Doe’s Eat Place started in Greenville, Mississippi, where pilot George Eldridge would fly friends and clients to eat steak. He eventually contracted to bring one to Little Rock and maintained the no-frills tradition and fabulous steaks. They achieved even more notoriety when it became known that President Bill Clinton was interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine there and Clinton’s staffers made it their hangout during the 1992 campaign. Eldridge escorted former chef Lucille Robinson to his inaugural ball. Daughter Katherine Eldridge assumed ownership of the restaurant in 2012. Clinton is not the only regular of note with entertainers, sports stars and other professionals eating there on a regular basis. We were in town to see Clinton’s Library so where better to eat than one of his favorites? It is a very down-to-earth place with red checkered oilclothes adhered to the tables, a high open ceiling, a black and white linoleum tile floor, no music, walls covered with photos and memorabilia, flatware distributed in paper bags and very friendly and helpful servers. There’s a back room where “deals are made” by local power people but I didn’t photograph it. You should visit when you’re in town.
Set-Up
Food
Steaks are served family style and sold by the pound. Not all cuts are available every day. All steaks come with marinated salad, French fries and Texas toast. We chose a 2.5 pound T-bone and it came sliced and cooked rare as ordered. There was a wonderful char on the meat and it was sizzling on a plate of its own juices and butter. It had good flavor and was plenty tender but they did have nice sharp knives to cut with too. The salad was mostly Iceburg and well-dressed. It was quite tasty. The Texas toast was nicely toasted but still soft in the center with good flavor. The fries were mostly limp but the bottom ones soaked up a lot of meat juices and made them super flavorful.
For dessert we tried a piece of Maggie’s Homemade cakes. There were a couple flavors and we chose pistachio, as the server said it disappears quickly when it’s offered. It was a moist Bundt-style cake and quite green with delicious icing. The server was nice enough to split out slice onto two plates for easy sharing. It was a good ending for a fine meal.
