Restaurant Transitions: Taco Bueno in west Little Rock; Osaka, Desi Den closed

Taco Bueno is seeking city approval to build a west Little Rock outlet at West Markham Street and John Barrow Road.
Taco Bueno is seeking city approval to build a west Little Rock outlet at West Markham Street and John Barrow Road.

Those who have been itching to have a Taco Bueno closer to the center of central Arkansas while the Farmers Branch, Texas-based chain has been spotting outlets around the metro area periphery (including Conway, Maumelle and southwest Little Rock) may have to wait a little longer, but perhaps not much longer. An application is pending with Little Rock Planning and Development seeking a site plan review for an outparcel restaurant building in the western part of the Markham Center Square shopping center parking lot, 9101 W. Markham St. at John Barrow Road. (That'd put it in front of the Burlington Coat Factory store, if that helps you place it a little better.)

Tony Bozynski, director of Planning and Development, confirms that it would be, in fact, the planned and long-awaited west Little Rock Taco Bueno, which would become the state's sixth outlet (you will recall our report from a couple of weeks ago that a permit had been filed with the state Health Department for a restaurant at John F. Kennedy and Pershing boulevards, just off Interstate 40). The other Little Rock location is at 10114 Mabelvale Plaza Drive.

"The application is for site plan review and the Planning Commission has final authority on site plan reviews," Bozynski explains. "If the commission approves the request, no further action is required and the next step is applying for a building permit." However, a hearing scheduled for today has been moved to July 20 "because the applicant did not notify property owners as required," he says. Bozynski won't be there -- that'll be about three weeks after he retires.

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The building has been finished for a while and work -- delayed by spring rains -- appears to have just wrapped up on the parking lot at La Hacienda, 3024 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, where "renovations" that were supposed to take a few weeks turned into reconstruction from the ground up. The Alvarez family, which owns the mini-chain (including the original in Hot Springs and an outlet in Benton), posted June 1 on the restaurant Facebook page: "We are very very close to the opening date. Stay tuned within the next week for more details ... we promise they won't be disappointing!" Meanwhile, the grab-and-go location up the street at 7706 Cantrell, once the home of The Hop, has closed, which could explain why for some weeks we were unable to get through to anybody at the restaurant phone number -- (501) 661-0600 -- that was being automatically transferred there.

Osaka Japanese Restaurant, 5501 Ranch Drive, Little Rock, has closed. The not-yet-disconnected phone number, (501) 868-3688, returns a voicemail message thanking patrons for years of support. Meanwhile, a sign on the door promises "Coming Soon: Ninja Bar-Sushi-Grill." (Which gives rise to speculation: Will the wait staff be masked and clad in black, and/or will the sushi chef be wielding a bushido sword?) And we're not exactly making the direct connection just yet, but we've confirmed that the people who run Wasabi Sushi, Bar & Grill, 101 Main St, Little Rock, are planning to open a restaurant on Cantrell Road. We'll fill you in on more details as they become available.

As of our Tuesday deadline, The Meteor, a full-service coffee shop and bakery, was still on track to open Wednesday as part of the Spokes bicycle shop, 1001 Kavanaugh Blvd. at West Markham Street, Little Rock, in the heart of Stifft Station. Hours are now listed as 6:30 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. The bike-shop phone number is (501) 664-7765.

The state Department of Finance and Administration has shut down Playtime Pizza, 600 Colonel Glenn Plaza Loop, Little Rock, for nonpayment of state taxes, including three outstanding tax liens, one from 2012 and two from 2014. No word on when, whether or under what circumstances it will reopen; calls to the phone number, (501) 227-7529, were not answered and messages we left were not returned by deadline.

Desi Den Indian Restaurant, 612 Office Park Drive, Bryant, has closed. Chef Simranjit "Jimmy" Singh on the restaurant's Facebook page thanked customers for making "the past three and half years ... extremely pleasant and blissful just because of all your love and caring support." Somebody actually answered the phone -- (501) 847-1818 -- earlier this week, confirmed the closure and said there's a good possibility another restaurant may already have plans to move in. The revolving-door space has housed five restaurants over the past dozen years. Desi Den opened in 2013; before that it had been Chun's Mongolian Grill, My Big Fat Greek Cafe, a fairly short-lived Bryant outlet of Layla's Gyros & Pizzeria and the original location of the now-defunct Sweet Tea Cafe.

A McDonald's outlet opened about three weeks ago at 4429-4499 N. Arkansas 7, just outside the west gate of Hot Springs Village. Restaurants of any kind, and fast-food restaurants in particular, are few in the Village vicinity (there's a Sonic nearby and a Burger King that went under a couple of years ago). Hours are 5 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 5 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. We haven't been able yet to turn up a phone number.

Hideaway Pizza, 5103 Warden Road, North Little Rock, this week is introducing Hideaway Curbside. Call in a carryout order -- (501) 270-7777 -- and they'll bring it out to your car. ("We'll tell them approximately when their order will be ready, and ask what color and type of car we should be looking for. A staff member will oversee watching the parking spots for customer arrivals and send out a Curbside Server when they do," says a spokesman for the Tulsa-based chain.) You can also order via the website (hideawaypizza.com/content/north-little-rock) and pay in advance with a credit card. Curbside hours are the same as the restaurant's: 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. And on June 15, Arkansas Statehood Day, they're rolling out, so to speak, an Arkansas-only specialty pizza created by chef Donnie Ferneau. As of deadline, we were told Ferneau is still "in the creative process," so we don't have specifics.

For the June Kitchen/Fields Table Tour, a collaboration with the Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board, Brave New Restaurant, 2400 Cottondale Lane in Little Rock's Riverdale section, is churning up a soybean honey Frangelico ice cream. Which you can consume at lunch, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday, or dinner, 5-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 5-10 p.m. Saturday. The restaurant number is (501) 663-2677. The board has been teaming up each month with an Arkansas restaurant "to develop a unique dish using soybean elements."

Outlets of the Atlanta-based McAlister's Deli are honoring National Iced Tea Month by introducing a 32-ounce "collectible" reusable tea tumbler for $9.99, with 99-cent refills for the life of the cup. On Saturday, which is National Iced Tea Day, the first 20 guests at each restaurant will get a free tumbler. And on June 29, the ninth annual Free Tea Day, diners can get iced sweet or unsweet black or green tea all Free Tea Day long. Find your closest location at McAlistersDeli.com.

More than 25 Hot Springs area restaurants, caterers and distributors will provide food samples for the Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce's Flavor of the Park, 5:30-7:30 p.m. today at the Exchange Street Parking Plaza, 128 Exchange St., Hot Springs. Tickets are $20, free for kids 12 and younger. Visit web.hotspringschamber.com/events/Flavor-of-the-Park-6068/details.

Has a restaurant opened -- or closed -- near you in the last week or so? Does your favorite eatery have a new menu? Is there a new chef in charge? Drop us a line. Call (501) 399-3667 or (501) 378-3513, or send a note to Restaurants, Weekend Section, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203. Send email to:

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Weekend on 06/08/2017

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