n ZaZa’s John Beachboard and Scott McGehee plan to open a new restaurant in August in the Promenade at Chenal. Big Orange: Burgers, Salads and Milkshakes is headed for a 3,450-square-foot space originally constructed for the chain Blanc Burgers at 17809 Chenal Parkway, next door to Bravo Cucina. The restaurant will offer a balance of healthy and indulgent fare, McGehee said. That means a dozen burger options, made with a choice of beef, veggie or turkey patties; a fish sandwich; a chicken sandwich McGehee promises will be the best in town; a broad, ZaZa-style salad menu, and a dozen gourmet milkshakes and floats. There’ll be 12 to 20 beers on tap, a broad wine selection and a lot of old-fashioned soda, too. The restaurant will be open daily for lunch and dinner and Saturday and Sunday for brunch, where McGehee said he’s focused on serving the best biscuits and pancakes in town. Big Orange will try to bridge the gap between casual, sit-down dining and the fast casual setting of ZaZa. That means employing kitchen technology that will allow the restaurant to cook a burger in five minutes and point-of-sale, handheld computer systems that allow waiters to send orders immediately to the kitchen and swipe credit cards when it’s time for the bill. n The food truck explosion continues. Nearly two weeks ago, Chan Pethaperumal and his wife, Poorni Muthaian, opened Banana Leaf, a mobile kitchen that serves Indian food. The couple hail from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. But Chan said last week that the Banana Leaf menu covers all regions of India. It includes such fare as dosas, kati rolls, biryani, coconut rice and vegetable pilau with tandoori chicken. The menu will rotate, he said, with daily specials listed on Facebook and Twitter (@bananaleaflr). Chan said he expects to be truly mobile with the truck, but at least in the near future, it will be at 201 A St., two blocks behind the Exxon on the corner of Van Buren and Markham. Hours of operation are 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The phone number is 501-227-0860. 34 MAY 18, 2011 • ARKANSAS TIMES
■ dining Training day All Aboard features meals by train, but not much else. n The new restaurant All chatting (rather civilly Aboard is a bit confoundchatting), the trains clacking. It is, without a doubt, clack-clacking along an engineering marvel. overhead, and the tiny Small, custom-built loelevators whirring up and comotives run on a track down, my companion up near the ceiling. When and I had trouble hearing your order is up in the one another, even though kitchen, the cook loads it we were sitting literally into a tray, then puts the a table-width apart in a tray onto an aluminum booth. Not the place for sling under one of the a quiet lunch date then, locomotives. A very sobut thankfully our food phisticated computer then arrived quickly. sends it zipping on its Was it delivered by way, winding around the train? Damn straight it restaurant until it reaches was. The system at All your table (where you Aboard works amazingly have previously inserted well. Replace the colorful a special key, provided trains with Vader-black by the front counter, into trapezoids, and it’s somea computerized doo-dad). thing you’d imagine them using in the mess hall on The train drops off your the Death Star — shiny, food and continues on, quick and efficient. That never stopping. The meal said, our food turned out is then slowly lowered to be nothing to write down from the ceiling to home about. The cheeseyour table by a tiny elevaburger was OK, with a tor on polished rails. See NEXT STOP, YOUR DIGESTIVE TRACT: All Aboard delivers food by train. thin-ish patty, but gained a video of it in action at points by being served on arktimes.com/allaboard. a soft roll with red onion and other fresh topIf that sounds complicated, it is. As mixed by waterfall — why would a respings. Companion liked her wrap as well, somebody who has built a thing or two in taurant intentionally put itself tens of thouand bragged on the fries, but again: It didn’t his day, this writer knows what kind of work sands of dollars in the hole before the first set her world on fire. Ditto on the pita and went into making the trains run on time at cheeseburger or basket of fries is sold just to hummus, which were good, but still a little All Aboard. You don’t just run down to the be able to say that? I’m not being sarcastic disappointing just because of the smallish Food-Serving Locomotive Supply Store or snotty. I’m honestly asking. Because no portion size. and buy “Food-Serving Locomotive B” matter how cool it is, here’s the facts, Casey In short, though All Aboard is undoubtto fit your space. Every part of the system Jones: Unless you’re an engineer (the strucedly a feat of engineering, one that took a lot in All Aboard — and there is a lot of it — tural kind, not the kind who drives a choomore brain power than we’ve got on hand had to be designed and fabricated and fitted choo), a 5-year-old train buff or the parent to figure out, it’s still a restaurant, and good and tested and installed, then tested again, of said train buff, once you’ve seen a meal restaurants are — first and foremost — suptweaked, tested again, tweaked, tested again delivered by locomotive, what’s the incenposed to be about food. While it’ll probably ... ad infinitum. There’s gotta be a quarter tive to ever come back to All Aboard again? be a sure-fire hit with kids and worth at least mile of polished aluminum rail hanging It probably won’t help that the menu at one visit for adults just to see the machine at from the ceiling, all of it held up by dozens All Aboard seems a bit like an afterthought work, for most everybody else, we predict, of bent aluminum struts and secured to the — a sideshow to the wonderful toys. Their it’ll just seem like a lot of clickity-clack. wall with dozens of welded steel supports. breakfast menu is, in total: two sandwiches, They probably spent enough on nuts and two egg dishes, cinnamon rolls, cold cereal bolts alone to pay for a fair-to-middlin’ used and fruit. The lunch offerings are similarly Toyota. Then there’s the computer program spare: cheeseburger, turkey burger, veggie it takes to run it all: that HAL 9000-like burger, chicken sandwich and a turkey club, brain to know when and where to drop off followed by three wraps (chicken, turkey 6813 Cantrell Road (next to the food, and when to bring the trains back and veggie), four salads, a soup of the day Stein Mart) to the station, and how to know not to dump and a kid’s menu ... and that’s pretty much it. 501-975-7401 a cup of steaming chili on Aunt Nellie’s During our lunch visit, we tried the cheeseBRIAN CHILSON
what’scookin’
All Aboard Restaurant and Grill
head while rounding a turn. Looking at it, once you get past the initial shock that it works, the biggest question is: Why? Other than the novelty of food delivery by train — which seems to be something like Willy Wonka bragging that his chocolate is the only chocolate in the world
burger with a side of fries ($8), while our friend got her ticket punched on a grilled chicken wrap ($8). We also split an order of red pepper hummus and pita bread ($7). A problem arose while we were waiting for our food. All Aboard is in a rather echo-ey space, and between other diners
Quick Bite
Did we mention the food is delivered by train? Also, there are cookies and brownies for dessert.
Hours
8 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.
Other info
No alcohol. All CC.