You’re hungry. We’re hungry. Everybody’s hungry for restaurant news.
Here are a few nuggets of just that for you, including info on a handful of places that have opened, closed, or plan to soon open in Fayetteville.
Summer Moon Coffee
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A new coffee shop will soon open in Evelyn Hills Shopping Center in Fayetteville.
The new shop, called Summer Moon Coffee, is in the works at 1422 N. College Ave., in the corner of the shopping center near Mockingbird Kitchen and Arkadia Retrocade.
The location is a franchise of the fast-growing Austin, Texas-based chain of the same name. Summer Moon Coffee specializes in wood-fired roasted coffee, served with “moon milk” sweet cream, according to the company’s website. After starting in Austin, the company has expanded to operate about three dozen locations throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wisconsin.
The shop is just a few doors down from where Doomsday Coffee got its start before opening on Dickson Street, and closing the Evelyn Hills location in 2019.
Renovations are currently underway on the space, which was most recently an office for a local chiropractic practice.
We reached out to the company, and a representative said they hope to open sometime this summer.
Jammin’ Java
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Speaking of coffee, it looks like a longtime Fayetteville coffee shop and restaurant will move to a new location soon, not far from where they are currently located.
Signs for Jammin’ Java were recently placed on the building at 1 W. Mountain St. at the southeast corner of the downtown square. The building had for years been home to offices, and has been undergoing renovations for the past several months.
Jammin Java is currently located just on the other side of the Town Center Plaza at 21 W. Mountain St., though moving that short distance should greatly improve the visibility for the restaurant to visitors to the square.
Owner Brandon Karn said an announcement about a grand opening is in the works, and he’ll share that information with us once it’s ready.
Mojo’s Pints & Pies
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After more than a year being closed due to pandemic-related staffing shortages, it looks like the original Mojo’s Pints & Pies will soon reopen.
Company officials last week began advertising a job fair at their original location, and are hiring for all positions at their Garland Avenue location when the restaurant got its start.
The company opened what was intended to be a second location in east Fayetteville about a year ago, but trouble hiring enough staff to open two locations during the pandemic led to the original location taking a backseat for a while.
The restaurant is currently working on hiring enough staff to be open Thursdays through Sundays initially, with hopes to expand those hours over time.
Owner Cley McCloy said if all goes well, the Garland Avenue location will be up and running again sometime in April.
Frida’s California Grill
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A new Mexican restaurant is open on the west side of town.
The new restaurant, called Frida’s California Grill, officially opened last week at 3980 Wedington Drive, Suite 5.
According to the menu on the company’s Facebook page, the restaurant serves fajitas, enchiladas, quesadillas, salads, and other items.
The restaurant is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. until 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m.
El Charro Birrieria and Restaurant
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A popular Springdale Mexican restaurant will soon expand to Fayetteville.
According to a post last month on the company’s Facebook, the folks behind El Charro Mexican Restaurant will open a restaurant in Fayetteville at 3120 W. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, in the building formerly home to Mi Mexico restaurant next to Aldi.
From the post:
To all our clients, we are very happy to be able to inform you of our second restaurant that will open soon in Fayetteville we will keep you informed of our opening. We thank each of you for making it possible for our business to continue to grow.
The original El Charro restaurant opened at 701 N. Thompson Street four years ago. They serve a variety of Mexican fare, but are best known for their birria tacos.
According to the comments of the Facebook post, a Bentonville location is also in the works.
Remodeling of the building is currently underway. If all goes well, the new restaurant will be up and running sometime early this spring.
Mosaic Pizza
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A new pizza restaurant will soon open inside Walmart on the north side of town.
The restaurant, called Mosaic Pizza, is in the space formerly home to Subway inside the Walmart at 3919 Mall Ave.
We reached out to the management of the new company for more information, and we’ll add that info here once we hear back from them.
Dunkin
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It looks like Dunkin’ Donuts will take another swing at a Fayetteville location.
Development plans were recently submitted to city planners for a new Dunkin’ restaurant on Wedington Drive near the intersection of Rupple Road.
The documents, produced by Jorgensen & Associates of Fayetteville, indicate plans for a 2,000-square-foot restaurant with associated parking between Walgreens and Catfish Hole on the south side of Wedington.The plans show a double-lane drive-thru ordering area that merges into a single lane at the pickup window.
The restaurant would have access on Wedington Drive to the north and the Walgreens parking lot to the east. Bio-retention and detention ponds would be constructed on the south end of the 1.8-acre property.
A Dunkin’ Donuts location first opened in Fayetteville in 2013 on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard near Beechwood Avenue. That location closed in 2018 and was remodeled to become home to Slim Chickens.
There are currently two Dunkin’ Donuts locations nearby, according to the company’s website – one at Harps Supermaket on Sunset Avenue in Springdale and another on 14th Street in Bentonville.
The large-scale development plans will first be reviewed by city planners before being sent to the Planning Commission for final approval.
Dunkin’ Donuts representatives did not respond to a press inquiry for more information about the project.
Dollar Slice Club
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A new pizza joint recently opened on Dickson Street.
Dollar Slice Club, which was first reported here on the Flyer in August, officially opened for business on Tuesday, March 8 at 540 W. Dickson St. in the space formerly home to Sauced Barbecue and Flying Burrito.
The restaurant is part of a new chain called Dollar Eats, which offers discounted prices for club members. One other location is currently open in Austin, Texas, and others are in the works across Texas and in Georgia, according to the company’s website.
The Fayetteville shop offers $5 per month memberships in exchange for discounted menu items. For example, members pay $1 per slice for cheese pizza, while non-members pay $2.95 per slice. Pepperoni slices are $2.50 for members and $3.50 for non-members.
Five other pizza flavors are offered either by the slice or per whole 18-inch pie, according to the menu.
Memberships apply to all Dollar Slice Club locations, and are accessed through the Dollar Eats mobile app.
The Fayetteville location is open from 11 a.m. to midnight Sunday through Wednesday and from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Smokin’ Oak Wood Fired Pizza
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The owners of a wood-fired pizza restaurant are planning to soon open a location in Fayetteville.
Smokin’ Oak Wood Fired Pizza will open at 3959 N. Steele Blvd., in the Uptown Apartments + Shops building, according to the company’s website.
The menu for the restaurant includes about a dozen specialty pizzas, along with sandwiches, salads, and other items. The chain also offers a self-serve tap room element with “a rotating selection of quality craft and domestic beers, wines and mixed cocktails” accessed by a wristband you swipe at the tap to access your samples or full beverages.
The chain is based out of Florida, and their website lists open locations in Broomfield and Grand Junction, Colorado, along with Cedar Falls, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska. Locations are in the works in Dallas, Austin, Brooksville, Florida, and a few other locations, according to the site.
The Fayetteville location will require a build out, and when we stopped by a few weeks ago, construction hadn’t started just yet.
A spokesperson for the company said if all goes well, Smokin’ Oak will be open for business in Fayetteville sometime this summer.
Jersey Mike’s
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The Jersey Mike’s Subs location planned in Fayetteville is getting closer to opening day.
A company spokesperson back in August told us that the New Jersey-based fast casual restaurant chain is planning to open its first restaurant in Fayetteville at 160 E. Joyce Blvd. near Guitar Center.
The location has been under construction, and the owners had originally hoped to open in December, but those plans were delayed.
Signs for the new restaurant are now up, and officials said the new plan is to have the restaurant open in early April.
The restaurant focuses on “fresh sliced/fresh grilled subs,” and was named one of the fastest-growing chains in the country by Nation’s Restaurant News. The company currently has more than 2,500 locations open or in development.
Jersey Mike’s opened their first Northwest Arkansas location in Bentonville in 2018, and has since opened restaurants in Rogers and Springdale.
Bread Zeppelin
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Officials with the fast casual restaurant brand Bread Zeppelin said they hope to soon expand into Northwest Arkansas.
The “chopped salad meets sandwich” concept that first opened in Dallas in 2013, serves signature and custom salads in hollowed-out baguettes.
The company in 2020 signed on its first major franchisee, and is now looking for partners in several areas.
“We see Northwest Arkansas as an ideal market for us to land, and believe that areas like Fayetteville, Bentonville, and Rogers offer a great demographic for us to build awareness and gain traction,” said Vincent Ginatta, Bread Zeppelin’s vice president of franchising. “We are actively speaking to potential, locally-based candidates, and our goal is to identify one franchise partner that will thoughtfully develop the brand across the metro.”
The news came in a press release last month, and was likely one of several messages sent at the time. Similar stories were published in the New Orleans and El Paso markets.
Friends Troy Charhon and Andrew Schoellkopf created the idea for the Zeppelin, and now own and operate six locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where they will launch two additional locations in 2022, according to the release. Avalanche Food Group has a location in Houston and plans to soon open two more stores this year.
As the release noted, Bread Zeppelin was named to QSR magazine’s 40/40 list for 2022, which highlights 40 emerging brands with fewer than 40 locations.
Bread Zeppelin customers can choose from a variety of fresh ingredients offered in a bowl or a cored-out baguette that the company calls a “Zeppelin.” Ingredients include green and grain bases with vegetables, fruits, and cheeses.
The menu also includes daily soups, a dozen signature salads, and bread pudding, which along with the brand’s croutons, is made with the Zeppelins’ hollowed-out stuffing, according to the release.
Queen’s Mexican Cuisine
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A new Mexican restaurant and brunch spot is coming to Nelson’s Crossing in Fayetteville.
The restaurant, called Queen’s Mexican Cuisine, is set to open at 3931 N. Shiloh Drive in Fayetteville, in the building formerly home to Jimmy’s Egg.
The project is a new concept by King Burrito owner Manny Fernandez. Fernandez told us on Tuesday the restaurant will serve Mexican food, but will also offer brunch items, mimosas, Bloody Mary’s, and more.
Renovation of the building is currently underway, and the Jimmy’s Egg signs have already been removed from the building.
Fernandez said that if all goes well, the new restaurant will be up and running by around the end of April.
CAVA
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Mediterranean food will soon be served again from the building located at 3379 N. College Ave. Suite 8 in Fayetteville.
Instead of from Zoe’s Kitchen, however, this time it will come from a restaurant chain called CAVA, a company that acquired Zoe’s in 2018.
The restaurant operates around 150 locations in 16 states, primarily on the east and west coasts and in Texas, according to the company’s website.
The restaurant menu focuses on build-your-own dishes including a base of rice, salad, grain, and pita bread, then topped with spreads like hummus and harissa before adding a Mediterranean protein like falafel, lamb, or meatballs. Veggies, cheese, and other toppings are also available.
The brand offers products in Whole Foods stores around the country, including a lineup of about 10 Mediterranean spreads.
Zoe’s Kitchen originally opened in Fayetteville in late 2015 in the College Marketplace shopping center next to Whole Foods. The restaurant closed during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, and never reopened.
We reached out to CAVA about when to expect the restaurant to be open.
A media spokesperson for the brand told us the company is still a few months away from opening in Fayetteville, and isn’t quite ready to comment on the new Fayetteville location.
Akira Ramen & Bowl
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Akira Ramen & Bowl officially opened at the Yacht Club since our last restaurant update.
The restaurant specializes in a variety of ramen bowls, rice dishes, and other items.
They are open for lunch from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. and for dinner from 4-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
