2 temporary entertainment districts on LR board agenda

Little Rock city officials will consider tonight a pair of resolutions authorizing extensions through the summer for two temporary entertainment districts created in the city.

One district in the Hillcrest neighborhood encompasses a stretch of Kavanaugh Boulevard and portions of two side streets. The other district near downtown Little Rock includes a portion of South Main Street known as SoMa, and demarcates the district as the halfblock east and west of Main Street between 17th Street and 12th Street.

The primary effect of the creation of an entertainment district is to allow people to consume alcoholic beverages from an open container in public within a designated area, subject to the limitation of certain days and hours. Patrons must wear wristbands while consuming alcohol in the area.

A previous version of the temporary entertainment district in SoMa was created over the summer during the

covid-19 outbreak, but the district’s time frame ended Dec. 31, according to the city’s planning and development director, Jamie Collins.

Collins said he believes the SoMa district has been a benefit to the area and restaurateurs, calling it “a good opportunity” to try to assist them with sales during the pandemic.

The outbreak has led to economic pain for many restaurants nationwide as they have been forced to adapt to a reduced volume of patrons and dine-in restrictions.

Members of the Little Rock Board of Directors in a meeting tonight will consider two resolutions: one to extend Hillcrest’s entertainment district for the period of April 1 through June 3, and another to extend Main Street’s district for the period of March 18 through June 18.

Entertainment district hours on Main Street will be from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, except on Mondays, according to the resolution.

The Hillcrest district’s hours of operation are more limited because they are geared toward patrons of the neighborhood’s First Thursday shop-and-sip event, which recently relaunched with a temporary entertainment district designation in February and March.

The city’s resolution for Hillcrest allows for entertainment district activities in the demarcated area of that neighborhood between 4 and 9 p.m. on the first Thursday of the next three months — April 1, May 6 and June 3.

Collins said he hopes the Hillcrest activities for First Thursday “will turn out equally well.”

Amid the covid-19 outbreak, the effect of the temporary entertainment district in SoMa that ended in December was positive for Mockingbird Bar & Tacos, according to Jordan Hebert, a kitchen manager at the restaurant located at 1220 S. Main Street.

“We can’t wait for it to come back into effect,” Hebert said by phone Friday.

The period when the district was in effect “really helped us out during that time, and we’re looking forward to the spring,” she said.

The district designation allowed the restaurant to serve cocktails in blue cups, for an additional dollar on top of the price of the drink, and allowed customers to take their drinks with them in the designated area in the neighborhood, even as the restaurant had halted its dine-in service.

“It allowed for our sales to increase without people being inside,” Hebert said.

Customers were allowed to take their drinks to the SoMa outdoor dining area of tables and tents set up across the street, she said. However, beverage service from the staff of Mockingbird was not extended across the street, she said, as staff were not allowed to leave the building with any alcohol.

“That was probably the only downside, is that customers kind of complained that they couldn’t receive more service,” Hebert said.

Hillcrest’s temporary entertainment district designation launched in February, with the resumption of the neighborhood’s First Thursday event Feb. 4 and again March 4. The city’s Board of Directors approved the temporary district with a resolution Jan. 19.

Steve Shuler, a writer and editor at the food blog Rock City Eats and the chair of Hillcrest’s HarvestFest, applied to the city for the latest entertainment district extension through June, according to a copy of the petition.

Likewise, Gabe Holmstrum, executive director of the Downtown Little Rock Partnership, petitioned the city for the extension in SoMa.

Shaun Greening, president of the Hillcrest Merchants Association, said turnout for the First Thursday event held in March saw a boost compared with February.

“We were very happy with the amount of people that were out and about in the neighborhood,” he said.

Restaurants seemed to be as full as they could be in light of restrictions, Greening said.

“I think the restaurants were happy; I think the merchants overall were happy. I know I was with the turnout that we had,” said Greening, a financial adviser with the firm Edwards Jones.

First Thursday events designed to draw people to Hillcrest were suspended around this time last year because of the outbreak, according to Greening.