Shorty Small’s gets a needed face-lift
In 1980, the shack-like restaurant on North Rodney Parham Road that had been a sort of poor cousin to Anderson’s Cajun’s Wharf was reborn as Shorty Small’s, complete with a fictional back story for the restaurant’s fictional namesake.
Over the years, the place — the original outlet of what became a mini-chain — got shabbier and shabbier while the quality of the food and the service ebbed and flowed and ebbed. A North Little Rock branch opened, and closed. (There are now only two “branch offices,” in Branson and Oklahoma City.)
Shorty Small’s has recently
undergone a complete refurbishing from the inside out. It’s still shack-like, but all the wooden paneling is brand spanking new. The interior has been redesigned to move all the dining areas — three of them — to the front of the building, including one in what had been the restaurant’s vestibule.
The front entrance has been moved from the Rodney Parham side to the side facing the side street (Arkansas Valley Drive), and the bar has moved from being the first thing you saw when you came through the door to a backdrop to the dining rooms. The renovations have also made possible a major expansion of the kitchen.
The main/front dining area now has booth and table seating, the large square tables now with a white birch surface that’s attractive and easy to clean. The “vestibule” dining room is pretty much all booths. All the dining rooms have flat-screen TVs, all of which show exactly the same programming (so you’ll be able to see that football game from just about wherever you’re sitting). Some of the paraphernalia that used to be part of the decor has survived, or has been replaced with new tchotchkes (we noticed in particular a stuffed zebra on an overhead shelf).
The background music varied by visit — on one occasion, rock ’n’ roll oldies, with more of a country twang on a weekend lunch stop, shifting into a Christmas soundtrack on a recent weekday evening, possibly in tandem with Santa Claus (absolutely, the real one) working the floor.
The menu was, and still is, as American as it gets — focusing principally upon steaks, fried seafood, barbecue and burgers. They’re making some strides toward “healthier” options, offering grilled salmon and chicken and a range of new fresher salads.
And they still serve Sunday brunch.
Maybe it’s all that new kitchen space, but we had a couple of great meals at Shorty’s.
We revisited, with pleasure, the Mozzarella Sticks — $9.99 seems a little pricey until you see the size of the five battered and deep fried cheese logs in the basket, an inch and a half across and perhaps 6 inches long. The thick, chunky and lively marinara dipping sauce actually is a complement.
Shorty’s Original World-Famous Ribs come in “Shorty’s Size” ($19.99) and “Sadie’s Size” ($15.99). The ribs are broiled and basted in “Shorty’s BBQ sauce” until they’re falling off the bone. “Sadie’s Size,” a half-dozen bones, ought to be enough to satisfy any normal appetite, considering it comes with three side items — baked beans, slaw and a more than ample pile of fries (the menu says “seasoned,” but ours weren’t). The wait staff is more than happy to let you substitute any of the 15 side items; the slaw-spurning member of our party selected to swap it out for some decent, if not especially exciting, sauteed mushrooms.
We were also pleased with our Shorty’s Sirloin ($17.99), which came out perfectly medium rare as ordered, and seasoned just right. We went with the menu-specified side items. Accenting the mixed green salad were grated cheese, chopped egg and some of the crispest croutons we’ve encountered, but we were surprised to discover that our blue cheese dressing was ranch-based. The “loaded mashed ’tator” is generously topped like a baked potato, with bacon, chives, sour cream and cheese, but without the skin.
The menu offers several “Make Yer Own Combo” plates that let customers mix and match barbecue, smoked sausage fried shrimp or fried catfish. For our Fried Catfish Combo ($16.99), we paired a handful of catfish strips with fried chicken livers (other options: chicken tenders and gravy, barbecue smoked sausage or pulled pork), plus fries, baked beans and substituting, in this case, mandarin oranges for the slaw. The cornmeal coating on the catfish was crisp but surprisingly bland; the livers were both more numerous and a bit more lively, but the side creamy country gravy and chives added very little to the taste experience. (The chicken livers, by the way, are also on the menu as an $8.99 appetizer and, with coleslaw and fries, a $13.29 entree.)
We ordered our enjoyable Mushroom Swiss Burger ($11.59) without “all the goodies” — which includes lettuce, tomato, onion and mayonnaise — but with the grilled mushrooms and onions and melted Swiss.
Our service was universally good; the wait staff is friendly, helpful, willing to go with what the customer wants and happy to fulfill almost any sort of small need.