HOT SPRINGS -- Cafe 1217 opened in the late 1990s, at the dawn of the gourmet deli concept.
   It involves putting your wares in a refrigerated display case for your customers to see, and then selling them either partly cooked to go or finished in the kitchen to eat there. Many items are sold by the pound, therefore.
   The cafe, which takes its name from the Malvern Avenue street address of its strip center, was good when we first reviewed it in 1998. And it's as good or better eight years later.
   The cafe itself is bright and cheery, with seating at bistrostyle round tables and ironwire chairs and its white walls daubed with painted designs or covered with framed photographic portraits (for sale) and the many, many awards the restaurant has won.
   Chef/owner Diana Marez Bratton's menu changes monthly, and what we sampled of her June offerings was superb.
   The Sesame Pineapple Split Game Hen ($4.75), a half bird roasted with a sesame pineapple glaze (and a chunk of pineapple as a garnish), was surprisingly meaty for such a small portion but not surprisingly delicious.
   Two of the tasty Shrimp & Crawfish Cakes ($4 each) made a fine lunch entree portion, each cake about the size of a baseball, nicely spiced and with a side of cocktail sauce for dipping (we allowed our mood to determine which bites we dipped and which we didn't ).
   And we also made a nice lunch out of two of Rosey's Hand-Rolled Tamales ($2.50 apiece), spiced meat inside firm cornmeal tinged with a zingy red salsa and served in corn shucks.
   Kung Pao Asparagus With Mushrooms ($12 a pound), not especially spicy but flavorful and with a decent number of peanuts, would make a fine vegetarian entree or, as we chose it, a darned good side item.
   Most entrees come with a side salad -- on two occasions, mixed greens in a fairly sharp Caesar dressing. Other salads are available as appetizers (most of them $5.95) or entrees ($7.50 "unless noted" -- $8.75 for the Tuna Steak with roasted red peppers, white beans, boiled egg, red onion, capers and Yukon Gold potatoes with lemon rosemary dressing).
   Among its half-dozen sandwich offerings (all $7.50), Cafe 1217 also served up an excellent Reuben, plentiful corned beef, similar to, if not the same as, the stuff they serve at Oaklawn Park, except for the -- surprise! -- actual peppercorns (which is what makes corned beef "corned" ), sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and creamy brown mustard on marble rye. The accompanying salad of the day was a tangy roasted vegetable couscous with cilantro accents.
   Many of the cafe's patrons come for the desserts, which, past and present, have been to kill for, if not to die for. A slice of key lime pie ($3.75) on graham-cracker crust was just the right texture and had plenty of lime flavor, and though we prefer ours a little tarter and a little less sweet, we'd order it again.
   Cafe 1217's order, delivery and payment system can be a little frustrating -- a lot frustrating, actually -- at peak periods, especially between noon and 1 p.m., when the place is at its busiest.
   You order at the counter and leave a name, which somebody calls out over a loudspeaker when your order is ready. But you don't pay until you get ready to leave.
   That means if you're dining in, you will stand once in line to order, wait for your food to come out of the kitchen, and a second time, in a fairly tight space, to work your way up to the single cashier.
   That presumes that you can find a seat. One of the other common lunch-rush sights is people hovering near tables where it looks like folks are wrapping up their meal.
   And even if you manage to be in the right place at the right time to snag the table, it may be a few minutes before the cafe's overworked lone busser can trundle his cart over to get the table cleared.
   Walk in at 4 in the afternoon, say, and things are much calmer. But there are also fewer counter personnel, so even a handful of customers arriving about the same time constitutes a rush.
   

CAFE 1217 Address:
1217 Malvern Ave., Hot Springs

Hours:
10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday

Cuisine:
"Gourmet food 'on the go'"

Credit cards:
V, MC

Alcoholic beverages:
No

Reservations:
No

Nonsmoking section: Smoke-free Wheelchair accessible:
Yes

(501) 318-1094

This story was published Friday, June 23, 2006