Come try LORI'S FAMOUS GUMBO CHEESE fries featured on
          October 2018's DINERS, DRIVE-INS AND DIVES. You can find
        these and some great beers at the FLYWAY BREWERY Little Rock
                                                      312 Maple Street.    
                                                      (301) 812 31 92
                                   
   Chatted a couple of times with the Brewery partner, Tim, and with O'Dell and Kris, both workers who have been at Flyway many years and are super funny doing Curbside. "Yes we're just continueing with Delivery, Takeout, or Curbside to the car service. We know that if we only open about 33%, we have to hire more people which brings our costs up, we lose some of our Pickup Customers and we have more overhead in the TapRoom without the people to support it so we're not going to do the limited rules. We're just only doing what we're doing now and that is fine with us. We shall wait til we can open up to almost 50% so that we can start doing a better business." says the two chatterboxes as we talk outside the FLYWAY brewery in Little Rock.
    The chicken is great, the wings are awesome and they have wild game days with Venison, Duck and Alligator! That is what I said, Alligator, so try the Flyway and check their instagram and facebooks daily, with the links here, to see what specials they are doing everyday. They have family packs of beers and food, too.
   And the Cook's face is on the platter! Gina's head(the cook.)
                                                                                       https://therailyardlr.com/
                                                                     
                                                                               1212 E. 6th St.

                   O Hey I know Mat! Wish we would of been here February 7 to see the Rail Yard alive!
                                                         The Cool Vegan Truck OLIVEU
      I really enjoyed meeting the two of the three women who own The Rail Yard in Little Rock, Arkansas. I have yet to meet Virginia,who is Linda's husband's aunt and Linda's partner Murry's aunt. Confused?! Okay, the three woman who own The Rail Yard are Linda, Murry and Virginia. The Rail Yard is a outdoor and indoor venue with a very cool concept of letting adults mingle in both spaces, buying food from the various food trucks that they invite into the very big backyard BBQ pit arena, or buying the food inside the restaurant which is accessible from the long wooden decks.
"The partners who take care of the BBQ Smokehouse meat and briskets are Walt Todd and Kelly Lovell, both of who own The Count Porkula. The two guys started The Count Porkula about 3 years before we opened here and they were only serving their Pork from the food trucks at events. They would smoke the meat from their homes and when we decided to convert this old warehouse space into The Rail Yard we partnered with The Count Porkula. We did not know how to open a restaurant and we didn't want to do the kitchen aspect of the project. They were the experts and we said that is just fine. We knew the guys and their food is excellent. We just wanted to organize the space and concept and find the beer distributors and wine distributors who we wanted on our taps and find the musical talent. We do have live music a couple times a week. Or we did before Covid showed up," says Linda and Murry, both of who interject their excited laughing thoughts into the conversation simultaneously. So, if I mix up a little forgive me!
          https://www.instagram.com/therailyardlr/?hl=en

    Linda says, "We have a list of the various trucks you can choose from, and Walt's wife owns one of these food trucks which serves French Crepes.                    
 Otherwise, if you came specifically for that 16 hour brisket and you want to enjoy the smell of the BBQ being smoked, sit back a couple of hours and drink some of our beer and order it hot and fresh."
     Walt says hi quickly as it is almost 5:00pm and tells me that the BBQ will be smoked the entire night and ready in the morning for orders for the next day.     I think...hmm brisket!  
                   https://www.facebook.com/TheRailYardLR/
    So, what exactly is The Rail Yard.

     "It's a place where you can sit and eat and drink on the outside decks, or in the yard which we usually have long wooden tables and benches in the summer and the winter colorful adirondack chairs circled around heaters.
       You can enjoy the live music that we have on Fridays and Saturdays and sometimes another day, you can check the facebook schedule for the bands or the website or instagram. The people can either buy the food from the various food trucks or they can sit inside and have waiter service to their tables. It is their choice," says Linda.
   They offered me some wine, and you all that know me will be very surprised I didn't drink any!
    Murry says, "Well, we have the wine on tap, too if  you want some. So, okay about The Rail Yard, the people can even sit inside and walk outside to the food trucks if they wish. The beer on tap is usually from local breweries and we have about 7 to 8 on tap. We have wine on tap, too. In the future we are having one of the food trucks be a bar outside. It is a place where you can mingle and be interactive."  It is VERY COOL.
  When I ask Linda and Murry if they can recommend some local places of interest, Linda says,"We love Flyway Brewery." and Murry agrees. "We carry Flyway on tap here and it is our best seller on tap. We really like Rebel Kettle too.  Diamond Bear is nice and we have heard that Stone's Throw brewery has some nice people running it but they haven't approached us to carry their beer yet."  I say that it seems that Little Rock has a lot of breweries all within a couple hundred feet from each other.
    Murry says, "Arkansas does have the second most Micro breweries in terms of the states compared to each other. Seattle is number one and Arkansas is number two, with Little Rock contributing many of these. What is special about the Little Rock breweries is that some give little tours of the house showing how the beer is brewed and guests enjoy that."

          It's my favorite thing to do: drink beers on tap! Especially big liters of beer and I love stouts!
          And they have wine on tap, too, which is another of my favorite things to do, drink wine:)
    "We thought the boys would be happy with their own Smoker Room, which is in the backyard next to the Count Porkula smoker. They were smoking the meat at home and alongside their truck and now they have an entire room dedicated solely to the smoking of their great BBQ, so they are very happy to be partnering with us, too, we hope!"
                                                                              
                                                      Located at : 1212 E. 6th St.
         The Count Porkula Smokehouse is open now 11:00am to 5:00pm carryout.
                                             Walkin or Call the teli: 501 804 956 1
              https://www.countporkulabbq.com/
  The Count Porkula Smoker is obviously both an essential part of their business of bringing the best BBQ smoked meat to their guests and in addition it is a very sentimental part of their history. They had found the rusted broken down smoker, and it being a one of a kind smoker, they refurbished it and set about making the best brisket for family, friends, tailgating and eventually full time food trucks. They brought The Count Porkula smoker to all events and smoked the meat right there. Now it sits in the yard next to the smokehouse room and they use it daily. They say that they get odd looks everytime they bring it out but when the people taste the food they love it!
         The usual hours of the Rail Yard and the Count Porkula from 11:00am to 22:00p, so you can definitely cuddle up at night and hear some great live music while you have a couple of glasses of wine from tap.
 The two bosses of Count Porkula, Kelly and Walt.
                   Ya, the Nachos above pretty much look like that...Full of VERY fattening calories and great taste so: bring me the nachos with the Smoked Chicken and the works! Yum.
    The guys started with a very rusted old smoker named The Count Porkula and they restored it to being the best smoker ever, at least according to all of their fans! One of the owners, Walt is shown with Count Porkula Smoker and a very bad pig! Kelly says, "When people think of BBQ they think of the sauce that they are used to. But each region of America has a very special and different way of making the sauce. Arkansas the same. We use our original sauce and rub on each piece of meat whether it is brisket, which is beef, or pork, chicken, turkey, or sausages. The meat smoked naturally is the key to us. You can choose one of our sauces to add later, or you can eat the meat naturally which is what most people do."
The two hardworking chefs in the kitchen say,"Well we would say that we prep the food that is ordered. We're not really chefs, we are prep chefs," they laugh and say,"Paxton is the smoker chef," and Paxton says that yes he is, although Walt corrects him, "Let's say that Paxton is the Assistant Smokehouse Chef!"
     You HAVE to meet Brett, Walt's southern belle wife. She seems that she would be more at home on a new television show called, THE HOUSEWIVES OF LITTLE ROCK. "Would you love to take a picture of my food truck?" asks Brett and in her high heels she daintily jaunts out in the rain with Paxton in tow to take off the tarp of the food truck and display it proudly. "Yes the little crepesy is mine. I can make any kind of crepe you want," she says.
   Although the two food trucks of Count Porkula and A Little Crepesy are all in the family, the team of A Rail Yard does invite other food trucks to the events here. "That is fine with us, some people like BBQ, but some don't and we want everybody here," says Walt and Paxton says, "You know every food truck has its own fans and sometimes when new food trucks come on a Friday or Saturday they bring an entire new crowd of people that maybe wouldn't of came down here before. So, it's good for us, too." And Kelly? "Everybody needs a little competition and that just makes our food taste better!" OK.
  Walt says as he walks me around the yard and shows me the cool Smokehouse, "My wife and I went to Europe and fell in love with France. She wanted to continue that food craze of crepes and she has her own food truck now that she loves."
   "We have a cool story. At first me and Walt just wanted to buy a smoker to do as a hobby with friends and maybe we thought we could work from our kitchens and when we bought the Count Porkula from the Pawn shop we started smoking meat in our frontyards. We had a 3 month contract with Camp Robinson a military base and we brought the Count Porkula to University of Arkansas football games and events and basically anywhere that we were allowed to bring it during 2016 to 2018.  A Real Estate agent in 2018 asked us if we wanted to meet at the bicycle warehouse here on the grounds of The Rail Yard with him and three ladies who wanted to perhaps partner with us. We said okay and met Linda and Murry for the first time and hit it off and signed the lease and started the process of restructuring it all. We needed a big space for a smokehouse kitchen and we knew how to make good BBQ and the ladies needed the liquor license that can only be had with the food license, yet they weren't restaurateurs.  So now, it has worked out perfectly with each partner contributing in different ways," says Kelly.
                                       photo COURTESY!? of Eater Publication author Allie Lazar.
                                                     Updated March, 5, 2020. 10:34am
Diners sit at a series of long communal tables beneath a colorful glass ceiling in a wide open food hall
                CAN'T TO ARGENTINA?    IF YOU PHYSICALLY CAN'T MAKE IT TO ARGENTINA, SUCH AS THE GIRL'S VISITORS -FOOD HAIL EL PATIO DE LOS LlECHEROS ARGENTINA,
                          FOOD HAIL SITS IN CABILLITO AN ABANDONED TRAIN STATION!
                                  
                            TRY BUENOS AIRES RESTAURANT in LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas~!
                                                
                                        Location: 3rd and Cumberland Street, 300 E 3rd St # 101, Little Rock, Arkansas
         Beautiful, Modern COOPER GRILL
   is known for it's high quality fish and meat, along with some very good appetizers that compliment their great wine list, so grab a bottle to go and enjoy with your order!
 Cool wraparound Patio of Copper Grill
   The boss of COPPER GRILL is super nice and had a creative way to keep his employees on his payroll and the first responders of Little Rock fed!
   "When we had to close the doors for sit-down seating, we decided to do a fundraiser to help keep my team together and to help out First Responders at the local hospitals. I am very proud to say that I have kept 75% of my staff on the payroll the entire time, and we raised $17,000.00 from mostly local people who supported the fundraiser," says Dan, who owns the very cool upscale COPPER GRILL on 3rd downtown Little Rock. Copper Grill
One of the wines they feature, and I have decided to feature a new wine from the COPPER GRILL list every month, is:

Pinot Grigio/

According to their website:
Russian River Valley (available by the glass)
Its delicate aromas, attractive flavors, opulent texture and balanced acidity make the 2005 J Pinot is a wonderful accompaniment to many types of cuisine, but we highly recommend it matched with Asian inspired dishes, as well as, most spicy Pacific Rim cuisine.Copper Grill - Home | Facebook
     And since I love both the Tuscany Red Wines and the World of Whites such as the German wines of Dr. Loosen, Riesling, which is available by the glass, I love the fact I can choose a bottle to take with and what the heck as long as I am waiting for my order to takeout, I might as well order it by the glass, too.
  "We're lucky since we have a big following of people who love the Copper Grill and obviously enjoyed coming here about 13 years.   I, personally, have only owned the Copper Grill the last 8 months since my partners at Cajun's Wharf and Capers were also the partners who owned this one. They asked if I wanted to buy it and I said yes and here I am. We do pretty good since we have about 100 people who live above us and the same amount next to us in the apartment buildings and they're all hungry. It isn't the way it used to be, yet we give a service to the community being open and it makes me feel productive doing the take out service, it helps me to pay my employees and not have them without any income and it helps me to be a little creative with how we are still doing business today," says Dan.
     "I would say the food is very fresh everyday, the ingredients are fresh and everything is prepared here, not frozen, and it is a little upscale. You used the word, Yuppie, yet I haven't heard that word in a long time!" he laughs at me when I say his place looks like where the preppies and yuppies would come to.
Copper Grill, Little Rock - Menu, Prices & Restaurant Reviews ...
  And with over 90 wines to choose from you are sure to find something that you love. "We are allowed to serve beer  and wine for takeout and that helps so the people don't have to make trips to the liquor store or the grocery store. It can all be found here and that is a safety issue too, in addition to helping us with sales. And I would say that we have superior service, which I pride myself on, I have a great team."

 
     So, if you are deciding to come to the charming city of Little Rock, Arkansas, the home of the past Governor, President and Mrs. Clinton, and present home of one of the most successful Governors in America in terms of the containment of Coronavirus cases, Governor Asa Hutchinson. At least in Little Rock you know that you can still find some very healthy and good food at The Copper Grill and have a chance to meet the actual owner while you sit at the bar, drinking a beer legally(as long as you do the 6 feet rule) waiting for your food order.
                          Alright, so what do they have nowadays?                             "We have a nice menu, although since we receive our fresh fish from the Fulton Fish Markets in New York, we don't serve fish here any longer. You want a nice cut of filet and a nice healthy burger or maybe some great appetizers with a bottle of wine, such as here," says the boss and I peruse the menu.

     HMM they have Roasted Pear with greens and pistachio reggiano, cauliflower steak with parmesan and pine nuts, or  crispy chicken wings and fried cheddar biscuits. You can have a Grilled Meatload Sandwich or Turkey Avocado Melt or perhaps chicken stuffed with goat cheese.

     "The main difference between my menu when you come and sitdown to dine or the takeout now is that I have made some hefty family style servings. So, families don't want to cook and they order a huge bucket of soup from us or a family pack. It is made to order and it is easy. Huge portions. And given that for people's mental health, it is important to have their routines and some kind of normalcy in their days, I can legally let people sit 6 feet away from each other at the bar waiting for their food to take with them while they have a beer. It makes people feel normal," says the owner of COPPER GRILL.Copper Grill Announces New Ownership | Little Rock Soiree Magazine

  I must tell you that the real menu looks so good, so we're hoping that while the country starts opening up, the COPPER GRILL will start serving  their famous seafood such as the Crispy Catfish which is my favorite!
     Met a very nice person who is a lovely Little Rork security guard named William, "Let's see, my favorite place in Little Rock has to be THE FLYING SAUCER! Restaurant and Bar. It is just a very fun place to go and they have so many beers on tap, about 76 of em. I have not tasted all of them, but I hope someday to do that!" he says laughing as we chat about his city. I say that I love The Flying Saucer soo, especially the chicken wings!     501.372.8032
https://www.beerknurd.com/user                             (501) 372-8032                                               
                                     Flying Saucer Little Rock - Home - Little Rock, Arkansas - Menu ...
                 https://www.beerknurd.com/userAUGUST TRANSITIONS: Flying Saucer named among Top 6 chain beer ...
 At 322 President Clinton Street, Little Rock, it has a wall full of Flying Saucer Plates and it's own little UFO Plate section for the UFO enthusiasts, 76 beers on draft, and a great food menu of the best pizza, wings and if you taste over 200 beers you receive your name on a lifetime saucer hung on the wall of UFO.
      The SUPER MODERN LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas is a Hidden gem in all of my travels,  it is up with my top 3 cities in the world, 1 being Regensburg Germany, Rome Italy, and Little Rock, Arkansas.  Since I love Whiskey, here it is, right on Clinton Street, the heart of Little Rock.                   Located at:    225 East Markham, 501. 324. 2448     

                Alright now the start of the Brewery Tours in Little Rock, where you can take 3 days and visit 7 MicroBreweries, include The RailYard and Count Porkula and one additional Distillery named RockTown.       https://www.rebelkettle.com/
   Stones Throw Hustlers — Stones Throw Brewery 
The partners of Stone's Throw Brewery: Theron, who I interviewed and his 3 partners, Ian, Brad and Shawn, all loved beer, which is the way a Brewery should be started. But they REALLY loved beer! If you would love to try their original recipes, all of which now come from Theron's hand, yet in the beginning they all tried their own homemade recipes, call 501-244-9154 to order curbside and pickup, in addition to their lunch and dinner menu of Hill Country Hamburgers, perhaps some great chicken wings and a couple of other tasty snacks to help with all that great beer!                      
                            Located at:  402 9th Street
          Stones Throw Brewery - 95 Photos & 73 Reviews - Breweries - 1009 ...
      Curbside and Pickup             501-244-9154 orders for beers and menu lunch and dinner
             501 244-9154  
Stone's Throw Brewery throws Block Party | 360 | goskagit.com
  Having interviewed the owners of
The RailYard, another cool fun place in Little Rock that carries various local brews from the Micro Breweries of Little Rock, and having them tell me that they have heard of very fun parties from these fellows, I knew I had to interview the bosses.
  I meet Theron on a Monday and since it is the Stone's Throw day off, I get to talk to him a lot!
     "The way that we all met is kinda funny, since we used to meet in a Beer club, a Micro Beer club of Home brewers. So we all come from Home brewing our own recipes background. That is in 2002, and we always would say that we should open our own brewery. The only one at the time was the Diamond Bear Brewery, it was very big and we were very small. We decided to finally try it and we all made the very difficult decision to only spend our own money. No loans. So, we remodeled the entire place here on 9th street and when it came time to make the TapRoom pub, we had run out of money. Okay, how do we make the taproom without money, and we started Kickstart. We needed $10,000.00 to do what we wanted and we achieved over $22,000.00 in 3 weeks. We were so thrilled at the support that the community gave us and knew at that time we would be a success. Obviously people wanted another mircro brewery place in Little Rock. That is us!" says Theron.
"The first year we each made a signature beer or a couple of these, mine was the Amadeus Vienna Lager, which is still the most popular one today. Since we all came from home brewers, we all knew how to brew. I'm the one who brews all of our beers now, though after so many different flavors and combinations, I do need some suggestions from all my partners," says Theron.
  "It's a fun place and I brew all the beers for both of our locations from 9th street including the other location which is at 3015 W Markham St Little Rock.  We have a kitchen here and the other taproom is a bigger place with more beers on draft and here we have 14 on tap. We do a new beer every Friday, or we try, yet every first Friday we have a brand new one."
                             SOME OF FAMOUS BREWERS OF LITTLE ROCK

            Ongoing  Brewery Tours, a must, about 50 feet from Lost Forty Brewery
   is REBEL KETTLE, EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE!  A very fun brewery with some great beers.    AT 822 East, 6th street.https://www.rebelkettle.com/

  Known for FRUITED SOURS, JUICY IPAS, AND VERY BIG STOUTS, IT IS A MUST ON THE LITTLE ROCK TOUR, complete with private beer garden for safety and fun.

                          Rebel Kettle Logo of skull with leather jacket on holding a beer
   Rebel Kettle likes to be known as a Brewery with a Small Batch and a Big Attitude, although they look more like just crazy good fun. Outdoor wood picnic tables with a big wooden privacy fence, stage and great Pub food with Cajun inspiration and Rebel Kettle beers, a good day to tour! They have 100 special beers the very first year since April 2016 and a great taproom, outdoor stage with beer garden and Cajun style menu.
           New batch of beers and flavors every Thursday. They intend to push the envelope to continue brewing, making and letting the guests enjoy quality beers with a above average Rebel Kettle taste to it.
                     The LITTLE ROCK FIREHOUSE and HOSTEL
                                   +1 (501) 476-0294
                                                           https://www.firehousehostel.org/
                 https://www.firehousehostel.org/
   If you want to see Little Rock a very nice place to stay is at the Firehouse Museum and Hostel which is located on the MacArthur Park and Lake. It is a lovingly donated hostel full of firehouse memorabilia and as a matter of fact a firehouse museum with all sorts of cool artifacts decorating every inch of the Hostel/Museum. The Firehouse #2 Real Firehouse is located about 250 feet away, so you can feel super safe staying here!
   The Firehouse Hostel is a super friendly place where you can play with the collections, mostly donated or on loan, and have a great time seeing Little Rock with other visitors.
    They have a great kitchen where the guests  can cook and mingle and keep their own food and in addition a very nice big breakfast with free coffee and tea all day. Loved it.
          https://www.firehousehostel.org/