Bentonville Butcher & Pint hires new executive chef, new GM

Two familiar names in Benton County’s culinary scene have been hired to give the operations of a Bentonville restaurant a shot in the arm.

Rob Nelson, executive chef and owner of award-winning downtown Bentonville restaurant Tusk & Trotter American Brasserie, is also now executive chef of Bentonville Butcher & Pint on Walton Boulevard.

The restaurant also has  added Jason Oaks as general manager. Oaks spent the past 15 years as general manager of Copeland’s of New Orleans, a staple sit-down restaurant of “Restaurant Row” on North 46th Street in Rogers’ Scottsdale Center development.

Nelson is not leaving Tusk & Trotter, the restaurant he helped establish in 2011. In fact, many of the same investors who own the restaurant also own Butcher & Pint, which opened in 2001 as Bentonville Butcher and Deli.

Butcher & Pint changed hands in 2014, and in 2016 changed concepts by adding a full restaurant and bar.

Nelson does not have an ownership stake in Butcher & Pint, although that could change in the future. He will have full culinary control in the kitchen of both restaurants and said a new menu at Butcher & Pint should be available in early March.

“The Butcher and Pint focuses on providing fresh, local, delicious products to its customers,” said Nelson, who began a year-long term in January as vice president of the Arkansas Restaurant Association. “This is very consistent with our mission and approach to food at Tusk and Trotter. The opportunity to leverage a full butcher assortment and an expanded set of equipment will allow us to experiment, invent and deliver new High South dishes to customers at both restaurants.”