Ozark Baking and Catering

313 W. Dickson St.

Fayetteville

This clean, deli-style restaurant in Dickson Street’s renovated Shipley Bakery Building may be the best lunch value in Northwest Arkansas.

The eatery serves breakfast (from $3 to $6), lunch and an early dinner from the lunch menu. Fresh breads are prepared daily.

The lunch menu features a dozen sandwiches ranging from a $3.25 grilled cheese to a $5 falafel. The restaurant also serves a New England clam chowder ($1.50 per cup, $2.50 per bowl) and a soup of the day ($1 per cup, $2 per bowl).

We had the clam chowder and the soup of the day, which happened to be Tuscan onion the day we were there (although we couldn’t really tell it from a Vidalia). Both were delicious.

For entrees, we had the muffuletta ($4.65), which was almost as good as those made at Central Grocery in New Orleans, where the sandwich originated and tourists stand in line for hours to get one.

The Ozark Baking muffuletta contains salami, mortadella sausage, smoked ham, pepper jack cheese, Emmentaler Swiss cheese, provolone cheese and green olive tapenade on a kaiser roll. And no fat! (Just kidding.)

We also had the roast beef sandwich with Gouda cheese ($4.75), choosing to have it sans the Grey Poupon mustard, fearing a pompous Brit might tool up to our table in his Rolls Royce and ask to borrow a dollop. The roast beef was sliced just right for our discriminating beef eater, and the Gouda was the best she’s had this side of Goshen.

You might want to plan on taking half the sandwich home with you so you can save room for dessert. The array of desserts made at Ozark Baking is impressive, so much so that we were hard pressed to pick a favorite as the encore of our meal.

We had the key lime pie and were elated with our choice. It was the best we’ve had north of Key Largo. The pie is yellow (like real key limes) and creamy with a wonderful crust.

In addition to inside seating, Ozark Baking also has an outside dining area.

The restaurant is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 7 a.m. to mid-afternoon on Sunday.