Jordan Wright is hoping to open his Wright’s Barbecue in Little Rock by the end of this month, he tells us.
“We’re working as hard as we can as fast as we can,” he said. “Construction delays happen. Equipment delays happen. Right now, we still are hoping and pushing for the end of the month — best-case scenario.”
The restaurant, the fourth in Wright’s mini-chain of barbecue restaurants, is at 1311 Rebsamen Park Road in the Riverdale area. Longtime residents will remember that building as once housing the Wine Cellar, but it most recently served as the headquarters of another homegrown Arkansas restaurant company, Yellow Rocket Concepts, parent of restaurants like Big Orange, Local Lime and Lost Forty Brewing.
Wright, of Fayetteville, started selling his acclaimed, Texas-style barbecue from a food truck and opened his first brick-and-mortar restaurant in Johnson in 2017. He opened his second location, in downtown Bentonville, in 2020, and his third, in Rogers last November.
The Little Rock Wright’s will seat about 140 diners inside and 80 on a patio outside. The 7,000-SF space will include a to-go area and a prep kitchen for catering, as well as offices.
The menu will be largely the same as that of Wright’s northwest Arkansas restaurants: brisket, pork, ribs, chicken, sausage, etc. This spring, Southern Living proclaimed Wright’s Barbecue the best in Arkansas, high praise in a state that’s home to some legendary barbecue joints.
Sign up for Daily E-news
