Rumbles: ZAZAs Throws a Party, So Does the Zoo with Wild Wines, Tacos 4 Life Keeps on Truckin'

News
The annual Wild Wines festival with the Little Rock Zoo has become a must attend festival every year. This year’s festival will span two nights, with the reserve room on May 5th at the Zoo and the full festival on May 6th at War Memorial Stadium. The reserve room will feature 10 carefully selected exclusive wines, while the main night will feature around 240 of the top wines in Arkansas, both are curated from O’Looney’s Wine and Liquor. Splitting the event seems like a good idea because we went a little hard in the reserve room last year and didn’t get to enjoy the wide selection as much. Tickets for both can be found here.
There is something about restaurant openings in springs. It feels like all of our favorite ones are celebrating anniversaries. Up this week is ZAZA in the Heights. The OG of the Yellow Rocket Concepts restaurants turns 9 this year, and the group knows how to throw a party like no other. The party this Sunday from 1-5 features plenty of food, drink, and music, plus visits from local farmers and more. Here are the full details, they are also asking for items to benefit the Hunger Relief alliance.
Conway based Tacos 4 Life is looking more and more like the next big chain restaurant to come out of Arkansas. Just last week we talked about the Benton location opening. This week they dropped two big bits of news with a Searcy location and news that they will look to expand out of state into Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama and Tennessee. They already have two locations in Conway along with Fayetteville, Benton, and Little Rock open. More are already planned for Springdale and other locations (honestly it is hard to keep up).
We get a few of the “where are they now” type questions about some of Little Rock’s favorite past chefs. Matt Lowman gained a following at South on Main (and later Loblolly) for a loveable personality and some killer donuts. Last year Lowman moved to NWA to take on a pastry position at the Hive. Today over on NWA Eats we are talking about Lowman’s newest role, transitioning into the executive chef at the soon-to-open Mirabella’s Table in Rogers from the group that owns Table Mesa and Tavola Trattoria. Give it a read.
A reminder, B Street Rib Off is coming up on April 29th. This is always a huge bbq competition that is certainly worth attending. Even more than that, it is worth participating as a bbq chef. Entry fees are very reasonable, and the competition never seems to be dominated by one chef or group thanks to the double blind standards, so your odds of placing are good if you have what it takes. Here is the link to register.
Yesterday we talked about some of the top restaurant openings in Little Rock. Long story short, there is a lot to look forward to this year from some very seasoned restaurateurs.
The Faded Rose is coming up on 35 years next month. As expected, the momentous milestone comes with a rich back story, we explored some of that story last week.
Finally, we made a trip out to Siloam Springs last week and found it to be the perfect weekend getaway. Especially for those who enjoy going to NWA on the weekends. It has all the makings of the next food boom town. See some of the highlights here.
Events
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