Arkansas restaurateurs share recent wins, challenges, and what their customers continue to love
Sauce(d) Bar and Oven, The Butcher Shop, Red Moon Tavern, and Zin Wine Bar
Little Rock
With four unique west Little Rock eateries, Leslie and Kevin Case strive to keep quality, flavor, and local flair at the forefront of all they do
How long have you been in the restaurant industry?
Leslie Case: We have been in the restaurant business for 11 years. Sauce(d) was our first restaurant. We live in west Little Rock and wanted a casual place with pizza and a relaxed atmosphere where locals could hang out. Zin came a couple of years after that, and then we purchased The Butcher Shop from Al Watkins, and finally Red Moon Tavern in November 2022. We brought Trace Munday over as the chef for Red Moon. He has put a great flavor profile on everything.
What shifts have you seen since you started?
There are more options in west Little Rock than ever before, so that has been great for the neighborhood. On the down side, food prices have gone up, especially the price of beef. We are always careful with our purchases but have to be even moreso now.
What are some of your biggest wins of the last year?
We’re happy to still be here with all the ups and downs we’ve recently seen in the industry. We appreciate the loyalty from our customers! We have also been fortunate to cater weddings and events off site. With chef Don Stone at Sauce(d), we do large-scale parties and get to bring the mobile pizza oven out for many of those, which is always fun.
What menu items keep your customers returning?
At Red Moon Tavern, chef Trace’s seafood and steak specials are always crowd pleasers, but they also love his street-corn hummus. The Butcher Shop is a go-to for filets and ribeyes, and Father’s Day is always a big deal there. Chef Don at Sauce(d) does great specials and comes up with delicious Taco Tuesday menu items that customers love, and the Some Like It Hot Pizza with hot honey and bacon marmalade is also a star. At Zin, flight nights and our bruschetta bites are a big hit. A lot of people don’t know we have a full menu there with red fish, steak, short ribs, and more. It’s one of my favorite places to have dinner, because it’s quiet and intimate. It’s like a hidden gem.
Is there anything you’re excited about continuing or bringing to the table in 2026?
At The Butcher Shop, we have been lucky to have John Masching, who is very highly trained, on staff to create specials. We also look forward to doing more ticketed wine dinners where reps come to showcase their brands or feature a certain wine that we pair with our dishes.
Kasper’s
Clarksville and Dardanelle
As the owner of Kasper’s, Angi Kasper brings diners the delights of an upscale steakhouse in the charm of a hometown, community-focused setting
How long have you been in the restaurant industry? What shifts have you seen since you started?
Angi Kasper: I have been in the restaurant industry since 2008, which isn’t a lifetime in this business, but there have been so many major shifts in that time period that it feels like several lifetimes. Initially, staffing a restaurant was easy. You always had your pick of applicants. The economy was strong, groceries were affordable, and sourcing them was easy. Then came Covid, and if your restaurant survived that, staffing became almost impossible and labor costs skyrocketed. The economy has been a rollercoaster since then. Today, I must watch every dime I spend and shop three vendors for the best price while maintaining the quality I want for my tables.
What are some of your biggest wins of the last year?
There are still wins to be had, and this year we were asked to open a second location in a different community. I think that’s probably the highest kind of compliment I could get. It had never crossed my mind, and I had no idea how I was going to make it work. Today, my Dardanelle location is 10 months old, and I can’t imagine having said no to the opportunity.
What menu items keep your customers returning?
While the steaks we serve are award winning, and truly what customers come for, I believe the biggest hit on our menu in both locations is the Bananas Kasper. It’s our take on Bananas Foster featuring a warm toffee bundt cake served with praline pecan ice cream and topped with caramelized bananas. It’s the dessert that everyone raves about, and returns for, sometimes enjoying it before their entree.
Outside of dining together, are there any ways you try to involve or reach out to the community through your restaurant?
Community is a huge part of the process when we open a restaurant. In Dardanelle, we are currently hosting “Supper Club: Dinner and Conversation” surrounding the acoustic sound panels we had put in to help dissipate the echo in our 18-foot-tall dining rooms, which are made of 100-year-old concrete. The panels are made with historic pictures of Dardanelle, and a prominent historian and well-known member of this community, Dr. Diane Gleason, discusses each of the photos following a specially curated meal. These dinners sold out in 24 hours, so I know it was a good thing to offer the community. It’s about becoming “their” restaurant. I was invited to be here, and I want it to feel like theirs.
Red Moon Tavern photography by Jamie Lee. Photography courtesy of Kasper’s.
