Conway, Arkansas

Today I'm plugging a little town in semi-central Arkansas. Conway is located about 30 minutes from Little Rock, and is the home of three colleges: University of Central Arkansas, I can't remember the other one, and Hendrix College, where our daughter is a junior. Conway is a great little town to visit if you have a child in college or are just passing through. It boasts more than one decent national chain hotel/motel, where rooms can be very inexpensive, and though Faulkner County falls victim to Arkansas' weird liquor laws, a patron can go to a good restaurant and have cocktails before dinner and wine with.

We enjoy Mike's Place, which is semi-Cajun New Orleans-style food. Mike's offers several types of shrimp and fish, but also has steak on the menu. I like the sweet potato fries, which are twice fried for a really crispy outside and creamy inside. They also offer good old southern green beans, which, according to custom, must be cooked with onion and bacon. The key lime pie is good, too. On occasion, I have even ordered the catfish bites as an appetizer, after which I needed no other food. The fried green tomatoes are fine, as well, if you like that sort of thing.

Michaelangelo's is also good, and also has bar service available. Their menu includes a variety of pastas and other Italian-style dishes. I haven't had anything bad there, and out daughter loves the lemon sorbet, which is served in a lemon cup. The decor is attractive; the restaurant is located in an old brick building downtown, and service is friendly and competent.

We recently discovered Pia's, which is another Italian restaurant located downtown. Pia's has a more limited menu and a more limited bar, but the food is truly delicious. Most of the dishes are pasta, with some added chicken, but the sauces are heavenly and complement the food well. This restaurant is small, and we had to wait a little to be seated last Friday night.

We have also tried Old Chicago's, which is a national chain that serves national chain food, and we have tried the catfish house mentioned a couple of years ago in USA Today as the best place in the area to eat catfish. I was hoping for lunch there once more, but we ran out of days, and it isn't open on Sundays. The hush puppies are just about as good as those at Fred's Fish House in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, and the pinto beans are absolutely fantastic. The day we ate there, I would have taken that catfish over Fred's, although Emily disagreed with me. I will make sure to include that restaurant the next time I write about Conway.

This trip, we went to the Clinton Library and Museum in Little Rock, which was a couple of hours well spent on a Saturday afternoon. We also did a little more exploring in Little Rock and found, to our delight, one of our favorite Kansas City restaurants: Yia Yia's, a brain child of the successful Red Robin entrepreneurs, PB&J. Actually, Yia Yia's came first, but more people now know of the Red Robins. I happen to think PB&J's best food came with their first restaurants in Kansas City - Grand Street Cafe and Coyote Grill. I am glad, however, that they have achieved deserved recognition for their Red Robins.

The only blight on the trip was that we left a bottle of good wine in the refrigerator in our room, unopened, and when we recognized that we had left it, we called. The manager told us that the cleaning staff had thrown it out. They do that when things are left in the refrigerator. So caveat emptor at the Comfort Suites. Don't put anything in the refrigerator!