The Root Cafe sources as much as possible from small farms and producers in Arkansas.  They offer breakfast, lunch and dinner at different times during the day Tues – Sun.  Opened in June 2011 in the SoMa district of downtown Little Rock by Jack and Corri Sundell, it was featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.  A second location in Breckenridge Village opened in 2022.  The Sundell’s philosophy is to create a more sustainable food system for Arkansas and have even used that principle in the design of the building, landscape and public events they sponsor.  It’s a small interior but lots of patios are enclosed in plastic to provide climate control.  A large mural of vegetables is on the wall of the building next to the parking lot.  Inside the decorations are funky and historic with lots of photos to look at.  There is a counter at the entrance where you place your order and a self-serve beverage area in front of it.  After you order and pay you receive a token to place on your table and they bring out your food.  Each token seemed to describe one of the farms they trade with.  The food was well thought out and I like their philosophy but nothing we had sang with flavor.

Set-Up

Food

Pimento Cheeseburger was a Simon Farms burger patty with homemade pimento cheese, house-made sweet pickles and garlic mayo.  This was recommended by the counter person who said it was his favorite but also very popular with guests.  A no-brainer what to order then.  It was plated with a salad drizzled with dressing that was okay.  The burger had a lovely crust and the pimento cheese was good but not as spicy as I expected.  The patty was a bit dry but I didn’t ask for special cooking.  Still overall it didn’t sing with flavor or make me want to order another.

The Ham and Cheese sandwich was made with ham from Rabbit Ridge Farms, yellow cheddar, house garlic mayo, dijon mustard and served on grilled local country white bread.  It was smash-toasted on what tasted more like multi-grain bread than white.  The ham was tough and tended to pull out of the sandwich when you tried to bite it.  The smash browning of the bread allowed the cheese to melt nicely.

A nice side option was the Large Half and Half, which is an order of half sweet potato fries and half white potato fries. The white potato fries were liberally sprinkled with seasoned salt, and many were nicely crisp. They came with some organic ketchup, which was fine. The sweet potato fries were a large cut that maintained a nice sweet potato consistency inside, but the exterior was not crisp. The dip with them was a bit spicy, and that was nice.