Only a few visionaries envisioned, when the River Market's Ottenheimer Market Hall, 400 President Clinton Ave., opened a decade ago, that it would thrive 10 years later.
   There was some talk at the time that the market hall's first floor was just a glorified and somewhat overpriced downtown food court.
   The growth of the River Market District that has sprouted up around the market hall, which now has about a dozen restaurants, bars and nightspots, has increased the traffic, foot and vehicular, through the area. The opening of the Clinton Presidential Center down the street has multiplied the number of tourists who swell the lunchtime rush. Busloads of school kids flood the market most weekdays.
   Seven of the market hall's original food-related tenants are still operating:

V.K. Brown Meat Market
,

Shaka Smoke Lodge
,

Double D's Bodacious Bar-B-Que
,

Casa Manana Taqueria
,

Andina Cafe & Coffee Roastery
,

Coast Cafe
(formerly

Emerald Coast Cafe
) and

Big on Tokyo
. Most of those operations are on the market hall's west side.
   The ownership of some of these places has changed in the past 10 years, and there has been one change of location -- Big on Tokyo, which started out in a large kiosk in the middle of the floor, moved to a space on the north wall that had been the site of a downtown branch of Lilly's

Dim Sum and Then Some
. Co-owner Kathy Webb planned to move within the market hall and ended up losing her lease altogether.
   That was an eerie preview of the current situation with

Andina Cafe
, which may (or may not) move from its anchor position on the east side of the market hall to make room for

Boulevard Bread Co.
to move in.
   "It is our intention for them to move into the middle of the market hall," an area now vacant and occupied by tables, but which once housed a florist, says Shannon Light, the manager of the city-owned River Market.
   However, Light admitted that the move was still under negotiation with Andina's new owner, Nita Westbrook, who purchased the business from original owner Eduardo Gomez and signed a new lease in March to keep the 484-square-foot space until Oct. 31, 2009, for $1,059.03 a month.
   That lease, like those of most of the other market hall tenants, allows the city to relocate the cafe at the River Market's discretion and expense. (Boulevard Bread owner Scott McGehee's new lease, for $1,109 a month, doesn't include that clause.)
   Light has said an arrangement she worked out with Westbrook earlier this month would give Andina a 267-square-foot booth for $611.87 a month, and the city would pay her relocation expenses. Westbrook doesn't acknowledge that she has struck such a deal.
   The fuss arose when Westbrook heard about the move, not from Light or anybody else on the River Market staff, but from news accounts.
   Westbrook wouldn't comment to reporters earlier this month, "pending possible future litigation."
   "If you've read the paper, you know what I know," an Andina employee says.
   Light says there are 12 food vendors among the 15 current tenants of the market hall.
   As well as the seven original operations, the hall houses Middle

Eastern Cuisine and International Pantry
, which was one of the second wave of new tenants, opening in May 1997; a branch of

Community Bakery
; the

Stock Pot
, which serves soups and salads ; and the

Olive Branch
, a Mediterranean-accented sandwich and plate-lunch special outlet and caterer; and a pizzeria.
   The market hall also houses three nonfood vendors: a minigrocery ; Hardin's Mercantile, which sells fresh fruits and vegetables (and also has a salad bar); and, in a kiosk outside the market hall, Arkansas Junction, which sells postcards, hog hats and other tourist tchotchkes.
   Dish is a monthly look at the business end of the central Arkansas restaurant business. Send ideas, 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; call (501) 399-3667 ; or send e-mail to:
   

eharrison@arkansasonline.com

This story was published Friday, August 04, 2006