Check out this great article in Sync Weekly.  We also have our full breakfast menu posted on our website under the menu section: http://therootcafe.com/menu/breakfast-menu/

Also, if you follow us on facebook, you can learn all about our daily  breakfast specials!  https://www.facebook.com/rootcafe

Pop by and join us during our first day, Tuesday, June 14th, 2011.

Our normal business hours are:

Tuesday through Friday — 7:00 am to 2:30 pm

Saturday — 8:00 am to 3:30 pm

Hello friends!  We’ve been super busy down at The Root, and we’ll be ready to open in just a couple of weeks.  Here’s a peek to give you an idea of just how close we are.

We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Stove/oven under a new ventahood

About a year and a half ago, a friend named Linda Bell told us the Lion’s Club at War Memorial Stadium was moving and had some equipment we might be interested in.  We went to take a look and found, among other things, an old and beautiful Vulcan 6-burner range and griddle.  They gave us a great deal on it, so we moved it into storage along with all the other stuff we’ve collected over our three-year opening phase.

About a month ago we put it under the new ventahood we had installed in the space (a ventahood is a giant stainless steel exhaust hood required for any gas appliances that produce heat, steam, and grease), along with a used fryer we picked up from Krebs Brothers.  We spent the next several weeks refurbishing the old Vulcan, which, based on the model number, originally dates from sometime between 1964 and 1970.  Despite its age, it was in very good condition–clean, not missing any parts, and with only a bit of light rust on some of the sides and corners.

Vulcan double oven 6-burner range and flat-top griddle

Taking up the asphalt

Volunteers from Epoch Church spreading dirt

Last weekend, a generous and stalwart group of volunteers from Epoch Church (Main St. btw Community Bakery and Juanita’s) joined us for two days of landscaping work.  In the photo to the left, a bulldozer is taking up asphalt from the lot.  We got several dumptruck loads of dirt brought to the site, and the volunteers spent much of Friday afternoon spreading the huge piles into beds.  In the photo on the right several volunteers are leveling the dirt pile, while others are planting 4×4 posts for a surrounding fence.  This area will eventually become a courtyard between the cafe building and 15th Street.  In the picture are Kim, Rachel, Joey, Kara, and Devon, all volunteers from Epoch.

The picture below shows the finished fence, followed by another photo showing the central landscaped area of the courtyard.  At this point we’ve sown the courtyard with clover and wildflower seeds, and also planted pole beans, a rose bush, a hops vine, and several other native and/or edible plant varieties.

Fence built by the Epoch Church volunteers

Plants in pots in the courtyard

Saturday was a wet, misty day, but the volunteers came back despite the weather conditions and helped get several plants in the ground and also assembled a retaining wall and landscape edging around several beds.  In the next photo you can see Daniel and Jacob from Epoch digging holes, while Eric Sundell, botanist, taxonomist, and professor emeritus from University of Arkansas at Monticello plants blueberry bushes and a bay laurel tree in one of the corner beds.

Eric Sundell and gang planting blueberries

Rosemary and lavender bushes

Retaining wall and fig trees in the SE bed

In the photo above right and the one below it, you can see two other corner beds.  One is planted with rosemary and lavender plants, and also has several native perennials planted in it as well (later additions than the photo).  The second photo shows a retaining wall in the SE corner of the lot next to the Stage Works building on Main Street.  This bed has two fig trees planted in it, as well as a few other native perennials.  Most of the plants on the lot came from ABC Nursery and Mary Ann King’s Native Plant Nursery, both in London, AR.

Corri paints the sign

Jerry's desk and shelves

In other news, our friend and neighbor Jerry Puryear is lending his carpentry skills to make some of the shelves and other fixtures that we need down at The Root for writing on, setting equipment on, storing books on, and doing all manner of other things (on).  If you could see the beautiful bookshelves Jerry built into the hall at his family’s house, then you’d understand why we’re so excited to have his craftsmanship and leadership on this project.  Pictured above on the right are a desk and shelves he built in The Root’s future office space.

Food club shoppers enjoy coffee and pastries while they read the morning paper

Last Saturday, The Root Cafe set up at its first ASN Local Food Club pickup at Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Little Rock.  We made blueberry muffins, doughnut muffins, cheddar and green onion scones, and chocolate chip cookies, as well as locally roasted Rozark organic coffee and green tea.  We also offered several different canned goods that we made during last summer’s food preservation workshops, with pickled okra emerging as a clear favorite!

Food club shoppers took advantage of the two tables we set up, enjoying their coffee and pastries while reading the week’s Arkansas Times or chatting with friends and kinfolk.  We’ll be set up again this Saturday from 10:00 to noon and every Saturday after for the foreseeable future, so come down and join us for a locally roasted organic coffee, a blueberry muffin made with blueberries we froze last summer, or a savory scone made with Honeysuckle yellow cheddar and ANP green onions.  If you’d like to place an order with the ASN local food club or just check out what they have to offer, visit their website at www.littlerock.locallygrown.net.

Starting Saturday, January 22, 2011, look for the Root Café on Saturday mornings from 10:00 to 12:00 at Little Rock’s local food buying club at Christ Episcopal Church.

We’ll be setting up a table and selling locally-roasted coffee, home- made canned goods, and mouth-watering muffins, pastries, and pan breads made with local ingredients like Arkansas black apples, pecans, and blueberries and strawberries that we froze last summer. No need to pre-order, and you can take it to go or enjoy it on site while you sit and chat with an old friend.

For anyone unfamiliar with the local food club, check it out at www.littlerock.locallygrown.net. Order online directly from farmers Sunday through Tuesday, then pick up your order Saturday morning between 10:00 and noon. It’s one of the easiest ways in town to fill your kitchen with local food, and it’s open year-round.

We’ve paid our first month’s rent, and we are busy working on our space! On January 1, 2011, we officially began a three-year lease at 1500 South Main (15th and Main), former home of the Sweet N’ Creme dairy bar.

We will be catty-corner to the Green Corner Store and also neighbors to Boulevard Bread Company, which is moving its baking operation to the same block. We’ve already begun interior remodeling, had a new door put in on the 15th Street side, and taken down the old Main St. Dicount (sic) sign out front.

We’ll be busy throughout the winter and hope to be open for business by late spring.

The property owner, Anita Davis, and the South Main Neighborhood Association are working to make the neighborhood a destination for food, art, and community by attracting green businesses to the area, building the outdoor Bernice Sculpture Garden (14th and Main), and planning future events like a Mardi Gras parade and a South Main Music Festival. Needless to say, we are thrilled to be joining this community and can’t wait to invite you all to the grand opening of the Root!