Eat

Wood Stone Craft Pizza

The Ozarkansas: a pie this kitchen invented and named for home. House red sauce, local ham, wood-fired crust.

Penguin Ed's BBQ

The Fayetteville barbecue that kept the historic B&B near the Square alive, buying it in 1998 and running it still.

Mockingbird Kitchen

Fayetteville's Modern Ozark kitchen — a style chef-owner Chrissy Sanderson coined, cooked from scratch to the last pickle.

Bakery · Fayetteville

Golden Kolache Bakery

Fayetteville's one Czech kolache specialist, sweet fillings through savory, and the egg-nested Eggniter.

Dessert · Fayetteville

Crème Ice Cream Co.

A family scoop shop treating ice cream as a medium: Saffron Pistachio, Rose Chai Raspberry Chip, flavors you won't find twice.

Tusk & Trotter American Brasserie

The Bentonville brasserie that cooks the whole hog from Arkansas farms — and seats the ranchers who raised it next to you.

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The Preacher's Son

Ingredient-led fine dining under 288 gold bells, in an 1898 church off the Square.

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Ryn

Dinner in a farmhouse on the farm that grows it, from a menu that changes daily with the fields outside.

Conifer

Two rules, no exceptions: gluten-free end to end, and nothing outlasts its season. Matthew Cooper's Bentonville fine dining, up for James Beard's Best Chef: South three years running.

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Bentoville Food Theater

Ticketed chef residencies downtown, where the kitchen is the act you watch.

Pizza Lottie's

Bar seats look straight onto the line, and the eighteen-inch Watertown comes off it. The Pizzeria Ruby chef's second kitchen, in Crystal Flats.

Yeyo's

Mexican cooking the Rios family grows on its own Arkansas farm and serves in Bentonville's 8th Street Market. James Beard has named Rafael Rios a Best Chef: South semifinalist five times.

Restaurant · JohnsonWorth the trip

Wright's Barbecue

A backyard smoker that grew into the brisket a Texas Monthly critic ranked first in Arkansas, smoked log by log in Johnson.

The Hive

Chef Matthew McClure's High South restaurant inside the 21c Museum Hotel, building Arkansas into a cuisine plate by plate on local farms.

The Farmer's Table Cafe

The South Fayetteville farmhouse where breakfast routes through NWA farms.

TOCA

Climb one flight above the Emma Avenue tracks for chilaquiles verdes and a spicy guava mezcalita — "Built by Latinos, led by Latinos."

Susan's Restaurant

The Mhoon family's Springdale diner, at the same wood counter since 1996.

Neal's Cafe

Cast-iron pan-fried chicken and pink walls, run by the fourth generation of Neals in Springdale since 1944.

Jojo's Island Foods

Springdale's Marshallese dining room: island reef fish and sashimi-style tuna no default NWA list will hand you.

Hugo's

Down a stairwell off the Fayetteville Square, a basement burger kitchen going since 1977.

Food hall · Bentonville

8th Street Market

Bentonville's food hub inside a former Tyson plant: restaurants, makers, and the Brightwater culinary school under one roof.

Louise

Diner breakfast at the edge of Bentonville's working runway, planes lifting off while you eat.

Junto

Eleven seats, one chef's-counter omakase built in front of you, on the downtown square — a James Beard winner's menu, out of Uchiko and Ame.

Bakery · RogersWorth the trip

Big Heart Bread

The sourdough Rogers had been missing, fermented slow and yeast-free in a plain Chestnut Street storefront.