Ashley's

WOW! I don't know what else to say about the dining experience we had tonight(10-3-09). We had a reservation for 6:00 p.m. but neither of us had lunch so we were starving after visiting the Arkansas Arts Center and Bedford's Camera and Video. We got to Ashley's about 5:30 p.m. and were seated immediately. First you have to decide what kind of water you want. We chose the still water and were brought a bottle of Mountain Spring water. This is not the water in a plastic bottle you get at at store. It is in a glass bottle and chilled. When we we received our menus, they had printed "Happy Anniversary Mr. and Mrs. McPheeters" at the top for us. I knew then we were in for a treat!

They began our meal with an gift from the chef. There's a name for it but I can't spell it. It's like amuse buche. It means a small one or two bite gift. Ours was their Falling Sky chicken with an onion jam and a small toasted baguette chip. It was wonderful!

We chose to do the 3 course pre fixe menu. You have a list of appetizers, entrees and desserts to choose from. I chose the seared foie gras with a ginger tuille small 'cookie'. I absolutely loved it! David had the mixed greens salad. It had pickled beets (made on site), goat cheese and pecans. The dressing was a light pomegranate vinaigrette.

At this point, we were brought a plate with sweet breads, short ribs and carrot puree. We didn't order that but apparently it was a mid-course from the chef. It was interesting. I loved it! David was ok with the short ribs. I will give him props for at least tasting the sweet bread even though he did not finish it.

Entree time...I had seared diver's scallops with potatoes and truffles. Oh my gosh! The scallops were lovely and huge. They were cooked perfectly. There were also homemade potato chips on top. They were light and crispy. The sauce was amazing. David had prime beef tenderloin with brocollini and Roman gnocchi.

While waiting for dessert, we received a pre-dessert. It was a miniature key lime pie. Amazing! Then we were served our desserts. I had the banana brulee. It was two small pieces of a thin banana cake, two pieces of a vanilla bean creme brulee and some homemade ice cream. Oh, and there were slices of bananas that were also brulee. Yummy!!!!! They wrote Happy Anniversary in chocolate on my plate.

We ended the evening on a very high note. While drinking coffee, Chef Lee Richardson came and spoke to us. The man is an amazing chef. The food not only was the best ever, the presentation was incredible. The entire experience was the best ever for me. I have eaten at lots of restaurants but this is by far the best.

Franklin, Savannah TN Labor Day 2009

I am a little late getting this written. We traveled to TN on Labor Day weekend. We just stopped at McDonald's in Lonoke AR on the way out of town. I had the Mushroom & Swiss Angus burger. It was ok. On Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at the hotel. We have been staying at Courtyards lately. I had huge blueberry pancakes that were awesome! I managed to eat about 1/2 of them. They were not too sweet and had a great flavor.

We were walking around Franklin TN at lunch time and came across two places I had written down from roadfood.com. Lunch was at Puckett's Grocery. I had the bbq chicken. It was delicious. We went next door for dessert at Meridee's Bread Basket. I had a cinnamon roll and shared a coffee with hubby. Again, what a treat!

Dinner was at Sperry's. It's a very nice restaurant. I had on shorts and a t-shirt but they still treated me like I belonged there. I had a fillet and lobster tail combo. WOW! The steak was amazing and the lobster was to die for. Everything was cooked perfectly. Even after all that food, we went around the corner to Cold Stone Creamery. Oh yes baby! We adore Cold Stone!

Sunday we found a place on our way to Savannah TN called Emerald's. The food was good but the best thing was the caramel pie. It was so gooey and rich. Sunday night we ended up at Pizza Hut and it was one of the best Pizza Huts we have been too. We got a ham and pineapple pizza.

Monday morning we had breakfast at Worleybird Cafe. It is owned by the country singer Darryl Worley. There is a lot of stuff to look at on the walls. I got pancakes again and they were great. Lunch was at Hardee's. Yummy! I love a good Hardee's and this was a very good one.

There are still many places in Franklin TN I didn't get to eat at. One was right by the hotel, Gigi's Cupcakes. Maybe next time...

Cotham's (Scott AR)

My husband and I both love Civil War stuff. There was a Civil War Campaign in Little Rock. We have a numbered map of the places to go. He told me last week to find a place to eat on this "trail". It took us right to Scott AR. There is only one place I could think of in that area to eat...Cotham's! We had never been there but the friend that was with us had.

It's an old mercantile store. Lots of old stuff on the walls to look at. We ordered the fried green tomatoes for an appetizer. Oh my, what a treat! They were awesome. They had a cornmeal crust and were cooked to perfection. I love the tang of a good fried green tomato.


Cotham's is famous for their hub cap burger. My husband got that and it was huge! He ate all of it except some of the bun. Friend and I had regular size cheeseburgers but they were still pretty good. These are made from scratch, hand-formed patties that taste just like what they are...real beef! Instead of fries, we all opted to pay the extra buck or two and get the onion rings. To quote Rachael Ray "oh my gravy"! They were great. They had a very light, crispy batter. The onions were so sweet it was almost like they had sugar on them.


Believe it or not, we had room for dessert. I had something I had never heard of before even here in the south. I don't know why other people have not made this, fried sweet potato pie. It was delicious. I wish now that I had brought one home. Husband had the peach cobbler and friend had Mississippi Mud pie. I tasted the peach cobbler and it was delicious.


I can hardly wait to go back for another burger and fried pie.

4 out of 5 stars

The Diner (Cabot AR)

My friend talks about this palce all the time. Her 5 year old will wake up on Saturday morning and ask to go to Children's Church first then when she tells him it is Saturday he says 'wanna go eat at The Diner!'.

We are both off on vacation this week but not by a plan. We seldom get to spend time together without spouses and kids so...we met for breakfast this morning.

They have an extensive breakfast menu but I can never resist a short stack and bacon! It was delicious. I added some hash browns and they were great too.

The coffee was wonderful and when I mentioned it, I was told it is Folgers. Whatever they do when they make it, makes it really good coffee. And they have 1/2 & 1/2 which I LOVE in my coffee.

Service was great. I recognized some wait staff from a place I used to eat in another town. Prices were reasonable. I will definitely go back.

4 out 5 stars

Rib Crib (Searcy AR)

Just want to tell you about a very underrated place to eat...Rib Crib! We love it. The ribs are excellent. I highly recommend the shrimp/rib combo. The shrimp are large and very crunchy. The ribs are fall-off-the-bone tender. I prefer the mild sauce but they do have a hot and a Carolina mustard sauce.

We shared some tater skins tonight. They are great with the mild bbq sauce on them.

If you just want a quick bite of bbq, give them a try. You will be pleasantly surprised.

Oh, don't forget to try the smoked bologna (it rocks!).

3 1/2 stars

Olive Garden - NLR AR

Decided at the last minute to go to the mall right after church on Sunday. Gotta eat, right? We went to Olive Garden, one of my husband's favorite places. It's just OK to me. I can make better spaghetti and fettuccine Alfredo at home from scratch. The interesting thing is that neither of us got what I would consider Italian food.

Husband ordered the same thing he always gets...Mixed Grill. It's chicken and beef on skewers with roasted potatoes and grilled veggies. He loves it.

I wanted something that was not pasta. I highly recommend the dish I had. It was the Chianti Braised Beef Short Ribs with Portabella risotto(I LOVE RISOTTO!) The meat was so tender I didn't even have to use a knife but did since I was in public. The rice was wonderful. The sauce on the meat was smooth and flavorful.

Son ordered the Seafood Portofino and discovered that he loves mussels! That's my boy!

Over all it was good. The only problem was getting a table. I told them 5 adults and one infant but they heard and wrote down 5 total including the infant. Just miscommunication. They took care of as quickly as they could even after we let them know the other 3 weren't not joining us and we now needed a table for 3 instead of 6.

3 out of 5 stars

Roper's in Opal AR

I haven't been anywhere new this week. I thought I would blog about one of our favorite places to eat close to home.

Roper's has a wide variety of food. You can get anything from sandwiches to pizza to steak. Let's talk about pizza first...two words...THE ROUNDUP! This is the BEST pizza ever. Thin crust, lots of toppings. The slices are "heavy" because there is so much stuff on them. Don't get a salad to go with it because you want to be able to enjoy more than 1 or 2 pieces. Yummy!

Steak! Yes, you can get a great steak at Roper's. The 6 oz. fillet is wonderful. It is always cooked perfectly and seasoned well. When it gets to your table, you think that it will not fill you up but trust me on this one, it will.

My third favorite meal is the Italian sub. This is one of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten. it is loaded with meat and toppings. The Italian dressing just makes it even better. Sometimes I can eat the whole thing and sometimes not. It comes with chips and a pickle but they also have fries and onion rings(which I love) you can substitute.

My son loves the chicken strips but he gets those everywhere we go!

Give it a try...Oh! I almost forgot...the Cheese Pizza is awesome too!