The former Grub’s Bar & Grille in Fort Smith is being turned into a popular Oklahoma-based franchise restaurant called Hideaway Pizza.

An interior demolition permit was recently issued by the city of Fort Smith to Boen-Kemp Construction of Fayetteville for a $50,000 job at 8302 Phoenix Ave. An official with Fort Smith Building Safety confirmed this week the space was being readied for Hideaway Pizza.

Known for its wide variety of thin-crust specialty pizzas like the ATW (Around the World) supreme, Hideaway Pizza has been in the game for more than 60 years. Founded in Stillwater in 1957, the company has grown to have 16 Oklahoma restaurants, with two new Arkansas locations added in Conway and North Little Rock.

Grub’s closed last summer after about three years in business. It was MarketPlace Grill for 13 years until the Restaurant Management Group’s lease expired in August 2014.

Fort Smith is serious about its pizza. In addition to established favorites like Papa’s Pub & Pizzeria, Jim’s Razorback Pizza, Larry’s Pizza, Geno’s Pizza, Pizza Parlour, Cavanaugh Pizza, the newly established Gusano’s Pizzeria and various other national pizza chains, a new pizza restaurant opened in January on Zero St.

Chaffee Pizza Co.

Chaffee Pizza Co. opened recently at 7910 Zero St. in a new development called The Landing. Hours of operation are 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Setting itself apart with a drive-through service near the new ArcBest headquarters, the brick-oven centered pizza place posted a new menu last week showing a few Asian-fusion dishes: Thai chicken pizza, chicken spring roll pizza, and crunchy Thai quinoa salad.

The 12-inch brick-oven pizzas at Chaffee Pizza Co. range in price from $11 to $15 for the spicy BBQ pizza and Asian fusion pizzas. Some other appetizing pizzas on the menu include the “Carnivore” and chicken-bacon-ranch pizzas for about $15 each. The Queen Margherita and veggie pizzas are about $13. The create-your-own option is $11 and $1.19 for each additional topping.

Appetizers like garlic cheese bread and bruschetta are about $6.

The salad menu, which includes a Greek salad and strawberry spinach salad, are about $7 and a house salad and arugula salad are about $3 and $4.

Pizza by the slice — cheese, pepperoni and sausage — is $3.29.

Beer prices range from $3 to $3.75 a serving with specials offered on the Arkansas-made beers available at Chaffee Pizza Co. Currently those include Warthog from Core Brewing in Springdale and Lost Forty in Little Rock.

Wines range in price from $5 to $12 per glass. Sodas and tea are $2.

It may be common knowledge in Fort Smith, but nearby Fort Chaffee served as a processing center for about 50,000 Southeast Asian refugees at the close of the Vietnam War in 1975. This is one reason there are so many great Vietnamese and Thai restaurants in Fort Smith.

Although one of those — Tran’s — recently closed after many years in operation, a nice and new Asian restaurant has opened up at 7110 Rogers Ave., suite 112, next to Bliss Cupcake Cafe across from Mercy Fort Smith.

Asian Cafe

Asian Cafe Authentic Cuisine opened at 7110 Rogers Ave., Suit 112 — the former location of The Coffee Cup — in December with a renovated, warm and inviting interior that offers a traditional Thai, Laotian, Vietnamese, Japanese hibachi and Korean barbecue dishes.

This is the second restaurant for Asian Cafe owner Ricky Phonhthydeth. He has also operated Pad Thai Cuisine at 7805 Rogers Ave. for the past seven years. Hours of operation for Asian Cafe are 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

Competitive prices are offered at Asian Cafe, with appetizers ranging in price from about $4 for items like fresh spring rolls to $9 for an appetizer sampler, which offers two each of egg rolls, crab Rangoon, shrimp blankets and chicken wings.

Asian Cafe salads range in price from about $7 to $12 with a traditional Thai and Laotian dish of larb costing about $10. Larb is ground meat, lime juice, fish sauce, shallots, herbs, chili powder and toasted ground sticky rice.

Both red curry and musamon dishes are also available for about $10, or $12 if including seafood. A big bowl of soup like pho tom yum or duck noodle soup is about $9 and pad noodle dishes like pad lo mein and pad sukiyaki range in price from about $9 to $12 depending on choice of meats, tofu, veggies or seafood.

Stir fry dishes at Asian Cafe include cashew chicken, egg plant with basil, phad garlic or ginger. Fried rice dishes include pineapple, basil and Asian sausage dishes for about $9 to $11. There are also choices of hibachi for $14 and Korean barbecue for $9 to $12 depending on the kind of meat.

Chinese dishes for $10 include orange, sesame, sweet-and-sour, or teriyaki chicken. Asian specialty dishes include salmon steak ($16), Thai sweet and sour pompano fish ($16), ginger pompano fish $14), crispy duck ($16), stir fry duck ($18) and lamb chop ($14). The dessert offered recently was mango sticky rice for $6.