Discover Arkansas’ unique flavours on your next vacation to the state

Dine at a farm-to-table restaurant

While there are several restaurants serving modern American and international fare throughout the state, the best way to savour all of Arkansas’ flavourful bounty is to eat at one of its renowned farm-to-table eateries.

With a motto that it is building community through local food, The Root Cafe in Little Rock is known as a reliable place for breakfast, lunch or dinner thanks to its dishes highlighting locally sourced products, likes omelets filled with cheese made in the area and deviled egg sandwiches featuring farm-fresh ingredients. Also in Little Rock, Table 28 serves modern dishes full of southern flare and made with organic ingredients, like seared duck served over Arkansas rice.

Other restaurants to try highlighting Arkansas products include The Farmer’s Table Café in Fayetteville that uses locally sourced produce and meat in dishes like its Ozark Breakfast Tacos, and The Hive, located inside the 21c Hotel in Bentonville, which makes its dishes with ingredients sourced from local partners, and even suggest wine and drink pairings for its menu items from area wineries and distillers.

Try the state’s unofficial dessert

You know you are in for a sweet time on vacation when you visit a place that has a dessert named after it. And not just any dessert. Made with layers of chocolate and cream cheese on a pecan shortbread crust (there are different variations depending on the chef), Arkansas Possum Pie is a delectable dish — with no actual possum in sight. Be sure to try the state’s unofficial dessert from PattiCakes Bakery in Conway (it’s just a 40-minute drive north of Little Rock) or at the Old South Restaurant in Russellville — a casual diner that opened in 1947.

Pies are an important part of Arkansas’ culinary culture and there is even a Pie Trail that visitors can go on to taste test slices of the best — from bourbon pecan and caramel apple to cherry crisp and blueberry cream. While there are no shortages of stops, among the standouts you should try are Loretta’s Famous Fried (chocolate, cherry, apple, peach or caramel apple) at Tacker’s Shake Shack in Marion — located across the Mississippi River from Memphis — and the pecan pie at Backyard Barbeque Co. in Magnolia, located east of Texarkana in southern Arkansas.

Beyond pies, other popular sweet treats in the state include the homemade popsicles from Le Pops Gourmet Ice Lollies in Little Rock — the daily flavours might include blueberry-lavender or strawberry-lemonade — and the freshly made frozen custards from Shake’s Frozen Custard in Fayetteville that give off vibes of simpler days gone by.

Celebrate happy hour

Several of those local ingredients that help make for memorable meals and desserts are also used to produce some of Arkansas wines, spirits and brews. Start your farm-to-bottle experience in western Arkansas’ Altus Viticultural Area, where grapes have been grown by European settlers since the 1870s.

Post Winery — the state’s oldest — makes its vintages from signature American varietals, including different types of Muscadine grapes. Pair its estate-grown red, white or pink Muscadine vintages with one of the made-from-scratch seasonal dishes from its The Trellis Room restaurant for a memorable meal. Also in Altus is Wiederkehr Wine Cellar & Weinkeller Restaurant, which produces vintages from American and European varietals in a Swiss winemaking tradition.

Other wineries you should visit include Tontitown Winery in Springdale that has been making wine — like its sweet Delaware with flavours of pineapple — since 1923 (you can even play a game of bocce ball during your visit) and the Movie House Winery that was founded in 2011 in the historic Petit Jean Movie Theater in downtown Morrilton.

To sample some Arkansas spirits, try Delta Dirt Distillery, a family-owned, craft distillery located in Helena in the Arkansas Delta. It locally grows the grains and products that is uses in its spirits — it makes a vodka, gin and a soon-to-market bourbon — so you really get a taste of the region.

You should also stop by Rock Town Distillery, located in downtown Little Rock. It was the first legal distillery in the state since Prohibition and has won numerous awards for its flavoured vodkas, bourbon and whiskeys, gins, cordials and liqueurs. There is also Crystal Ridge Distillery in Hot Springs that brought the tradition of moonshine distilling to the general public with its seasonal and flavoured offerings, and the nearby Origami Sake that makes two handcrafted sakes using locally grown rice, its White Lotus and A Thousand Cranes. It is also the largest sake brewer in the U.S.

Arkansas also boasts a passionate craft brewing community, mainly located in Little Rock, Fayetteville, Rogers, Hot Springs and Springdale. Among them are Fossil Cove Brewing Company in Fayetteville that usually has around 10 different funky named beers on tap, the dog-friendly Stone’s Throw Brewing in Little Rock, and the Fort Smith Brewing Company, which is found inside the historic Fort Chaffee — the same place Elvis Presley got his military mandated buzz cut when he joined the army in 1958.

And, to help ensure you don’t miss out on any sips or suds, the Arkansas Craft Beverage Pass is a mobile-exclusive offering that allows you to access discounts and rewards when you check-in at participating breweries, wineries and distilleries across the state.

Hit the culinary trails

Along with the Arkansas Craft Beverage Pass and the Pie Trail, the state also features an Arkansas Wine Trail through the Arkansas River valley that includes stops at Wiederkehr, Post, Movie House and Tontitown — where you can also learn more about the area’s rich history of Italian immigrants.

There is one last trail you should also consider exploring: the Arkansas BBQ Trail. This savoury tour of the state highlights dozens of restaurants, including favourites such as Penguin Ed’s Bar-B-Q in Fayetteville that has been serving hickory-enhanced, slow meats — from ribs to chicken and ham — since 1993, and Dixie Pig in Blytheville, a third generation-owned restaurant that opened in 1923 and is famous for its chopped pork sandwich (fittingly called the pig sandwich).

For more ideas on how to Get Outside the Ordinary and discover some local flavours on your Arkansas vacation, visit Arkansas.com.

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