Restaurant Week Preview: A Food Renaissance with Daniel Hintz

Ever wondered how a small town can transform into a culinary hotspot? Join us for a nostalgic episode with Daniel Hintz, CEO of Velocity, who shares his remarkable journey and key contributions to Bentonville's food scene. 

From diverse restaurants and the farm-to-table philosophy to the unexpected and elevated experiences, we explore the local culinary landscape. Learn how the town revitalized its local food culture starting with an enhanced farmer's market and culminating in the creation of iconic establishments like Table Mesa. Discover how Bentonville's transition to a wet county opened up new vendor opportunities and transformed the food scene from utilitarian to experience-driven dining. We also celebrate the resilience of Bentonville's culinary community during challenging times like COVID-19 and showcase the offerings that make Northwest Arkansas a must-visit food destination. 

Tune in for an inspiring look at how collective efforts turned Bentonville into a culinary gem.

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Transcript

Beth Bobbitt: 0:10

Welcome to A New American Town, a podcast presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt, broadcasting from Haxton Roads Studio, and today we're taking a deep dive into Bentonville's culinary scene. We're getting a little jumpstart on Restaurant Week, which is August 18th through the 24th, and we have a very special guest here today. Most likely needs no introduction, but I'm going to introduce him anyway. Daniel Hintz is the CEO, chief Experience Officer of Velocity, which is all about placemaking master planning. He's also a current member of Bentonville's A&P Commission. Daniel has been a filmmaker, chef, executive, small business owner, community advocate and friend to many of us in Northwest Arkansas. He was one of the first people in Bentonville to help welcome new businesses, spurred events like First Friday and helped chart a unique path. So, Daniel, welcome to the podcast.

Daniel Hintz: 1:10

Of course, this is awesome, this is awesome.

Beth Bobbitt: 1:12

And you saw something. We were on the cusp of something great. I believe that we owe much of the town's charm and success to people like you, and I just have to mention when we first met, you were dressed as a hot dog and you were working the crowd at First Friday, having fun hustling as you always are. So what's been going on since? Can you talk a little bit about what brought you to Bentonville, what you've been up to since then?

Daniel Hintz: 1:40

Yeah, well, my wife and I moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2003. We kind of got settled into Fayetteville first and did some projects down there we're very excited about, and then 2007 happened, which kind of changed a lot of the economy and created numerous challenges had left the organization. There'd been an awful lot of work done by the city on some master planning that really started in 97 and went through 2003. They did a downtown master plan and Bob helped usher a lot of that in. But what they really wanted was an implementation side of things and someone that could come in and get some things done. And I was lucky enough to be in the hopper to be that person, and so I joined, really quite frankly, an incredibly dynamic team of folks like Kalene and the Chamber, Ed Clifford, the Mayor, the Planning Department you had an incredible group of people who are ready to rock and roll.

Daniel Hintz: 2:36

At the same time there was a little pressure of success because that little gallery in the valley down there right, which was no one knew what Crystal Bridges was going to be at that time it was sort of a whisper in the wind. But there was this excitement, there was an energy in Bentonville that it was going to solicit enormous amounts of change for Bentonville, and I think that the great conversations that we had early and often was what does that mean and how do we manifest both the history, the majestic history of Bentonville, and the culture, and how do we translate that into the new? And so I kind of came on board at a wonderful time, an inflection point in Bentonville's history, as I thought about its future and the impact of all that was coming and, spurred by that Crystal Bridges incredible project, yeah, and so when you entered the scene can you describe kind of your experience what you saw on the culinary front in general?

Daniel Hintz: 3:34

Well, we were a dry county that created some various challenges to the restaurant community. I think we were. Bentonville was incredibly utilitarian when it came to its food scene. Right, I mean people could eat, but it really wasn't part of Bentonville's identity. I mean you could go to restaurants, but the restaurants existed, they weren't part of a larger brand and a part of a larger conversation. You had a storied farmer's market that had been around for years and years and years and years, but it really needed a refreshment and really sort of figured out how to incorporate that farmer's market into the overall brand and story. And, quite frankly, we had empty storefronts and it was very quiet. The downtown was incredibly quiet. We had a place called the Station Cafe which served great burgers on the square, which was awesome. We also had a couple of food carts floating around. Hot Dog Alley was there.

Daniel Hintz: 4:29

I mean, there's these little pop-up things, that kind of stuff, but there really wasn't a scene and that was almost hitting the ground in 07, 08, was one of the first things that we began to tackle and we first started with the farmer's market Downtown Bentonville Inc. The organization that I ran at the time supported and took over as market manager and we really poured a lot of energy into the farmer's market because, really, a scene starts with where your food comes from, Right, it's part of that story, part of the excitement, and we had such incredibly dynamic farms from all over the region and that includes Southern Missouri and Eastern Oklahoma. So we're incredibly unique from a food shed perspective that we actually incorporate three states into that food shed and so, thinking about all of those resources and how we can combine all those resources to really jumpstart a whole new conversation about food as brand, as story, as equity, as conversations I mean the farmer's market. We made sure that we opened it up to food stamps and WIC to incorporate as many people as possible from an access perspective. But then subsequently we also worked on a restaurant recruitment strategy, right, that really talked about where do we need to go next, what is missing in the food scene and, in particular, how do we jumpstart that conversation with downtown. So downtown becomes a destination for food and we started with food versus just start with the retail thing because everybody has to eat. Now, subsequently, we are also working with retail and the activations, to your point, First Fridays and these other types of things.

Daniel Hintz: 6:08

But food became a through line, through everything. We did right, and so one of the first big restaurants that we landed early on was Table Mesa. Right, they came in. Carl tells a great story of how people were talking to him about oh no, you're going to need to go in the outsorts of Bentonville. That's where the hat and he just randomly decided to turn right instead of left and he found himself on the downtown square running around. Now, surprisingly enough, I happen to be on the square at the same time and he came from Seattle. I came from Seattle, and so we connected on the sidewalk and talked about the restaurant he wanted to do, so serendipity was very much a part of this early day, that's amazing.

Daniel Hintz: 6:47

And then, within 45 minutes later, he met the mayor and the mayor turned around and said what do we need to do to get you to say yes, right. And so I think what that showcases that story is Bentonville's food scene takes a team effort and that's really. There's so many hands, hearts and minds behind this sort of story of Bentonville's relationship to its culinary scene, to its local food scene. So I was very lucky, I was very honored and lucky enough to play a part and a role, but there's a lot of people that have worked really hard to get to the Bentonville culinary scene where it is today.

Beth Bobbitt: 7:22

Yeah, and I'm sure there's, you know those stories behind every restaurant. Every restaurant and every connection you know there has to be that connection made early on, and so if you can fast forward now, 10, 15 years later, how would you describe what has happened? I mean, it's it's been rapid growth in some ways, but in other ways, you know, you described this was a very strategic move. There were steps that were taken. So describe what you saw and where we are now on the culinary scene.

Daniel Hintz: 7:58

Right.

Daniel Hintz: 7:58

Well, I think the biggest thing is food systems. The system work itself right. It isn't just about the restaurants, but did we have buildings ready for restaurants? How are those buildings identified? When we talked about Table Mesa, we talked about Tusk and Trotter. I mean, they came into buildings that weren't restaurant ready and that created challenges, and so it took the city, it took banking, it took a lot of different people to figure that stuff out.

Daniel Hintz: 8:21

We were working on the farmer's market and growing that and diversifying that and making sure that the product was of local provenance, that it wasn't just bought and resold on that space, and so we were working with Benton County Extension Services and we had to change some state laws and the cottage industry law was born and there was all heavy-duty work work. Our partnership with NWACC, northwest Arkansas Community College, started there Now it's Brightwater, but before it was the culinary school and having a great relationship with them. So there was a lot of partnerships and things that were built up over time. That was a part of that. I remember the first time that the Bentonville Farmer's Market got listed in the Huffington Post I think this was in 2008 or 09, and they said what's going on in Bentonville and we had just started the work and I think this is another thing, that big props to the Bentonville Convention and Visitors Bureau and a lot of the storytellers where they're starting to get those early stories out right.

Daniel Hintz: 9:19

And that's really important in this work that we never are 100% there. But who's telling the story and how we're telling the story was really, really important. We started to create relationships with wonderful national organizations like the James Beard Foundation and Southern Foodways Alliance and Food and Wine and whatever, because their national viewpoint could inform the type of things that we wanted to become. But we also were grounded in the provenance of our own talent and how do we cultivate that? And that's where the school came into play and everything, and so we're doing a lot of that. We were able to take the farmer's market from about 90,000 sales per season and within six years we were going over 800,000 in sales per season because we were able to diversify. That and that created the groundwork for a lot of this farm to table work, created the groundwork and the story for other great restaurateurs to feel like there's something going on and attracted that talent of our food.

Daniel Hintz: 10:31

And what occurred through that is we went from a primarily utilitarian sort of food scene, culinary scene to now we have utilitarian all the way to experience driven right, the choice has expanded exponentially, and since we went to a wet county, that also includes access to beverages, and I don't mean just production, but now we're able to get a class of wines and liqueurs and beers from all over the world in a way that we couldn't before. And that's another incredible foundation to a robust culinary scene is access right. And so now, all of a sudden, the restaurants are getting access to product from all over the place that they might not have been, and so there's a whole secondary economic power to this where we have new vendors and new access and new product coming in to Northwest Arkansas and Bentonville as well. And so as our restaurant scene has grown, so has the diversity of offerings, so has the diversity. I mean it's even gone into our grocery stores. You're starting to see more products hit Northwest Arkansas and in Bentonville in particular as well. So there's a really profound impact on the work.

Daniel Hintz: 11:30

It isn't just about restaurants right, it's about all of the benefit, and I think the power of that means when people come into Bentonville and they visit Bentonville, they're able to sense that I don't know dynamic somehow, and it's not just about a single restaurant. They can have choice. It becomes far more. Choose your own adventure. I can jump up on the trails, I can go to Crystal Bridges oh, I can get a hamburger over here. Or I can go to Preacher's Son or the Hive or Conifer or some other place. That's a little bit more bespoke, but the ability to do that in one day is pretty amazing. Right, go hang out and drink an incredible beer on an awesome patio made by the brewer who's on the other side of the wall. Or you can drink an incredible import from Germany or from Switzerland or something in another restaurant somewhere. And that to me, is a growing food scene, the level of access and opportunity and choice, and we've grown a lot in that over the past 15 years.

Beth Bobbitt: 12:28

And I think some of that is what you're speaking to the surprise and delight from folks that may not have the expectations yet. And then for the people here residents and people that know Northwest Arkansas this is really about supporting your friends, supporting these local business owners, because success begets success. You know and we've seen that, and so it's a beautiful thing.

Daniel Hintz: 12:56

Yeah.

Beth Bobbitt: 12:58

So for the restaurant week, you know we have such a variety. You spoke to the eclecticness of it American, asian, indian, latin American, mediterranean, italian. You know we've got it all. I think that the walkability of downtown creates this just really unique, charming experience here. But there's also all over Northwest Arkansas we're seeing the culinary scene just blossom and I wonder if you could speak to that at all, just what you've seen from your time.

Daniel Hintz: 13:36

Well, I think that our homegrown talent and our relationship to food in Northwest Arkansas has been incredible. So you know, we always stand on the shoulders of giants right, Beth, and all this work, and so there's folks that came before that helped build this momentum. But we have all these new people moving in with incredible and diverse backgrounds and experiences from all over the world, and they're informing our growing food scene as well, which also means that they're demanding. Once again, I go back to products. Right, it's really hard to start a new restaurant if you can't get access to the product. You need to be in the restaurant, and so, really, from an economic driver, it has opened up so many new opportunities as folks come in, but has also set new expectations for our food scene.

Daniel Hintz: 14:24

And I think that the challenge that we face is we were growing exponentially and then COVID hit. And I can't talk about our food scene, whether in Northwest Arkansas or Bentonville, without also recognizing how much COVID affected the momentum of what we were doing and the hurt and the challenge, and I commend our local food scene and how it gathered together to support each other. This is the difference about having a smattering of individual restaurants versus having a scene right. A scene is people working with each other. They're supporting each other. It's a system and it was absolutely incredible what Northwest Arkansas and Bentonville and all the cities and the restaurants and how they came together to support each other. Right, we survived and I use that in quotations and you can't see that on a podcast but you see that in quotations.

Daniel Hintz: 15:14

We survived but we're beginning to thrive again because of that level of collaboration and that level of care and support. And I think that's something that's incredibly special about our community our food community here in Northwest Arkansas and our food community here in Bentonville is that we came out of that limping. We're still trying to recover in a lot of different arenas, right, but at the same point, I think it made us stronger in how we work together and that's also something else that I think is also important. An incredibly powerful aspect of Bentonville's culinary scene is the level of collaboration and support, the mashups, the way that the chefs talk to each other, restaurateurs talk to each other, and the Convention and Visitors Bureau Bentonville's convention is a part of that epicenter, of gathering people together, of asking those questions how can we help, what are we doing? And that is a commitment that the CVB, I think, has made and a lot of props for Kayleen and the team to recognize the fact that they are a part of this advocacy group, that the restaurants and the culinary scene is not by themselves. And, like I said I go back to that's the difference between a scene and a community that has a bunch of restaurants and we have cultivated a scene as best we possibly can in this process.

Daniel Hintz: 16:32

And there lies, I think, the superpower of Northwest Arkansas and Bentonville is. It's a family of culinary. When that happens, so many other opportunities emerge from there. So who knows where we're going, Beth. What is the next idea coming up? Boy, I know that's anybody's guess, right.

Beth Bobbitt: 16:49

Right, I can't wait to find out. You're so right. It's just such a universal experience that binds us together and there is such support here, so can't wait. We do have Restaurant Week coming up, august 18th through the 24th, and of course, this is the opportunity to celebrate the incredible culinary diversity Over 200 restaurants so many options to explore. Bentonville. Visit Bentonville will be announcing different special menu opportunities and giveaways, so stay tuned for those. Restaurant Week is presented by Visit Bentonville, Downtown Bentonville Inc and the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce, so stay tuned for more on that. Daniel, I have to end it with an impossible question. So you're a foodie. If you could have one meal for the rest of your life, over and over, what would that be?

Daniel Hintz: 17:46

Oh, you know, that's like that question of saying you know, beth, do my jeans make my butt look fat? Right, I'd say, uh-uh, that's a saying, Beth, do my jeans make my butt look fat? That's a very dangerous question.

Beth Bobbitt: 17:56

Who's your favorite child?

Daniel Hintz: 17:57

Yeah, my favorite child. You only say that behind closed doors, but I think that the big thing is the fresh, the local, but it's recognizing. It's a food piece that is a part of my past. There's a sense of warmth and home and that's not necessarily about the end dish, it's about the provenance of the ingredients and that can manifest in a lot of different ways.

Daniel Hintz: 18:22

I will tell you, I'm not the hugest fan of squash, so anything with squash in it I struggle a little bit with, but I love mushrooms and so there's certain seasons here in Northwestern I struggle a little bit with, but I love mushrooms and so you know there's certain seasons here in Northwestern. I've discovered the pawpaw here in Northwest Arkansas. I mean, if you don't have, I'm from Wisconsin originally and that's not something from up there. So you know, I think it's tough to answer that, but it's the seasonality of it that will really drive a lot of my conversation. And then, who's at the table? It's always it Like I love the dynamics of different folks at the table and bringing people together. There's a power of breaking bread. That is also part of this culinary scene when you sit next to someone and break bread with them or share a drink or do something. It's just really hard to be mad.

Beth Bobbitt: 19:09

Yeah.

Daniel Hintz: 19:10

Right. So during restaurant week, invite your friends to sit down, break bread with each other. We need that in this crazy times. The more we're able to get together and just eat and break bread together, I think it's just going to be a better world, and so what better time to do that than during restaurant week here in Bentonville.

Beth Bobbitt: 19:28

I love it. Perfect, what a great place to stop. Thank you, daniel, for joining us today. It was a pleasure having you on the podcast. It was great. Thanks for the invitation and don't forget, visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our New American town. Give us a follow on social media. Sign up for newsletter. Check out