Northwest Arkansas Trip, Day 2

I spent the weekend before last visiting my friend Misti in Northwest Arkansas! Yesterday, I blogged about my first night there (you can read that here). And tonight, I've got a recap of day two with running, brunch, a trip to Crystal Bridges Museum, cocktails in a church basement, and more. This is a big one!

I woke up on Saturday morning, earlier than Misti and her boyfriend Josh, and there was snow on the ground from the night before. My first snow of the season! I needed to get a run in, so I drove a few miles to Lake Fayetteville and ran six miles around the lake's paved loop.

When I got back to Misti's, they were STILL sleeping. So I woke them up for brunch! We went to Arsaga's Coffee Roasters, which had a number of vegan options. 

I started with an Oat Milk Latte.

And then switched to a Southwest Spritzer with sparkling wine and aperol. 

To eat, I went with a breakfast platter that had Tofu Scramble, Beyond Sausage, Home Fries, and Sourdough. I love that the bread came with both jam and avocado for maximum spreadage. This was a lot of food, and I ate it all. 

After brunch, we decided to check out Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, but to get there, we had to pass through Rogers, Arkansas. So that seemed like a good excuse to check out New Province Brewing Co. 

After a beer (and watching the Razorbacks get beat by LSU), we headed to Crystal Bridges. This is an amazing art museum founded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton. It may be tucked into a small town in Arkansas, but it features world-class artworks. I was blown away by this place! I took tons of pics, but I'll just share a few of my favorites here. I know you're here for the food and not art!

We spent a few hours there, and by then, we'd worked up an appetite, so we headed to Bentonville Taco & Tamale Co. There was an hour wait though, so we decided to grab pre-dinner drinks at nearby Scotch & Soda. I had a tasty tequila-sage cocktail.

When we finally got a table at the taco and tamale place, I couldn't wait to try their vegan cheese dip. But they were out. :-( Thankfully, they weren't out of their Sweet Potato and Black Bean Tamales, which were vegan.

I also got a Cucumber Tomato Salad on the side. The tamales were great! And the salad was a nice, cooling side (and probably the only real vegetables I had all day).

After dinner, we had one more stop before heading back to Misti's. We got a nightcap at The Undercroft, a bar in the basement of an old church.

The upper floors are now a restaurant called The Preacher's Son, but the basement was a busy, but cozy, cocktail bar. And I had my favorite drink of the trip — a pickle-tini with a garlicky brine. Yum!

Okay, I'll be back tomorrow with my final day recap!