gone.

Trees closed around 9 mos ago. The Gypsy Tea Room is still doing well for live music acts. A couple of places have closed and nothing new has opened, but it's not like tumbleweeds are blowing down Elm.

Lower Greenville and Uptown are the hotspots in Dallas right now. There is a real transition happening towards Uptown, places are opening up left and right.

[gmariam]

The owners are the same people that have Willy D's but does not have dueling pianos. I think they are going to have a dj spin but I may be wrong. It is supposed to be very hip and urban but not a dance club. Think some of the clubs in Deep Ellum in Dallas in the 80's and 90's (are they still like that?) Very underground. Not sure where the entrance is.

The entrance is inside Willy D's (just off to the right). They "literally" just added stairs to open up the basement. Kinda like Ernie Biggs with their upstairs.

[Aporkalypse]

What LR needs is a good mall. Park Plaza is a good mall, especially with the rennovation, but there is really no room for future expansion (unless you go up but that would not be a realistic move). All the mid-size developments in town are bringing some new faces (Midtowne...) but lot of the stores mentioned here are less likey to come unless there is a big draw to one space - a large mall or something of that nature.

I'm also surprised there are no "good" outlet malls anywhere. I would have liked if Hot Springs, being a nice tourist town, would have had a successful outlet mall.

Due to the fact I didn't really pay attention, what was the issue with Summit mall? Did no one want it in their neighborhood, or did the other malls in town shoot it down? What happened? (Sorry, I wasn't really payting attention back then, I was in college and a little busy with all that)

One problem is that nobody builds true malls anymore. The only enclosed mall in the U.S. built last year was in Jonesboro, AR. The outdoor "lifestyle centers" popping up all over the place are the new trend. We seem to be getting lots of these instead of a true mall. I agree I would like to have one large regional shopping center. I am a fan of Park Plaza, though. It is smaller but by not being large with multiple tiers of department stores it is the state's most upscale mall.

Summit Mall fell victim to a combination of factors. The one that caused the most problems was Simon's refusal to contribute to infrastructure improvements at I-430 and Shackleford but fear of loss of the midtown corridor and abandonment of Park Plaza and University, rape of a pristine forested hillside, generalized angst over westward development, and distrust of Simon over the decline of University Mall were all factors. The city was also irritated by changes made in the design of the mall that were unveiled in Las Vegas without the city being consulted first.

I would love a true outlet mall in Arkansas. I think it would have to be close enough to LR to be accessible but building around the Hot Springs exit in Benton would be a good area to get both Hot Springs traffic and the LR market. Outlet malls are becoming more and more common in similar markets, including Shreveport, so Arkansas might be on some radar screens before long.

[Hillcrest_LR]

As for bars, I think I liked what we have but I'd like to see a true Irish pub with imported woodwork, etc.

There IS going to be an Irish Pub, which is being constructed in Ireland right now and will be shipped to a new development on Main Street in North Little Rock. That was reported a week or two ago but I can't remember the source. The entire bar is going to be shipped and constructed in the shell of a new building.

[theman]

There IS going to be an Irish Pub, which is being constructed in Ireland right now and will be shipped to a new development on Main Street in North Little Rock. That was reported a week or two ago but I can't remember the source. The entire bar is going to be shipped and constructed in the shell of a new building.

I remember reading that also.

Will future bars/restaurants grow to the east along Clinton Ave. or west towards Main and beyond? Any educated guesses?

It would be nice to eventually have some continuity between the River Market/Markham all the way down to Union Station. The pleasant revitalized feel of LR drops off immediately once you get west of Broadway.

Any more bars would develop toward the west and turn down Main to incorporate with what is going on and may go on in the area.

[Aporkalypse]

There IS going to be an Irish Pub, which is being constructed in Ireland right now and will be shipped to a new development on Main Street in North Little Rock. That was reported a week or two ago but I can't remember the source. The entire bar is going to be shipped and constructed in the shell of a new building.

Cool, I missed that. I bet that place is consistently packed. The manufacture of materials in Ireland and reconstruction in the U.S. is pretty common. I've been to pubs in Dallas, Miami Beach, and Kansas City that had that. I'm surprised this wasn't done years ago in LR.

[mcheiss]

There IS going to be an Irish Pub, which is being constructed in Ireland right now and will be shipped to a new development on Main Street in North Little Rock. That was reported a week or two ago but I can't remember the source. The entire bar is going to be shipped and constructed in the shell of a new building.

Cool. Sounds like a neat pub.

[schwilj]

I would like a Panera bread company. I enjoy the one up in NWA. It's a good place to eat. I'm surprised Midtowne didn't get one, I think it would fit in there.

[mcheiss]

I would like a Panera bread company. I enjoy the one up in NWA. It's a good place to eat. I'm surprised Midtowne didn't get one, I think it would fit in there.

Agreed. You guys don't even have an Atlanta Bread Company and only one San Francisco Bread Co. location. BTW, there's actually two Panera's in NWA.

[schwilj]

Agreed. You guys don't even have an Atlanta Bread Company and only one San Francisco Bread Co. location. BTW, there's actually two Panera's in NWA.

Atlanta or Panera would be great. I personally don't think San Fransisco Bread Co. is as good as the other two.

I only know of the one in Rodgers (I think..) that we stop at on our way to Kansas each Christmas/Summer vacation. (Family up there in Kansas...) Come to think of it, even Topeka KS has an Atlanta bread company... so come on LR!

[mcheiss]

Panera has a location in Bentonville and one in Fayetteville. There's rumor of a third coming to Rogers in the Promenade.

Atlanta Bread has a location in Rogers and one in Fayetteville.

Little Rock desperately needs both of these, I can't believe I didn't mention this before.

[schwilj]

Panera has a location in Bentonville and one in Fayetteville. There's rumor of a third coming to Rogers in the Promenade.

Atlanta Bread has a location in Rogers and one in Fayetteville.

Little Rock desperately needs both of these, I can't believe I didn't mention this before.

Atlanta is where we stop then...

Maybe Gateway Town Center or the Bass Pro shop shopping center development will get one, if Midtowne or Pleasant Ridge don't. Still time and space for one to show up

[mcheiss]

Atlanta is where we stop then...

Maybe Gateway Town Center or the Bass Pro shop shopping center development will get one, if Midtowne or Pleasant Ridge don't. Still time and space for one to show up

They seem perfect since they will both be "Big Box" retail centers.