The original Purple Cow restaurant, at 8026 Cantrell Road in Little Rock, which was heavily damaged by the March 31 tornado, now has a goal of reopening in April 2024, says Ken Vaughan, president of the Purple Cow chain.
We’d reported in May that the restaurant was hoping for an October reopening. But a number of factors have slowed down the timeline, the biggest being the company’s effort to buy the lot east of the Purple Cow so the restaurant could expand. But that purchase didn’t happen.
At that point, the company started considering relocating the Purple Cow to a site that would allow it to be enlarged. “Honestly, we decided that we just love that spot too much, and we know our guests do — we’re such a part of the neighborhood — that we just felt it was the right thing to do to stay where we’re at,” Vaughan said.
The architect for the project to repair and renovate the Purple Cow, Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects of Little Rock, is putting together drawings, and the company has hired the Dave Grundfest Co. of Little Rock as contractor. “We hope to start construction sometime in November,” Vaughan said.
Although the footprint will stay the same, the rebuilt Purple Cow will be redesigned to make the kitchen and dining area more efficient and to provide more seating. “There’s going to be a modernization, but there’s also going to be a tribute to the nostalgia of the original architecture and design of the building,” he said. “I think people are going to really enjoy it.”
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