LITTLE ROCK — Sam Kassees made his first small splash on the central Arkansas restaurant scene with a little high-end deli called Cafe La Pace in North Little Rock’s Argenta District.
It was a little frou-frou for the time and the location, especially considering its somewhat harder-core competitors on that block - Cornerstone Pub and Grill and Reno’s Argenta Cafe.
But it may just have been a little ahead of its time, since the Argenta Market up the street is currently proving you can certainly get away with a little bit of frou-frou from time to time.
Anyway, even while that place was open (Crush Wine Bar currently occupies that space, by the way), Sam was helping out his multiple brothers in operating Mason’s Deli in the River Market’s Ottenheimer Market Hall.
And when the next-door “corner lot” came open with the move of Brown Sugar Bakeshop to larger digs deeper into the River Market District, Sam and his brother Omar got together and opened Rivershore Eatery.
The new operation was originally designed to counter and complement Mason’s by serving stuff that isn’t fried or grilled, primarily salads of the kind Sam Kassees used to serve at Cafe La Pace, plus wings, soups, nachos, daily plate-lunch specials and ice cream in cones, cups and shakes.
There has since been a little bit of cross-contamination with Mason’s - the Polish sausages, for example, that are no longer on Mason’s menu (they came out wurst in a competition with brats) have migrated next door to Rivershore, on a hot dog bun with your choice of toppings ($3.50). Alas, the only mustard Sam K. has is yellow, although he did offer to sprint over to Mason’s to get us some spicy brown (we graciously declined).
There’s a whole range of things with which you can top one of Sam’s multi-greens salads ($5.99, and not a shred of iceberg lettuce in sight), everything from bacon and grilled chicken to walnuts. The Raspberry Walnut Salad, with baby spinach and other dark greens, cherry tomatoes, crisp croutons and grated cheese, well tossed in a raspberry vinaigrette, is just as good as it used to be in Argenta.
Those items are also available to construct sandwiches - the excellent grilled chicken club ($5.99), for example, a grilled chicken breast topped with some rather flabby bacon (both ways - limp and on the fatty side), avocado (!), salad greens, onions and chopped cherry tomatoes in a vinegar-and-oil dressing (all quasi-wokked together in a gleaming salad bowl), on square ciabatta bread.
Rivershore offers some respectable chicken wings (six for $5.99, nine for $7.99), with or without sauce (we had ours in a sticky but tasty barbecue). A loaded baked potato soup of the day ($2.99 cup), served in an optional bread bowl ($4.99), turned out to be almost as good as Rivershore’s big baked potatoes ($2.49 plain, $2.99 loaded); one of the three we had, alas, was only hot on the bottom, so the generous glob of butter and topping of grated cheese (plus a scoop of sour cream and chives) didn’t melt much. You can combine a potato with wings, soup or salad for $6.99.
A scoop each of Yarnell’s coffee and mint chocolate chip ice cream, the former in a cup, the latter in a waffle cone (one scoop, $1.89; two scoops, $2.99; three scoops, if you must, $3.49), properly capped off our meal. What used to be a fairly full dessert case has turned into a display for all the things Kassees can put on your ice cream (50 to 75 cents per), including walnuts, fruit and chunks of red velvet cake. We were so overwhelmed that we opted only for chocolate sprinkles. A chocolate shake with chocolate ice cream,garnished with chocolate syrup and whipped cream, was near perfection. Kassees says floats are pending.
As it was at Cafe La Pace, even when Kassees has help behind the counter - and sometimes he hasn’t - he pretty much puts together almost everything himself, so it may take awhile to get waited on.
Rivershore Eatery Address: River Market Ottenheimer Market Hall, 400 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday Credit cards: V, MC, AE, D Alcoholic beverages: No Reservations: No Wheelchair accessible: Yes Carryout: Yes (501) 244-2326
Weekend, Pages 38 on 04/14/2011