Bentonville: drawing a trendy restaurant crowd

Dining in Bentonville is a Tasty Business By: Dan Warfield On a sunny spring morning on the downtown square, Cecil Turner was sitting at one of the metal tables on the sidewalk in front of his Station Café, the oldest restaurant in Downtown Bentonville. A lifelong restaurateur, the Kansas City native arrived in Northwest Arkansas more than 20 years ago, where his first local business was Grand Central Station in the Bella Vista town center. When he set up in the Bentonville Square on October 1, 1999, his new restaurant was the only game in town. The Kansas City native recalled that “there weren’t ten restaurants in all of Bentonville” when he opened almost 13 years ago just two doors down from Sam Walton’s original five and dime. The family oriented dining experience, with a menu centered around Cecil’s award-winning steakburger, has become a fixture of Downtown Bentonville life. The Station Café is no longer alone: Downtown Bentonville diners now have a lot of choice, with half a dozen restaurants thriving within a two minute walk of the Station. Has all the competition hurt? Not a bit, says Cecil. “Our sales are up over 30 percent over last year.” Like other businessmen in the city, he is pleased with the way things are going here. “The Square is greatly improved,” he said, giving credit to all the effort that has gone into making The Square an ever more popular destination, with particular praise for his neighbor, the Walmart Visitor Center. “Walmart extended the sidewalk eight feet. There even bought the outdoor tables and chairs.” Connecting With James Beard One of the newest downtown eateries is Tusk & Trotter, where Chef Rob Nelson is a leader – along with Downtown Bentonville Inc. – in linking Bentonville to the national culinary efforts of the James Beard Foundation (JBF). “The JBF’s Serving Up James Beard program is a nice first step in developing community programs to activate JBF locally, “ said Kris Moon, JBF director of charitable giving and strategic partnerships. “It’s an in-restaurant menu promotion that will be announced at the Beard Awards in New York on May 7.” The awards are “the Oscars of the food industry,” presented at a red carpet event at Lincoln Center. In Bentonville, Chef Rob will be “Serving UP James Beard” by taking inspiration from one of Beard’s many cookbooks to create new original recipes. One dollar of the price of each item will go to the JBF Silver Anniversary scholarship fund. “Bentonville is in the first wave of this new program,” said Kris, “along with San Francisco, Louisville and Miami.” Rob’s classical culinary training and intensive use of locally sourced ingredients underlies the Tusk & Trotter menu. As part of the Culinary Festival, four JBF-inspired items will be on offer: Beans & Cornbread, a Canadian Bacon Chop, Corn-Casserole Cassoulet and a JBF inspired drink. “We should expect to see more engagement with JBF in other Bentonville restaurants,” said Rob. He is already talking to other local chefs about supporting the Serving UP James Beard and other JBF initiatives. In Addition… Next door to Tusk & Trotter is what Carl Garrett calls “our own riff on modern Italian.” Tavola is one of the newest restaurants downtown. It is the second restaurant here run by Carl and his wife Lindie, who opened Table Mesa on the square as a “modern Latin concept” in 2008. Coming from a successful Mexican restaurant in downtown Seattle, the Garretts were looking for a place to grow. Bentonville was the choice after looking at several options. “When we moved here there wasn’t anything that was culinary driven,” said Carl. Now Tusk & Trotter has arrived, Pressroom, Flying Fish – a lot of action. A lot of really good things going on. We’re seeing more people coming to the area.” Both of their restaurants are thriving. Table Mesa is expanding into the space previously containing the Phat Tire Bike Shop – another downtown success story which is itself expanding by moving a block down the street. Phat Tire now lives next door to the Pressroom coffee shop – another part of the expanding downtown dining scene. Ken Vaughan, director of operations at Flying Fish, just off the square on Northwest Second Street, said opening in Bentonville wasn’t an overnight decision. But it was a good one. “We didn’t know what to expect,” he said, “but it was gangbusters from day one.” “The square is amazing. It’s electric on Saturdays, and I’m surprised at how busy it is at night during the week. We get a pretty decent crowd even after eight; the majority are families. His restaurant here is Flying Fish number eight. “We don’t operate like a chain. We want people to feel us as a part of the community,” he said. Flying Fish started in Little Rock and has locations in Memphis and Dallas. “Bentonville is a wonderful place for business,” said Ken, “I wasn’t expecting the square to be this cool. There’s nothing like it in the area.” Whether it’s one of Cecil’s steakburgers, a prosciutto sandwich from the Pressroom, bacon-infused ice cream from Chef Rob, a modern riff from the Garretts, a Petit Bistro lambchop, or an elaborate 11-ingredient concoction from Eleven at Crystal Bridges, Bentonville is becoming an increasingly tasty place to live. For more information on Bentonville’s burgeoning culinary scene visit www.downtownbentonville.org or contact Daniel Hintz, president of Downtown Bentonville, Inc. at daniel@bentonville.org For images of Bentonville, visit the Convention and Visitors Bureau’s Pinterest page http://pinterest.com/bentonvillecvb/