A sign on the former Saddle Creek in North Little Rock's Lakewood Village just before Thanksgiving announced The Mighty Crab was coming; it's expected to open the first week of March. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/Eric E. Harrison)

Joel Antunes, the high-profile executive chef at the Capital Hotel, 111 W. Markham St., Little Rock, retired in mid-January and has decided to move on, a hotel spokesman says.

A new executive chef has apparently been hired but not yet named — an announcement is expected in coming weeks — and while he is in the process of "getting his organization situated," including a new menu, the hotel's high-end restaurant, One Eleven at the Capital, is now only serving breakfast — 6:30-11 a.m. Monday-Saturday, 6:30-10 a.m. Sunday, plus Sunday brunch, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Target for the changes to be in place is April 1. The restaurant's number is (501) 370-7068.

Joel Antunes, who joined the Capital Hotel as executive chef in 2013, retired in mid-January. His successor has been hired but not named. (Democrat-Gazette file photo)

The hotel's Capital Bar & Grill is continuing to serve lunch and dinner daily. The hotel phone number is (501) 374-7474.

Antunes, a James Beard Award-winner who previously was consulting chef at the eponymous Kitchen Joel Antunes at the Embassy Mayfair Hotel and Brasserie Joel in the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge Hotel, both in London, joined the hotel in 2013. His hiring, when it was announced in December 2012, was considered a major coup for hotel co-owner Warren Stephens. How high the status of his as-yet-unidentified successor remains to be seen.

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Target opening for The Mighty Crab, going into the former Saddle Creek in Lakewood Village, 2703 Lakewood Village Drive, North Little Rock, is the first week of March, with, according to the Facebook page: tinyurl.com/tavvotk, a soft opening starting in late February. Christopher McGee, the area director, confirms it's the third restaurant in a budding mini-chain with locations in Monroe, La., and Jackson, Miss. Judging from the photos on the website, mightycrabjackson.com, the concept is similar to that of Juicy Seafood and Lulu's Seafood Kitchen (formerly Lulu's Crab Boil) — shrimp, crab legs, crawfish, etc., boiled up with potatoes and corn on the cob, as well as fried options. A mixed-drink license is pending. Hours will be 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. The phone hasn't yet been hooked up, but the number is (501) 827-8018.

And speaking of Lulu's Seafood Kitchen, 5911 R St. in Little Rock's Pulaski Heights, Jacob Chi says his family has "done a bit of a 'rebranding,'" creating a new menu "and a new logo that pays tribute to my mother" — the late Lulu Chi — "as its founder." The name change, he explains, is "because we do lots of things besides just crab-leg boils very well. We've had crawfish in for the last month and they are beautiful this season." The family is planning to open a second location in their just-closed La Madeleine Country Fresh Cafe, 12210 W. Markham St., Little Rock, with a "moving target" to open in mid- to late March; the original will remain open in the Heights — the phone number there is (501) 663-2388 — and additional future locations are a possibility. Chi suggests watching the Facebook page, tinyurl.com/vuh5lqc, for more information and updates. Check out the new menu there as well.

What appears to be the first Arkansas outlet of Rock n Roll Sushi, an Alabama-based franchise-chain operation, is going into the former Which Wich storefront in the Chenal Creek shopping center, 12800 Chenal Parkway, Little Rock. We lack details, including a timeline, but the website, rnrsushi.com, confirms it's "coming soon"; you can also find a menu there.

And speaking of Asian restaurants, the third Central Arkansas outlet of Chicot Hibachi Express is open in the former Firehouse Subs space in the Colony West Shopping Center, 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road, Little Rock. Hours are 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday; the phone number is (501) 615-8021 and the Facebook page is tinyurl.com/rnqvz98. The Asian-fusion restaurant's original location is at 9105 Chicot Road in southwest Little Rock; the second is at 7412 North Hills Blvd., North Little Rock.

Little Rock is apparently set to get the first Arkansas location of Pies and Pints, a pizza-and-craft-beer franchise-chain operation, going — we're told — into the former Tavern location in the Promenade on Chenal, 17000 block of Chenal Parkway. It originated in Charleston, W.Va., and is now headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. It has outlets in Alabama, Indiana, Ohio (including three in Cincinnati), West Virginia and Kentucky. Visit piesandpints.net to see a menu.

One of our eagle-eyed readers reports paper covering the windows of the former Franke's Sack It Grill on the first floor of the Regions Bank building, 400 W. Capitol Ave., Little Rock. Building management says they're in the process of doing "some clean and light demo in order to put the space in a condition where it can be re-leased."

The signs are up on Arkansas' first outlet for Cheba Hut, 10825 Kanis Road, Little Rock. Meanwhile, posts on the Facebook page (tinyurl.com/yx2evloh) seek to hire a bartender (email littlerock@chebahut.com) while proclaiming, "Gettin' close now homies!" The website, chebahut.com/little-rock, still lists the grand opening as "TBD." The Colorado-based sub-shop chain/franchise operation has a cannabis theme (cheba, also spelled cheeba, or chiba, is slang for marijuana) but none of its food or drinks actually contain any cannabis compounds.

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Jim Keet of JTJ Restaurants LLC (that's Jim, Tommy and Jake Keet), says April 14 is the target to open Cypress Social, a new restaurant/bar on the former Cock of the Walk campus, 7103 Cock of the Walk Lane (off Maumelle Boulevard), on the North Little Rock side of Maumelle, with a soft-opening brunch for staff set for April 5 and various soft-opening events in the week or so between. Staff has been re-assigned from other JTJ restaurants, particularly Petit & Keet, and they're in the process of hiring others. The bar will open at 4 p.m. and the restaurant at 5, serving until 10 p.m. with the bar open til 11, Tuesday-Thursday; on Friday and Saturday, the bar will be open 4 p.m-midnight and the dining room 5-1o. And they'll open for Sunday brunch, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

JTJ is also in the process of completing construction on their latest Little Rock Taziki's Mediterranean Cafe, 15000 Cantrell Road, with a mid-March target to open. The 3,500-square-foot restaurant is a prototype, featuring limited indoor seating, a pickup window and curbside service, a private dining space and a pergola.

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Baja Grill president and CEO Heather Baber says she's now expecting an April opening for the return-to-its-roots second location in the renovated former Palace Theater, 224 W. South St., Benton. The Cali-Mex operation started out as a Benton-based food truck before taking over a space at 5923 Kavanaugh Blvd. in Little Rock's Pulaski Heights. Expectations are for the Benton outlet to have the same menu and the same hours — 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday-Saturday; they're looking at keeping the bar area open perhaps an hour later than the dining room. The phone number in the Heights is (501) 749-1400; the website is EatBajaGrill.com and the Facebook page is facebook.com/eatbajagrill.

And the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau has created a new "destination video" highlighting the capital city's thriving dining scene (youtu.be/u7ZCH82e42Y). It opens by flashing across the screen some of the recent food-related awards and accolades the town has received in recent years and shows off six establishments — Three Fold Noodles & Dumpling Co., Bruno's Little Italy, The Root Cafe, Loblolly Creamery, Petit & Keet and the venerable Lassis Inn, which the James Beard Foundation just named as one of the six recipients of its 2020 America's Classics Award.

Has a restaurant opened — or closed — near you in the last week or so? Does your favorite eatery have a new menu? Is there a new chef in charge? Drop us a line. Call (501) 399-3667 or send a note to Restaurants, Weekend Section, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, P.O. Box 2221, Little Rock, Ark. 72203. Send email to:

eharrison@adgnewsroom.com

Weekend on 02/20/2020