Five Burgers of Little Rock But Not Five Guys

If you're new to Little Rock, then it's easy to fall back on the National Fast-Food Chain hamburger. It's the same everywhere, and you can depend on it. If you're ready to explore some other options though, then New to Little Rock has five burger venues to offer you: The Hop Diner, David's Burgers, Dugan's Pub, Big Orange and Capital Bar & Grill. All are Little Rock places, and we've grouped them into two categories: Traditional and Gourmet. All of them are good, but we'll still rank them accordingly.

The Traditional: The Burger in a Diner or Burger Joint Setting

David's Burgers. This is the Double I ordered before I knew better.
Keep your babies close. 

The Hop and David's fall into this group. The Hop is on the edge of the River Market area near Main Street. It cultivates a Fifty-ish vibe with the occasional image of Elvis on the wall and a genuinely relaxed, family-run atmosphere. It seems to track a mix of downtown working folks, tourists and folks visiting the city center from the 'burbs. I've enjoyed more than one good, well-cooked patty. The last time I was there, I especially enjoyed the fries, although I'm not sure why. I'm all but certain these are frozen fries cooked in hot oil, but they were done just right. I could argue with my mouth, but I won't try. On the menu, you'll find a bacon burger, a mushroom and swiss as well as other fairly conventional offerings. Nothing is bad and most is much better than OK.

Beers on the Rock: Rating 3 Little Rock & North Little Rock Liquor Stores

Have a drink, Really, any newcomer deserves it after unpacking, starting work at a new workplace and coping with a new street grid. We'll get to bars later. For now, you just want to buy a six pack, a bottle of wine or some Knob Creek, sip and put your feet up on that cardboard box. What follows are three places to find the libation you seek. 

Colonial Wines & Spirits has a great selection of beers. It really does. In fact, it may have the best selection of the those foamy, sudsy beverage wonders. The rest of the stock of wines and liquors looks to be good to excellent, too. They do tend to win the awards. What Colonial needs to work on is their customer service. Seriously. I, my wife, and several friends we know have all had unpleasant experiences there recently. 


First, I'll briefly give you mine, so you can assess it. Hey, maybe it's just me. A friend of mine and I stopped by Colonial one weekend night to pick up some brew. I don't even remember what we bought. It may have been something as prosaic as Sam Adams, or it may have been a fancy Belgian white ale. In any case, I mentioned that I was into Belgian ales just to see if one of the clerks knew of something I might have missed or wasn't out front yet. Almost instantly I got some 'tude. "No, man, I mostly drink IPAs." His tone clearly let me know he was in that camp that views Belgian beers as wussy beers, compared to real beers like IPAs. Nevermind that the Belgians have been brewing for at least as long as the Germans or Czechs; that is most of the last millenium. He was totally nonplussed when I retorted that hops were added to beer as a preservative (IPA stands for India Pale Ale and the extra hops were needed to preserve the ale on the long voyage), so in a way, enjoying highly hopped beers is like enjoying Chinese restaurant food because of its MSG. It's perfectly fine if you like IPAs, but that hops elitism that seems to be rampant these days gets to me. Especially when I'm a paying customer who prefers the Belgians. 


Last week my wife had a clerk ask her in a very disinterested voice as she was checking out if she'd found everything okay. You know the voice. Jenny said, no, actually she'd been looking unsuccessfully for some more beers from the Unibrew (my spelling) brewery in Chambly, Quebec, then asked if they had more in stock that she'd missed. Unibrue makes some fantastic beers (my favorite of theirs is Fin du Monde). The clerk just gave her a surly stare and said, "That'll be $13.97." She never even answered her question. From what we've heard from others, this kind of service is fairly typical there. So, Colonial, they're good at buying beer but awful at selling it. If you know what you want, then my advice is to go in, make your choice, buy it quickly and just engage the staff as little as possible. If only they had self check out.

Where The Rock Meets Tinseltown

Despite constantly improving home AV, it remains worth it to go out to the movies. Even today, directors and studios still have the silver screen first in mind when working to create. It's best to view many films that way, at least the first time, and Little Rock offers some good venues for doing that.

The Rave. It's probably the newest in town and is the multiplex behemoth. That's a negative to me. However, on its multiple screens the Rave offers superior exhibition — digital projection, 3D and a soon-to-come IMax-type theater. The stadium seating is good, rest rooms aren't too far away and satellite concession stands down the concourses offer easy access to snacks when the traffic is heavy. Other amenities include a children's lounge for parties, ample parking and pretty good street access from nearby Interstate 430 as well as Col. Glenn Road. Automated ticket kiosks also allow theatergoers to buy tickets themselves if the conventional tickets sales windows are overwhelmed.

What's more is The Rave sometimes offers outside the mainstream programming. It's not unheard of to see a documentary on the marquee or even a foreign or independent film. Lately, they've even taken one night a week to screening such cinema classics a "The Godfather" and "Yellow Submarine" for those too young to have experienced them in a real theatre. I doubt those will be there this summer, but I'll keep an eye out myself.