Otis Zark at Terra to Open June 1

A unique restaurant is scheduled to open June 1 at Terra Studios, a pottery and glass studio in Durham, 16 miles east of Fayetteville on Arkansas Highway 16.

Local artists and craftsmen built the dining room for Otis Zark at Terra, which features 3,000 handmade floor tiles and a ferro cement style staircase.

Otis Zark will also feature “peasant nouveau cuisine” by executive chef Tuesday Eastlack, who was chef/owner of Tuesday’s restaurant in Fayetteville before it closed last summer.

Eastlack refers to the fare as “comfort food” similar to that prepared by grandmothers all over rural America.

“It’s kind of peasanty in that way,” she says.

A sampling of the menu includes:

n The “Rita salad,” which is available only for dinner, contains lettuces with apples, pecans and blue cheese crumbles topped with an apple cider vinaigrette.

n A specialty for lunch and dinner is the “wuggytug conch fritters,” which contains conch meat with “Boston Island style Mango salsa,” says Eastlack, referring to Boston Mountain residents as “Boston Islanders.”

n Eastlack will also serve the “Greek plate” that was popular at her Fayetteville restaurant. It contains a “hunk” of Greek feta cheese, pita bread, hummus and Greek olives.

The 5,000-SF restaurant will be open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday for lunch, from 5-9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday for dinner and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Sunday brunch. Lunch entrees range in price from $4.25 to $7. Dinner prices range from $8.25 to $22. About 40 percent of the menu items are vegetarian. Most of the meat dishes are grilled. The restaurant will also have an extensive wine and beer list.

Reservations are recommended. The telephone number is 643-4063.

Eastlack was featured in the May 19, 1997, issue of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal because her peer chefs voted her the fourth-best chef in Northwest Arkansas.