Catfish, Thai food and Pie, oh my! Good eatin' near Little Rock, AR

One of the best things about being on the road is discovering great spots for food.  Although we sometimes stay with the mainstays of the North American highway (McDonald's, Cracker Barrel, etc.), it is a blast to discover a new spot.

In this case, both restaurants are finds because of my brother Jon.  While planning my first visit to his and his family's new home, I noticed on Google Maps that there a restaurant just around the corner from them called Sullivan's Diner.  When I saw it served a mind-boggling combination of "Thai food and Southern cooking" I almost skipped considering it altogether, until I saw the reviews.  And my family members said it was one of their favorite places to eat, so we made plans to meet for dinner there.  After the first visit, I couldn't wait to get back again.  It's in a cute little white house turned into a diner, complete with a red and white checked floor:

King me.
There are three people who run the place: the gentleman owner who runs the cash register, a woman who may be his wife who is on table clearing service, and an awesome lady in the back who can apparently cook Thai + any other kind of food with skill and aplomb.

On a return visit with a larger group of family last month, we had the following:
  • 2 orders of Pad Thai of varying spices, one order of stir-fried rice with the yummiest of homemade meat rolls
  • 3 hamburger and fries plate
  • 1 fried catfish dinner
  • 1 pork schnitzel, mashed potatoes and green beans
Every plate was excellent, and I think cooked by the one person, in order of cuisine, so that American food came out first, followed by Thai, southern, and last the German-style plate.  Essentially, you can take an entire family of diverse culinary interests and EVERYONE is happy.  I love this place!

***
A few days later, passing back through Little Rock we decided to stop in Sherwood, WI where my brother works.  He recommended Jo Jo's BBQ for our lunch stop, and joined us briefly:

What on earth am I looking at?  So weird.
The sandwiches were good enough - I was hungry, but for some reason the fries really stood out. Memorabilia on the walls had a lot of ties to supporting local wounded warriors as well as championship horse racing, which was intriguing.  What made this place ultimately win me over, though, were the fried pies for dessert.  My mouth is watering just thinking about them.  Jeff got apple, John got peach, and I got coconut filling, which they made fun of but tasted amazing.  Best. Fried. Pies. Ever.  Only in the South, of course.  No photos were taken because we ate them so dang quick.

Our only miss of the trip was the plan to get donuts at Dale's in Benton, purportedly the best ones around.  We'd hoped to have a 'donut-off' with the Spudnut place in El Dorado.  But that will be a post for another day.

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