Nothing In a town like Eureka Springs Arkansas overflowing with friendly fun-loving people, it is no surprise that there are plenty of restaurants serving all varieties of food and all with those same friendly people you meet on the street.
There are casual and great restaurants like Myrtie Mae’s where a waiter like Arthur not only knows your name but also knows how you like your eggs prepared and what you like to drink. The restaurant offers a sensational cinnamon roll for breakfast that’s overflowing with icing and pecans and served heated to perfection. There are restaurants perfectly named like So Good, where Dava Parr and her staff serve the freshest, best vegetables, salads and all kinds of health food (and an avocado toast to die for!) and where while they bring the food to your table, it’s proper to pick up your own dishes and clear the table when you’re through. There’ even a living room setting in So Good for families who simply want to sit on couches and chairs and eat round a coffee table.
There’s terrific Mexican restaurant, Amigos that is family owned and run, and where your maître d’ might be Isaac, the pre-teen son of the owner who charms guests with his smile and his energy and ability to please.
There are the hotels with the more posh and much higher priced meals as well, but the many eateries in town appear to be the most popular.
Amid all the great restaurants in the couple of different shopping areas in town are art stores, art galleries, gift shops, and plenty of opportunity to meet real artists, hear their stories and understand why their work is so highly sought.
We were fortunate. Not only did we get to see Cindy Fraser’s artwork, but we also got to visit her home, sit in her snug and cozy den and actually see how she plans, designs, and then creates magnificent works of art different using dozens of different color markers and creativity.
Cindy’s work is displayed in several places in the shopping areas, but we first got to see it at Brews, a venue next to So Good where the day starts with a fresh cup of coffee, and ends with a pint. In addition to displaying and selling the art of local residents. Cindy told us she doesn’t sit down and simply paint, she decides what she wants her finished product to be, draws it out with pencil, then goes over the penciled drawing with her various markers, creating color, life, and excitement with every stroke. Not satisfied with simply painting beauty, Cindy also incorporates glitter, bits of jewelry and whatever magic she has to offer a piece of art that simply makes you smile and be happy. Seeing the joy in her face as she creates these wonders makes you think it’s that joy she feels that she pours into the artwork that makes you feel so good looking at it.
Her work includes lots of people in all seasons, lots of unique homes or outdoor settings, and most often a few pets of all kinds.
But Cindy isn’t only an artist with markers. She’s creative with leftovers!
Give her a used laundry detergent bottle and she’ll make the torso of a woman in a flowing long skirt, bustle rear and long-sleeved blouse. She tops it with a discarded Christmas ball on which she’s painted a smiling face with long eyelashes and even earrings, then tops it off with a head of long hair flowing down her back and a flower and pearl hat. But even that isn’t enough for an artist who loves her work. Taking jewels and pieces of shiny materials she’s gathered from God knows where, Cindy trims the dress and bustle with shiny glimmer, puts a diamond at the end of a silver necklace below the chin, and even adds a purse in matching materials to the dress and of course with a jeweled and glimmering handle. Saying Cindy Fraser’s art work is one of a kind if putting it mildly.
As is happening all over the country, newspapers are growing to be a dying art and source of accurate and unbiased information.
The Eureka Springs Times-Echo is the most popular free newspaper, billed as the town’s original hometown paper and covering municipal leaders, public meetings and events with a front-page article last week noting that Ermilio’s Italian Home Cooking is one of nine finalists in the state’s Food Hall of Fame, a Division of Arkansas Heritage. It’s vying for the top prize against other restaurants in Arkansas like the Dixie Pig in Blytheville, Stoby’s in Conway, and the Yellow Umbrella in Fort Smith along with Tacker’s Shake Shack in Marion. Though we didn’t try Ermilio’s because of the long wait for a table, there is no doubt each of these unique eateries contributes to the state’s culinary heritage.
More fun in the Times Echo is the “Dispatch Desk, the report of the Eureka Springs Police department, which includes accounts like: “4:33 p.m. An officer responded to a music complaint. Someone apparently doesn’t appreciate the nuances of the Slim Whitman Christmas album.:
“ Or 1:25 a.m. And officer assisted someone having issues with their vehicle.” Or “And officer checked on someone who was asleep in a vehicle.”
Eureka Springs, Arkansas: there is nothing quite like it. And everyone loves it!
