You may remember from an earlier post that Adam made a goal to try two new restaurants each month this year. We tend to find a place we like and then go there a million times. Yeah, creatures of habit, I guess.
Last night we decided to try the Hive at the new 21C Museum Hotel on the Bentonville Town Square. This wasn’t my first time at the 21C – I’ve been to the lobby galleries a couple times with friends, and had drinks at their bar a couple weeks ago.
I was quite impressed with the place after meeting a friend for drinks – it was a Saturday night, and the place was packed with a variety of trendy-seeming 20-30somethings. I tried the Arkansawyer cocktail, a gin, lavender and lemon concoction that was good enough to make me say “I’ll have another.”
We went for an early dinner last night because we wanted to make a 7 p.m. movie. (Betsy and Mitzi will tell you that we eat at 5 p.m., movie or not…) When we got there, there was one other table of two, and the hostess sat us RIGHT NEXT TO THAT TABLE. I mean, it was so close to them it was like we asked for a table for four, and it was just awkward enough that those two ladies and Adam and I struck up a bit of a conversation over our dinners. I mean, we had to. We were four people, seated way too close, in a giant, open, quiet room. I know this is not a one-time occurrence because our friends who ate there last week said the same thing.
I got the same Arkansawyer (creature of habit, remember?), and we ordered the pimento cheese starter, which was damn good and totally reminded me of my Grandma Sax because her house was the only place I ever ate that stuff. We also were served some warm rolls with sorghum butter (delicious). If I were to do it over again, we’d skip the appetizer since they brought the rolls.
Adam ordered the steak, with garlicky kale and potatoes and artichokes. He would give the food five stars. His steak was pretty damn red, just like he likes it, and he said it was melt-in-your-mouth good.
I got the poached chicken, with rice grits and peas and carrots. The rice grits were really good, and something I’ve never had before. The chicken was just OK – nothing special, I thought.
The service was great – our server was really nice and seemed knowledgeable, and there were lots of runners and water-fillers so we didn’t have to wait long for anything. The restaurant really did start to fill up as we were eating, so it’s good to see that people are checking out the new place.
For the appetizer, my drink and two meals, it was $70 (before tip) The food was good, but certainly not THAT good. I suppose you’re paying for the experience, which wasn’t all that spectacular, and hotel food is always a little pricey.
Sidenote: The two ladies we were seated super close to were on my left. To my right, a party of four (two adult men, a woman and a THREE YEAR OLD) were seated just after us. I had to stop myself from busting out laughing when I overheard the server say “Well, we don’t really HAVE a kids’s menu…” Yeah, not a kid place. Maybe that’s why said three-year-old expressed her displeasure by scribbling with a crayon on the white chairback, to which her parents promptly rewarded her by letting her watch a Diego movie at the table.
Awesome.
