Mattress storein Fayetteville, AR

If you haven’t had a chance to make yourself a Fayetteville bucket list just yet, your procrastination may have finally paid off. A longtime local resident and author has already done the work for you.

Author Jill Rohrbach this week will celebrate the release of her new book 100 Things to do in Fayetteville Before You Die with a launch party event set for 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 21 at Pearl’s Books.

Rohrbach, who has lived in Fayetteville for more than 30 years, said she was approached to do the book by Reedy Press, a St. Louis-based publisher that has published a series of ‘100 things’ books on a host of cities around the country.

And though she had extensive experience writing about her home city and state as a staff writer for Arkansas tourism, she’d never taken on a book project before.

“I thought, ‘I don’t know anything about the book process, but this has to be me,'” she said. “I knew I’d be sorry if I passed up this opportunity.”

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The book includes sections of a host of must-do experiences in and around the city, including some obvious choices like Hugo’s, or the Fayetteville Farmers’ Market, she said, but also highlights plenty of lesser-known options around town.

“There are also places in there like the Greedy Goats, who we’ll have at an event coming up at Crisis,” she said. “One of my favorites (from the book) is Flying Q farms. They’re just 5 miles from downtown Fayetteville, and they offer guided trail rides on horseback through the woods and trails.

“I think people, whether they are new to Fayetteville or if they have lived here their whole life, will find all kinds of things to do in the book,” she said.

Rohrbach will celebrate the release of the new book with a series of events, starting with a launch party set for 6:30 p.m. this Thursday, Sept. 21 at Pearl’s Books. The event will include beer, wine, light hors d’oeuvres, and representatives from several local businesses that are featured in the book will be on hand for a meet and greet.

Several additional appearances are also scheduled, including a book signing and Fayetteville-themed trivia night event with prizes from businesses featured in the book and a Greedy Goats kissing booth at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 3 at Crisis Brewing Company.

A full list of appearances and opportunities to have the book signed are available on Rohrbach’s website.

The book is available locally at Pearl’s Books, Alumni Hall, and the Experience Fayetteville Visitors Center, and online via reedypress.com.

This article is sponsored by First Security Bank. For more great stories of Arkansas food, travel, sports, music and more, visit onlyinark.com.

( Staff photo)

A local outdoor store and bike shop that has served Fayetteville, Springdale, and other locations around the state for more than two decades has closed its doors.

Lewis & Clark Outfitters, located at 4915 S. Thompson St. in Springdale closed this week, according to a sign posted on the door of the building.

“Thank you for the opportunity to serve the last 23 years,” the note states.

The building recently changed hands. According to property records, a company called Trailhead Property Holdings, LLC purchased the building for $3.25 million in July of this year. The company is registered to Jon Allen, co-owner of Onyx Coffee Lab.

We spotted Allen, along with Clubhaus Fitness owner Stuart Walker and others, touring the facility earlier this week.

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Walker confirmed he is involved in the project as a consultant, but said specifics about the project are still being worked out. Walker said a bike shop is being considered, and there will be a fitness element to the concept, but he isn’t looking to move or expand his Clubhaus Fitness gym into the building.

“We are committed to our location on Mount Sequoyah, and our future plans in Northwest Arkansas are focused on continuing to build on what we’ve created up there,” he said.

We reached out to Allen for more information, but he has not yet responded to our requests for comment. Of course, his involvement suggests there will likely be coffee.

Lewis & Clark originally opened in Fayetteville in 2001 before moving to their south Springdale location near Lake Fayetteville a few years later. The company also operated a shop briefly in the Garland Center building on the University of Arkansas campus.

( Staff photo)

Lewis & Clark Outfitters expanded the Springdale location in 2017 with the help of their partner bike brands Giant and LIV, according to an article on bikeretailer.com. They had also operated a Rogers location, though it closed last year citing supply chain issues.

ARKANSAS, USA — On November 11 every year, Veterans Day is known as the time to honor those who have served in the United States military. In 1918, an armistice between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Veterans Day came from that date, November 11, which is why the day always falls on that date each year despite what day of the week it falls on.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), "The restoration of the observance of Veterans Day to November 11 not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America’s veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good."

Click here for Veterans Day events in the River Valley.

To honor and celebrate Veterans across Northwest Arkansas, here is a list of events across the area:

Veterans Day Events

Heroes & Headliners: Celebrity concert hosted by Walmart

Veterans Day Jam with The Dirt Therapy Project

Veterans Day Breakfast at the Arkansas Air and Military Museum

Veterans Day at the Arkansas Air and Military Museum

Veterans Day Hangar Swing Dance at the Arkansas Air and Military Museum

Veterans Day Celebration at Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks

Veterans Day Healing Haven: The Human Experience LLC

Veterans Paint Art Workshop

Government Certifications for Women, Minority, and Underserved Businesses

Oakdale Middle School 28th annual Veterans Day Assembly

Other Veterans Day assemblies at Rogers schools:

Veterans Breakfast

Know of an event that's not on the list? Send an email to news@kfsm.com or send a text to (479) 785-5000.

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A Fayetteville man snapped a picture of a black bear in his backyard Thursday morning, just feet away from his window.

Matt Perrine said during a work meeting in his home office, he glanced up and saw the bear sniffing around in his yard.

Though Perrine says he and his wife see some wildlife around their home near the Fayetteville Country Club, they have never encountered a bear.

“We're not outside of town. I mean, we're basically a couple blocks off of South School Avenue,” Perrine said. “So, I mean, not far from civilization— it's just surprising.”

This comes after several black bear sightings in Fayetteville this summer.

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Steve Dunlap, a regional educator with Arkansas Game and Fish says that this time of year, bear sightings are more common than you might think.

“When a cub is born, it spends the entire year with it's mother, and they den with the mother a second time,” Dunlap said. “Afterwards, the males are driven away. So the bears that end up in towns and roaming around and that kind of thing are normally subadult bears that are males looking for new territory.”

Dunlap says they generally do not pose a threat to people.

“In Arkansas, we only have one species, which is the black bear. They are known for being very skittish, for having a natural fear of people and for being lazy,” Dunlap said. “All they care about is resting and eating as much as they can and resting some more.”

Dunlap adds that bears often follow the scent of food.

“The only reason why a bear is going to want to get into your car or want to get into your barn is if there is a lot of food in it that they want. So if you eliminate the food source you eliminate the bears want to be there,” Dunlap said.

He suggests keeping pets safely confined and not leaving food, and trash where bears can reach it.

If you do encounter one, he says interactions are typically very brief.

“No cause for alarm. It's actually a really neat wildlife viewing opportunity,” Dunlap said.

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What began as a modest operation 10 years ago — a high school English teacher brewing beer in his off time for festivals and the now defunct restaurant South on Main — has developed into a successful Argenta microbrewery with three new locations opening in 2024.

Rumors about Flyway Brewing’s expansion into Northwest Arkansas were confirmed in April when Apple Blossom Brewing Company announced on social media that it was closing and that Flyway would be taking over the space at 1550 E. Zion Road in Fayetteville.

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In July, Arkansas Business reported that Flyway would be one of the restaurants slated to open in the new Breckenridge Village redevelopment project in West Little Rock, joining other established Central Arkansas eateries branching out for the first time. Those include downtown Little Rock’s The Root Cafe and Hot Springs’ Deluca’s Pizzeria. And Flyway has more plans in the works. Owner/founder Matt Foster recently told the Arkansas Times that the brand will continue to expand into Memphis and West Point, Mississippi, in 2024.

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Flyway Fayetteville

Located just a few blocks south of Veteran’s Memorial Park, Lake Fayetteville and the Razorback Greenway Trail System, Flyway’s new Fayetteville taproom seems poised to be a popular spot for Northwest Arkansas cyclists and outdoor enthusiasts. At roughly 8,500 square feet, it has a larger taproom and kitchen than the Argenta location. Foster expects to be able to seat 150 inside and another 100 on the patio.

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The taproom features couches, tables, booths and a full bar. Murals of migrating birds, mountains, lakes, rivers and people kayaking cover the walls. General manager/operating partner Phillip Schaaf said the goal with the design was to have a familiar Flyway style. But whereas the decor in Argenta is focused on the Arkansas Delta, the Fayetteville location’s aesthetics reflect the Ozarks.

Foster and Schaaf said they wanted to not “overcrowd the outdoorsy aesthetic” with TVs on every wall. They settled for two large six-by-10 foot screens. “It’s going to be the best place in Northwest Arkansas to watch a ball game,” Foster said.

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Flyway Brewing

Schaaf was a chef at South on Main and most recently worked as a senior executive chef for Chartwells, cooking for students on the UA Fayetteville campus. His plan for the Flyway menu is to stay true to much of the work that’s been done in Argenta by chef Georgina Jones Price (Flyway’s star of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives”), but because the kitchen is considerably larger, the Fayetteville crew will take the opportunity to add new items. Burgers, sandwiches and several smoked items will be on the menu, including turkey, pork, salmon and tofu, Foster said. Plant-based options will also increase.

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Flyway also inherited some pizza ovens with the acquisition of the space, but Schaaf said he was mindful Northwest Arkansas already has plenty of great pizza.

“I didn’t want to go up against Wood Stone and [Pizzeria] Ruby and all of the great pizza spots, so we wanted to take a different approach,” he said.

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Cue his variation on the square, Detroit-style pie, an Arkansas pizzeria rarity.

“It’s a deep dish style cooked in steel pans, and you get this really nice, cheesy crust around the edge,” Schaaf said.

Like the Argenta brewery, Flyway Fayetteville has a 10-barrel brewing system, and Foster estimates it will produce 1,500 barrels a year (or 46,500 gallons), which is about half of North Little Rock’s production capacity. Foster said the goal for Fayetteville is to sell everything they brew in-house through the taproom draft system, and what they don’t sell there will be distributed.

Flyway’s longtime head brewer, Tim Berkley (who also happens to be Foster’s former student at Central High School and Dunbar Middle School), will be directing all new brewing operations for Flyway, Foster said. Foster initially taught Berkley how to brew beer on a small brewing system that was set up in Loblolly Creamery’s production kitchen when he was exclusively brewing Free Range Brown Ale for sale at South on Main from 2012-2015.

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“That afforded us the opportunity to refine a brewing process that could be scaled up, and it built a reputation as a brand,” Foster said. It also helped Foster get approved for a personal business loan to build a brewery in Argenta.

“We didn’t have big money investors,” Foster said, a fact that he said he’s fairly proud of.

“I was a teacher, man, and I got a business loan and we built Argenta.”

When asked, Foster confirmed that former Flyway co-owner Jess McMullen, owner of Brood & Barley, is no longer working with Flyway. Foster declined to comment on the reason for McMullen’s departure.

The new Fayetteville store has 18 taps, which will include many of the beers Flyway serves in Argenta, as well as a handful that will be brewed exclusively for Fayetteville.

With Berkley overseeing the transition, Kort Castleberry — the longtime head brewer at New Province Brewing Company in Rogers — will be taking on head brewing duties, splitting time between Flyway and New Province.

Canning partners

In April 2022, New Province was purchased by an ownership group that includes John Lee, who was the head brewer and co-founder of former Little Rock brewery Rebel Kettle Brewing, and Heather Parker-Foster. Parker-Foster is married to Matt Foster of Flyway.

Last summer Lee told the Arkansas Times he planned to increase production at New Province by adding more tanks to the brewery’s 8,100-square-foot footprint.

Flyway’s draft beer served on taps in Arkansas bars and restaurants has always been brewed in North Little Rock. But a brewery the size of Flyway with a product as widely popular as Bluewing, its famous blueberry wheat beer, doesn’t have the capacity to brew all of its canned beer in house. That’s where contract brewing comes into play. Over the years, Flyway has contracted with companies in Memphis and Florida.

“The vast majority of breweries that grow to some sort of substantial production levels use contract brewing, at least as part of their model, as they grow,” Foster said.

With that can come the criticism that the Arkansas beer you’re drinking wasn’t actually brewed in Arkansas.

As of now, Foster said all of Flyway’s canned beer distributed in Arkansas is brewed in Arkansas at New Province, except for the brewery’s new light beer, Flyway Light.

“[New Province] just completed a massive expansion,” Foster said, more than doubling its capacity for the purposes of contract brewing for Flyway.

“It’s a major maneuver,” Foster said. “It’s creating jobs, keeping money in the state, and New Province will go from 2,800-3,000 barrels of annual production to 6,000.”

Additionally, Flyway will soon begin distributing beer to Nashville, Memphis and Mississippi. It will still utilize out-of-state contract brewing for distribution to neighboring states, Foster said.

No official opening date has been set for Flyway Fayetteville, but it could be open by the time this article is published. Brand manager Jason Jalihal said it’s currently in a “soft opening slow rollout phase.”

Foster expects Flyway’s Memphis location to open around the beginning of the new year. The Breckenridge Village and West Point, Mississippi, brewery/taprooms are slated for mid-to-late 2024. Foster declined to name any investors at this time but said that none of this would be possible without the hard work and dedication of his crew in Argenta, the Argenta Downtown Council and the Argenta Arts District.

To celebrate its 10-year anniversary, Flyway is selling gold cans of Bluewing in its taprooms.

The cans “are commemorating a lot of cool things,” Foster said. “The inaugural batch of Bluewing, brewed and canned at New Province’s manufacturing facility with our sister brewery — my wife and John Lee’s brewery up in Rogers. It also simultaneously corresponds with the opening of our second location.”