After a beautiful afternoon
Foghorn’s Express handles food for Springdale-based Core Brewing’s Public Houses across the state, including locations in Argenta and downtown Hot Springs — which, until the opening of a Core Public House on Little Rock’s South Main Street, was the Northwest Arkansas brewery’s newest.
Chicken’s the thing for Foghorn’s, which apparently named itself after the Looney Tunes cartoon fowl of yore. There are 16(!) “Signature Sauces” available for wings and tenders, from “Wunder Sauce”
Foghorn’s Express also does nachos, cheeseburgers and pulled pork barbecue, but we kept going back to the black bean burger. Having a vegetarian option in a place that’s literally serving bar food — much less one heartily advocated by the wait staff — struck us as forward thinking. Our lifelong quest to eat well has led us to several regrettable veggie-based options; for many restaurants, it’s as if
Lovely things looked even lovelier on Core’s patio, with autumn fully settled in at the Spa City. Located by DeLuca’s Pizza’s new Central Avenue address and perennial Hot Springs photo-op John’s Shoe Repair, the people-watching game is strong here, and the patio’s two garage doors could have easily been open. Happy hours are weekdays 3-6 p.m., with $5 ciders, $2 PBRs, $10 buckets and $3 domestics, which means Core’s Arkansas-made offerings, making them the most domestic beer of all. We enjoyed Core’s too-smooth Behemoth Pilsners (5
Other Core stalwart brews are its Arkansas Red (5.2 percent ABV), English Style Ale (5.5 percent ABV), Ouachita IPA (6.8 percent ABV), Albatross New England Style IPA (6.8 percent ABV), E-Stop Pale Ale (6 percent ABV), Leghound Lager (5.7 percent ABV), Warthog Munich Style Helles (4.7 percent ABV) and Core’s unique Toasted Coconut (5.6 percent ABV), which first converted us to Core fans after trying it at Eureka Springs’ Brews and Ozark Mountain Taproom (R.I.P.) several years ago. Seasonal Core offerings include its Cranberry Rye (6
Honestly, we could have happily sat there for a lot longer just enjoying Core’s beer, its Public House patio, and the day, but an even happier thing happened — our lunch arrived. And it was everything the friendly bartender (who also was our server) said it would be. Foghorn’s black bean burger was crispy, not chewy, with a tall bun angling for dominance over the patty. This burger’s prominent pickles and onion provided a cool, slightly sweet crunch without the raw onion elbowing out all the other
We also got tots and fries for sharing (an order of either comes with your sandwich). The french fries seemed to be hand-cut and were well-seasoned without being overly salted — a rare and tough balance. Less notable, but still surely serviceable, were the tots. So generous were the helpings of both, we enjoyed them again for
Foghorn’s Express at Core Public House
Hot Springs
833 Central Ave., Hot Springs
501-701-4390
Quick Bite
Desserts at Foghorn’s Express are fairly basic — vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate syrup ($3.29) or fried pies, “ask for current flavor,” served a la mode ($4.99) — but even with our late lunch, dessert wasn’t even in the conversation. Happy hour is 3-6 p.m. weekdays.
Hours:
3 p.m. until 10 p.m. weekdays, 3 p.m. until midnight Friday, noon until midnight Saturday. 12-9 p.m. Sundays