re: Just booked my trip to Fayetteville....

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I miss the river in LR, the great trails along the river. Other than that, there's nothing in Little Rock better than Fayetteville now. Maybe a few more good restaurants, but thats about it.

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Dude...seriously?

I LOVE Fayetteville. I have lived both there and LR.

If you are still in your twenties, Fayetteville beats the pants off of Little Rock. But beyond that, Little Rock has a lot more to offer and has exponentially more restaurants to choose from.

Which of you clowns are going to invite me to your houses in nwa and take me to a game.

1)I provide all the alcohol
2)I provide all the food
3)I can provide 16-20 year old girls

You Provide
1)Game Tickets

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've lived in both places too. I am not sure that LR has anything over NWA as a whole.

Oh wait a minute, NWA probably has more yankees now than LR.

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Outside of the Wal-Mart shareholders meeting, you aren't going to get any type of major concern/event in NWA. You have to go to Tulsa.

And there are a ton more places to eat in LR...if you don't believe me, you haven't explored enough in LR. Plus, you can get from West LR to downtown in less than 20 minutes if it's not rush hour. NWA is so much more spread out it's insane. One thing I didn't like was burning up and down 540 for half an hour just to go to a different place to eat.

Don't take this as bashing Fayetteville. I am in love with the place, and if it ever happens I'd love to live there again. I'm of the opinion that it's one of the most underrated college towns in the country. I've been to quite a few campuses and Dickson Street and the campus beat just about all of them I've seen.

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Fayetteville is a great place because of the people. People care about this city and love this city, and so they take care of it and protect it.

Its a mixture of what makes any great city great, but mixed in with a lower-midwestern/upper south Bible-belt mentality of abiding by the Golden Rule.

In short, people are nice here. People are also socially conscious.

Mix that with the scenery of the Ozarks, four distinct seasons, and lots of outdoors activities, and there you have it. Its hard to describe, but not if you really think about it.

Here, you have a slice of big city fun, but all you have to do is drive over a hill and catch a glimpse of the Ozarks rolling out into infinity to remember how beautiful this planet is.

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You are just scratcing the surface.

Fayetteville is the place I went to college and had a great time, it's where I forged almost all of my lifelong friendships, it's where I got married, the place all 3 of my kids were born, it's where I can walk the campus and remember those college days I loved so much.

I miss living there.

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Maybe you can now drop the "unfortunately" from your location identification.

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I think I would still rather have a beach house in the Bay (bitch Katrina) instead of a lake house at War Eagle, just saying. Plus the reason I came back last summer was because of a death in family.

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I guarantee that Oxford is better than Dallas.

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I don't doubt that.

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wmr

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You were out late. Do anything fun?

I just did a listing of all the places to drink in the Dickson Street neighborhood. Its kind of impressive. First are primarily bars. Second are restaurants that have bars as a part of the business. Third are the places not technically on Dickson, but within 6-8 blocks up the street near the town square, easily walkable from Dickson.

Dickson & West Ave BARS

Mickey Finn’s (irish)
UARK Bowl
George’s (live music and beer garden)
Speakeasy (dance club)
The Wine Cellar (wine bar)
Railhead Saloon
Habibi (hookah)
Teatro Scarpino (gelato, booze)
On The Rocks (rooftop patio)
Z330
Lit
YouKnow UNO (Japanense karaoke)
Green Room pool hall
Hog Haus Brewpub
Stir (hate this place)
Buster Belly’s (awesome)
ZooLoo’s
Grubb’s (doubles as a sports bar/live music venue)
Shotz (shots in ice shot glasses)
Common Grounds (coffee & booze, somewhat gay)
Brewski’s (200 something beers)
21st Amendment (giant ceiling fan)
Roger’s Rec (old school townie bar)
Boom Boom Room
Ryleigh’s (upstairs, mardi gras theme)
Crowne Pub (awesome)
Smoke & Barrel Tavern (awesome)
Fix (dance club, techno, house)
Willy D’s (piano bar)
Dickson Theater (black,rap, hip hop crowd)
ROUGE (formerly Gypsy, live music, beer garden)


Dickson & West Ave RESTAURANTS w/ bars

Powerhouse Seafood (patio, live music)
Blue Fin (sushi and good bar)
WOW Sushi (patio)
Gullett’s Gourmet (patio)
Bordino’s (patio)
Theo’s (patio)
Wasabi (patio, live music)
Bankok Thai
Emelia’s Mediterranean
Jose’s (patio, live music)
36 Club
Uber Burger Bistro
Doe's Eat Place

Up the street there’s more near the Square on Block Ave and Center Street.

Tables & Ale
Maxine’s
Lightbulb Club
Tangerine (gay)
West Mountain Brew Pub
Tim’s Pizza
Mariachi’s
Damgoode Pies
Taste of Thai
Urban Table

These are just the places a college student can walk to from campus with ease. There’s restaurants and bars all over the rest of the city, too.

People aren't joking when they compare downtown Fayetteville to a scaled-down Austin.

I tend to drink in North Fayetteville where the chain restaurants are. I like Louie's sports bar, Mellow Mushroom, or Buffalo Wild Wings, typically.

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ON the otherhand, the professional opportunities are greater in NWA. The better jobs are not even with Wal Mart, JB Hunt or Tyson. They are with the myriad of vendors that are in the area. In LR and Central AR, Axiom and Alltel have been less than stellar lately.

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This is one I would disagree with. I mean, there are plenty of jobs available, but that doesn't necessarily mean the "opportunities" are better. If you are working for a vendor of Wal-Mart, you really have a limited ceiling to your career unless you are willing to move to wherever that companies' HQ is. Outside of that, if you aren't working for the UA or one of the Big 3, there isn't a whole lot out there.

What you forget about Little Rock is that it has a huge health care sector. Baptist Health and St Vincent are HUGE hospitals, and that's not mentioning UAMS. If you haven't driven by UAMS lately, you should, because it is like a small city in itself. There are thousands of doctors/researchers/students there, I consider it LR's "answer" to the UA. It's just a much more professional crowd compared to the college students at UA.

On top of that, there's actually somewhat of a finance sector in Little Rock with Stephens Inc., along with several other smaller shops around town. That's in addition to the banking sector (Bank of the Ozarks, Metropolitan, etc) that provides a lot of jobs.

That's on top of Dillard's, Acxiom, etc etc.

There is a reason that Little Rock is the only MSA in the state with an average income above the national average.

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Concerts. LR may get some more concerts but that is just one aspect. It's not like either location is getting the greatest shows. U2 isn't coming to either of them on this tour. To hit the big stadium tours we both still have to hit the surrounding states.

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Little Rock does get the greatest shows outside of the HUGE HUGE HUGE acts like that. I mean, even Dallas isn't getting U2.

Big acts are here all the time...it seems like Kenny Chesney is here every weekend, Dave Matthews and Robin Williams are coming in September, etc. If you've got kids or nieces, American Idol tour was just here.



As far as crime, Little Rock certainly does have that. If NWA ever grows to Little Rock's size it will start having its problems as well. As far as being safe, if you just stay out of the bad part of town you are as safe as anywhere in the country. None of the crime is random...it's a drug deal gone bad, etc. I do wish the public schools were better, but there are still a few good ones if you really want to go that route.