Here today, gone tomorrow, and another establishment opens in its space the day after tomorrow.
   As the central Arkansas restaurant business continues to ebb and flow, here's our annual roundup of the most eventful comings, goings and changes on the local restaurant scene.
   

BREATHS
   
The Arkansas Clean Indoor Air Act, prohibiting smoking in workplaces, including restaurants, went into effect in July, except for restaurants that restricted entry to those 21 and over. (Among the Little Rock establishments announcing they would seek waivers under the law: Zack's

Place, Sticky Fingerz
and the

Sports Page
.)
   The Arkansas restaurant industry as a whole reported a slight drop in business after the law went into effect, but it's too early to predict trends.
   

BIRTHS
   SO Restaurant and Bar
replaced

The Living Room
at 3610 Kavanaugh Blvd. in Little Rock's Hillcrest. The very-high-end restaurant brings in oysters and other seafood from the far corners of the globe.
   Little Rock got two big new shopping centers this fall, and that means new restaurants (read more in our cover story about dining while shopping ). In the Midtowne Little Rock shopping center, West Markham Street and University Avenue, are a new Starbucks and

Pei Wei Asian Diner
, the Pan-Asian "second label" eatery of the

P.F. Chang
chain (one of those opened last year on Shackleford Road at Interstate 630 in west Little Rock). Also allegedly in the works: the high-end

Gramercy Square
, from the folks who brought you SO.
   In the Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11525 Cantrell Road, Adam Rosenblum and his wife, Christina Latendresse, opened the highly touted

Imagine
, offering "new Arkansas cuisine," aiming for "self-sustainability in a fine-dining setting."
   A couple of doors down is

Crew
, which offers contemporary "new American" cuisine -- steaks, seafood, burgers, sandwiches, salads, wraps -- with American beers on tap and a full bar.
   On the busy Japanese restaurant front, restaurant mogul Lulu Chi shed her eponymous Chinese restaurant Chi's in west Little Rock and her offbeat

Crazy Hibachi
in North Little Rock (both continue to operate under new owners) and opened the new high-end Japanese-fusion

Koto
on Chenal Parkway.
   Meanwhile, former Chi employees -- Eugene, the sushi chef, used to work at Crazy Hibachi and Gina, the ownermanager-waitress, used to wait tables at Chi's -- got together to open Gina's

Sushi & Grill
in the Ashley Square Shopping Center, North Rodney Parham and Reservoir roads, Little Rock.
   Entrepreneur Steve K. Im, whose restaurant holdings include

Kobe
in west Little Rock and

Shogun
in Riverdale, opened

Kanpai
, a Japanese steakhouse sushi restaurant, and the American Western-style

Montana Steakhouse
in a new strip center where McCain Boulevard and U.S. 67/167 meet

in North Little Rock
.
   And

Fuji
, a Japanese restaurant, sushi bar and hibachi grill, opened in the Ridge Plaza Shopping Center, 1260 U.S. 64, in Conway.
   

Kebab & Curry
opened in the former J's

Place
space in the Market Street Shopping Center, 11211 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock, providing some competition for long-existing

Star of India
.
   Rocky's

Pub
is serving genuine Philadelphia cheesesteaks, along with a full Italian menu, in the Indian Hills Shopping Center, John F. Kennedy Boulevard, North Little Rock, just shy of Sherwood.
   

DEATHS
   
Chef Michael Selig closed his

Vermillion Italian Bistro
(formerly

Vermillion Bistro
) on Chenal Parkway in Little Rock, confirming dark hints that the restaurant had been steadily losing customers. Selig still operates the still-thriving

Vermillion Water Grille
in the River Market District, where he opened a new raw bar.
   The flags on the tables at

Casa Viva
, the ones you raised to let the help know you needed a refill of something, were flying at half-staff after the restaurant, in the Village Shopping Center, Asher and University avenues, Little Rock, closed abruptly. A short-lived note on the door read: "Casa Viva is closed. Thanks for the memories. Adios."
   Another Little Rock restaurant landmark, the Bennigan's at West Markham Street and University Avenue, closed equally abruptly.
   

Faded Rose
mogul Ed David closed

Bubba & Garcia's
, in the original Faded Rose building, 1615 Rebsamen Park Road, Little Rock. Customers apparently just didn't sufficiently buy into the split-personality (deep South and Southwest) menu.
   

TRANSFIGURATIONS
   
Executive Chef David Bennett and his family, who took over the

Beechwood Grill
, 2721 Kavanaugh Blvd., late last year, closed it for a complete makeover and reopened it in January as

Vieux Carre
(French for "old square" and commonly used as a synonym for the French Quarter of New Orleans).
   

Rx Catering Cafe
, 200 N. Bowman Road, Little Rock, killed off its line of made-in-house bagels, proving that in this part of the country, a bagel is a good huntin' dawg.
   What used to be known as

Lulav
, 220A W. Sixth St., Little Rock, went through several upheavals, large and small, over the past year, including the departure of owner-chef James Botwright and the accession of Heather Keeton, now chef and general manager. The restaurant is now known as

V Lounge at Lulav
, and Keeton, while keeping the Mediterranean/Napa fusion menu concept Botwright shifted to after his first kosher kitchen idea flopped, has stripped the menu down and is concentrating more on attracting late-night business.
   

RESURRECTIONS
   
Michael and Yuli Waters, who operated

The Italian Couple
for several years at 2618 W. 12th St., Little Rock, brought the restaurant back this year in its original location, then moved it to 1900 W. Third St., in the shadow of the state Capitol.
   Steve Gabriel, who operated steak-and-seafood restaurants in Sherwood and downtown Little Rock in the late '80s and mid- '90s, resurfaced to reopen a new Gabriel's at 7412 North Hills Blvd., Sherwood.
   Little Rock landmark

The Hop
, the Cantrell Road walkup, drive-up restaurant that closed briefly for nonpayment of taxes before the death Feb. 2 of owner/operator/cook William Frank Harrison (at 48), reopened under the management of Mike Isgrig, who is keeping the menu pretty close to what it used to be.
   ROLLIN'

ON THE RIVER
   (MARKET)
   
There was a lot of fuss/flap/ bother when

Boulevard Bread Co.
owner Scott McGehee announced he would open a new location in the

Andina Cafe
space in the east end of the River Market's Ottenheimer Market Hall, 400 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock -- before River Market officials had gotten around to notifying the owner of Andina Cafe.
   After everything sort of shook itself out, Andina has moved to the west end of the Market Hall, Boulevard Bread Co. expects to open shortly after the top of the new year, and the Farmer's

Daughter Cafe
opened in the former Boulevard Bread space in the Central Arkansas Library System's nearby Cox Creative Center, 120 Commerce St.
   After the

Coconut Bay Cafe
, 300 President Clinton Ave., closed, reportedly for nonpayment of taxes, Chris King and Suzon Awbrey of Sticky Fingerz opened a new restaurant and nightclub combination called

Rumba and Revolution
. Next door, Fayetteville's

Flying Burrito Co.
opened in what had been a sort of convenience store.
   JERRY'S

WORLD
   
Restaurant mogul Jerry Barakat gets a category of his own this year, after combining his next-door Jasmine's and

Sesame
restaurants in the Village at Rahling Road, Rahling at Chenal Parkway, Little Rock -- "East meets West, real fusion, not confusion," said Barakat at the time -- and turning a portion of the former Sesame space into a martini bar called

Jerry B's
.
   Meanwhile, Barakat leaped upon the opportunity to move his Gaucho's

Grill
, a Brazilian churrasco "all-the-meat-you-can-eat" restaurant, from the same shopping center to the former location of

Tony Roma's
on Shackleford Circle (see below). And in the former Gaucho's space he just opened

Blue Agave
, with a Mexican, Caribbean and seafood menu.
   Barakat continues to operate his original restaurant -- once called The Terrace, now the

Terrace on the Green
-- in its fourth location, a bank building at Rodney Parham and Hinson roads.
   

WRAPPED UP IN CHAINS
   
Right by the Kanpai-Montana strip center,

Hooters
made its return to the market, opening in April on the site of a former Denny's on Landers Road, where McCain Boulevard meets U.S. 67-167 in North Little Rock. Also opening about the same time on the other side of U.S. 67-167 :

Texas Roadhouse
, part of a Louisville, Ky.-based chain. Also opening in April was

Mimis Cafe
, 11725 Chenal Parkway (on the same lot as Garden Ridge and

On the Border
). And Joey's

Seafood and Grill
, part of a Canada-based chain, recently opened an outlet at 755 Club Lane in Conway.
   

Tony Roma's
closed its Little Rock location and most of its other regional outlets. And the Tia's Tex-Mex chain declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy and shuttered all of its restaurants, including its west Little Rock and North Little Rock outlets.
   

ON THE HORIZON
   Houlihan's
, which bills itself as "one of America's most classic eateries and a cultural icon" and "one of America's most eclectic restaurant concepts for three decades," is "planning an aggressive expansion plan for Little Rock," according to a news release, as part of the Leawood, Kan., chain's expansion into suburban and outlying neighborhoods throughout the country.
   A group called Arkansas Gaelic Pubs, LLC plans to open Cregeen's

Irish Pub
at 301 Main St. in North Little Rock's downtown Argenta section on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2007. They're shipping the prefab pub from Dublin, Ireland, for installation.
   And the

Capital Hotel
delayed re-opening is set for April. No official word yet on the status of its two restaurants, Ashley's and the

Capital Bar
. Dish is a monthly look at the business end of the central Arkansas restaurant business. Send notices of new restaurant openings, closings, menu and staff changes to Restaurants, Weekend Section, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203, or call (501) 399-3667, or send e-mail to:
   

eharrison@arkansasonline.com

This story was published Friday, December 01, 2006