Upscale Rivals Play Catch-up to Cache in Sales Receipts

Cache Restaurant in the Arcade Building

Cache has been open only since mid-December, yet it’s on track to blow by the competition among Little Rock’s full-service, fine dining, white tablecloth restaurants in total sales, including the usual leader, Sonny Williams Steak Room.

In the first four months of this year, Cache had $633,381 in food sales (not alcohol) compared with Sonny Williams’ $500,524. Cache, however, serves both lunch and dinner, while Sonny Williams is open for dinner only.

Sonny Williams took in more than $1.5 million in food sales annually from 2010 to 2012, slipping to $1.47 million in 2013. If Cache keeps up the pace, it could rack up $1.9 million in food sales in 2014.

The restaurant, co-owned by Crews & Associates CEO Rush Harding and his son, Payne, is located at 425 President Clinton Ave. in the River Market District, in the $14 million, 59,000-SF Arcade Building. That puts it almost directly across from Sonny Williams at 500 President Clinton.

The opening of the elegant restaurant was eagerly awaited, though some eyes popped at the $74 rib-eye on the dinner menu. But Sonny Williams is hardly down-market dining, offering as it does a porterhouse for $52.95.