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Bone’s Chophouse Stakes Out West Little Rock LocationLock Icon

2 min read

Readers may know by now that Little Rock is getting its own Bone’s Chophouse, the restaurant opened in Hot Springs in November 2017 by Lee Beasley.

The Little Rock Bone’s is going in at 27 Rahling Circle, former site of Arthur’s Prime Steakhouse, which moved to 16100 Chenal Parkway last year.

But why Little Rock? Why now?

That’s easy. Two reasons.

First, Beasley lived in Little Rock for a long time and knows the area well, says Dean Jennings, co-owner with Beasley of Bone’s Chophouse.

Second, the success of the first Bone’s.

“Our first year was just a huge success for us, and we opened thinking we would do more, though it wasn’t necessarily going to be a Bone’s Chophouse,” Jennings told Whispers. But “the blueprint for Bone’s just was so successful and went so well that we didn’t see a reason to just open up something new,” he said.

So the decision came down to “a combination of wanting to be in Little Rock, wanting to have a position there with Bone’s and thinking that what we’ve done here could be successful there also.”

Sales are one way of judging success, and by that measure, Bone’s, located at 3920 Central Ave., has certainly succeeded, with about $2.5 million in sales in 2018, its first full year of operation, according to Jennings. (For context: Chain behemoth Outback Steakhouse in Hot Springs notched $3.5 million in sales in 2014, the full last year for which hospitality taxes were publicly available.)

“It was a great first year,” Jennings said of Bone’s performance.

Beasley and Jennings are hoping to have the 130-seat Little Rock location up and running by mid-June and will be interviewing prospective employees this week, Jennings said. He expects to hire 30-40 workers.

The “core menu” for the Little Rock Bone’s, Jennings said, will be identical to the Spa City site, but they’re going to have some different offerings as well. “We’re going to have different capabilities there because I was able to build that kitchen [in Little Rock] from the ground up,” he said, “so I’ve had the ability to add different items that we did not have” in Hot Springs.

They’re committed, however, to staying a “true chop house,” Jennings said.

Hot Springs’ growth has contributed to the restaurant’s success, he said, and with the $100 million expansion planned for Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort, that appears likely to continue.

“Hot Springs is undergoing growth everywhere,” Jennings said.

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