Plain Jane’s Coming to Hillcrest

Cañon Grill, Hillcrest (Sierra Wheeler)

Your Whispers staff serves up a helping of additional details on Plain Jane’s, the new restaurant planned for the former Cañon Grill space in the Hillcrest neighborhood of Little Rock.

Although days and hours of operation haven’t been decided, Whispers hears it may be an “all-day cafe,” and yes, it will serve a full breakfast menu but won’t be strictly breakfast.

Helen Grace King, who with her sister, Leila King, and sister-in-law, Kamiya King, is behind the venture, tells us the culinary focus will be “Southern simplicity with a French flair.

“We’re actually taking a lot of the recipes that we grew up eating in our grandmother’s kitchen and our mother’s kitchen at our home in Pine Bluff, very, very simple ingredients, and putting a French flair on it as well.”

The Kings, of course, are the owners of Little Rock’s @ the Corner and Flora Jean’s restaurants.

As for the ambiance of Plain Jane’s, at 2811 Kavanaugh Blvd., the King sisters are looking to conjure up an atmosphere of “very comfortable chic.”

The new restaurant will feature a bar and the Kings have retained the Cañon Grill booths. “Cañon Grill was such a beloved restaurant and beloved space in the neighborhood, and so we’re very excited to bring Plain Jane’s to that spot, while also honoring a lot of what was the aesthetics of Cañon Grill — those booths,” she said.

Plain Jane’s will employ about 30.

As for why the sisters decided to open a new restaurant in Hillcrest and at this time, King said they live in the neighborhood and love it. And as to the timing, they were approached by fellow restaurateur Daniel Bryant, who owns the building that houses the space.

“Spaces become available in this area rarely, so it’s an investment that we found not only connected to our heart but to our business side,” King said.

The timeline for opening Plain Jane’s is as soon as possible, she said.

Plain Jane’s was incorrectly referred to as Cafe Plain Jane’s in a previous headline for this story.