A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Exploring Bentonville’s Restaurants: The Basore’s Talk Bar Cleeta and The Big Lieutenant
Tune in for an engaging conversation between our host Allen Woody and Trae and Weisi Basore, the powerhouse couple behind Bentonville restaurants Bar Cleeta and the Big Lieutenant.
Find out what to expect when you visit Bar Cleeta, recently named one of America’s Top 50 Restaurants by Wine Enthusiast, and learn about their newest concept, The Big Lieutenant, a neighborhood restaurant and bar.
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Welcome to Visit Bentonville's Podcast, a new American town. As always, we're coming to you from Hexton Road Studios off the bustling Bentonville Square. I'm your host, Alan Woody. Today we have Trey and Wheezy Bazour. They are the proprietors of Bar Cleta in Bentonville and the new big lieutenant. And I just, Trey, you guys' origin story here is just so cool. Can you take us back to how you got to Bentonville or got back to Bentonville? Because your history's really neat.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, I'm originally from here, graduated from Bentonville, uh, born in Fedville. My family goes way, way back in in this part of the state and other parts of the state too, but um moved to New York, cooked, uh, tried to perfect my craft. You did a little bit more than cook. I mean, sure. You did some pretty amazing things, sir. Sure. I mean, um I cook. Right, right, right. Okay. Um, but yeah, I met Weesee and um obviously we got married, um, went to LA for a little bit, and then I think more cooking, yeah. And I think we were um having we came back for a football game because we'd always travel back here because my whole family's still from here. And We see was like, hey, let's let's move to Bentonville. And I was like, okay.
SPEAKER_01:All right.
SPEAKER_02:So that was in 2019. We opened Bar, no, 2018. We opened Barclita in 19, and here we are.
SPEAKER_01:Now, Barclita has recently gotten some some kudos. Tell us a little bit about an amazing honor that Barclita's gotten, Wheezy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, it's it's definitely a very high honor for us. Um, we got mentioned as a top 50 um restaurants, like wine bar focused restaurants in wine enthusiasts in the country. In the country.
SPEAKER_01:Top 50 in the country. In the country. Top 50 in the area, not worth going to, top 50 in the country by a very well-recognized NSC magazine. That's an honor.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I think one of the coolest things that um really vibed with us was one of the the the editors mentioned kind of the the perfect marriage between, you know, having a wine-focused restaurant, meeting with really great cuisine, where it doesn't feel like it's just a wine bar or just a restaurant. It's an equal share of both. And it's kind of like where we both, Trey and I, kind of come from. He's obviously culinary and I'm more beverage and service-oriented. So it kind of represented our equal kind of partnership too, to creating Bar Clita and the effort we both put into it.
SPEAKER_01:So makes defining the restaurant roles far easier if each of your interests are well represented in each one. Tell me a little bit about Bar Cleta, first of all. What can I expect when I walk in? What's that experience like? And then we'll talk about some uh cool pairing that you got going on as well.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think that one of the things that people always say when they come into Bar Cleta is they don't feel like they're necessarily in Bentonville, they're not necessarily in Arkansas, you kind of don't exactly know where you are. Our vibe in creating it was always kind of wanting to create a almost like a familial environment where it looks like and feels like you're walking into someone's living room or dining room. Um, and to some degree it is because, you know, we're obviously in a partnership in marriage and also in a partnership in business. So we really do want people to feel like they're walking into a space that we've created for them. Um the goal in creating CLEDA was to have a space where we could have locals, people who grew up in Arkansas, try something new, have luxurious um items like caviar and oysters and other things that maybe they haven't tried before, but then also creating an environment for people like me who are transplants from bigger cities where a bar Clita seems a commonplace restaurant, like a neighborhood restaurant you would have in in, you know, Brooklyn or you know, Malibu or something like that.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, we have found in the what almost five years now that we've been open, if we got regulars that don't live here, but they travel here so often that they're coming from Chicago or New York or LA, and they're always like, Oh, every time we come in town, we have to eat a barcolita, and you know, that uh that means a lot, you know, because there's so many great restaurants in Bentonville, and to be the one that they want to come to and that they even talk about when they go back to wherever they live is is pretty special.
SPEAKER_01:Did you uh I'm maybe this sounds dumb? Did you expect the restaurant scene to be as strong as it is here? Or was that a bit of a surprise, like just whoa, and and how cool is it to be amongst such really cool up and coming?
SPEAKER_02:I think yes and no. Um like I was saying, you know, I'm from here, so uh we would always come back and and and visit. I mean, we started dating in 2011, 2012, and I think that's really right around when all this change was was really full force. Um, so we could see it every little bit. We would, you know, it would be bigger changes for us because we weren't here. So we would, you know, come back every six months or eight months, be like, oh, there's this restaurant or there's this, and it it just kept going. And then yeah, again, like I was saying, when we were in came back to visit and we were in LA, and Wheezy was like, let's do it. It's like I'd never dreamed that I would be able to come back home and open the type of restaurant that that I wanted to have. And here we are, you know, it it's it's it's pretty amazing when you think about it.
SPEAKER_01:It well, it's phenomenal, and it's really a cool story, and I'm really fascinated with you, Wheezy, as as you're not from here. Bentonville has to look like a pretty small town compared to some of the places that you're from and that you live. But how do you feel about this community and and and how did you feel about moving here originally?
SPEAKER_00:I have to say that it it's a weird experience for me because I don't feel like I'm a typical transplant as someone who's kind of coming in here blindly. We've been, you know, since we've been dating since what, 2012, we've been visiting Arkansas maybe twice a year, whether it was for, you know, Hogs Game or someone's wedding or Christmas or something. And so we I actually got to watch this town really grow. Every time we came back, there was something new. You know, we always laugh. It's like one day we drove by the amp that was being constructed and we were like, well, that wasn't here six months ago. Holy crap.
SPEAKER_01:It used to be a mall.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And now, like, you know, Janet Jackson is playing there next week. So, you know, it's it's different. And I honestly think that a lot of it was serendipity too, because when we moved back, we, you know, we spent the year kind of doing pop-ups and then building CLEDA, and then we opened about nine months before the pandemic. And obviously, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that worked out.
SPEAKER_00:Couldn't couldn't have been better timing. And honestly, seeing a lot of our friends in New York and LA and bigger cities that were kind of devastated in the industry and to some degree haven't fully recovered. We were so fortunate that we were only shut down for a short period of time. We had so much support from the community, and that's one thing that I have to say is is amazing and makes it really easy to transplant here is you know, Trey grew up with a lot of really close friends, and the community has stayed, and then the broader community within Bentonville also has just been so supportive of us in Barclita.
SPEAKER_01:So tell me about the new project. Tell me about Big Lieutenant.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so um the Big Lieutenant, it's named after my granddaddy. So just fun fact. So Cleta was my great-grandmother, and she was from Barrelville, Arkansas, and then my granddaddy's nickname was Big Lou because he was a lieutenant in the Air Force and he was like 6'4, 6'5. So it's kind of all staying in the family and stuff. I love that's kind of Arkansas. Um, but much more casual. Um, we opened it basically because we wanted a place where we don't get to eat supper out very much because we have Barclueta. So it's like, where do we want to go for lunch? So it kind of started with that. And I would say it's it's not really a sports bar. We have a huge, like 16-seat bar. We got three TVs that we'll play hog games, Sunday football, that, but we have a burger, we have some sandwiches, we still make everything from scratch, still very chef-driven menu, but stuff that you would just want to eat all day.
SPEAKER_01:So, what kind of chef-driven things are are we looking at there? What kind of love are you putting into these things, Trey?
SPEAKER_02:So, yeah, I guess the sandwich that I I did the most RD on, and then I'm kind of excited. I'm I'm a big sandwich guy, like I love sandwiches. So it's kind of a play on a French dip, but we use all of the flavors of pozole pork. So we berase the pork butt, and then we make this broth with homney and all of these Mexican chilies and cilantro and tomato, and then we grow off bread, have the meat on there, pepperjack cheese. We have this like black breed, black bean crema that we put on there, and then you dip it in like the pozole broth. So it's it's decadent, it's it's awesome. Yeah, it it's it's top top sandwich of mine right now.
SPEAKER_01:That sounds a I just want to stop and go to the big lieutenant right now. So, what brought that change about aside from wanting lunch? How did you feel about that, Wheezy?
SPEAKER_00:Well, we, you know, in New York, obviously we had access to a lot of really awesome types of cuisines and dining at any time of day at any given moment. But we found ourselves always dining at this one restaurant called the Smith that was kind of close to us on the upper west side in Lincoln Center. And one of the reasons why we went there almost what once every two weeks or something like that is because he and I could both kind of agree to order anything we wanted from the menu. It was a very eclectic menu. You could get steak, you could have oysters, but then you can also get like a Korean bowl, you could get snacks. Like it just felt like a very all-purpose restaurant. It didn't feel like it was too elevated, but it didn't feel like a dive either. So for us, the inspiration was to be able to find a space where everyone can kind of gather and find something for everyone. The burger's been very popular. I think it's probably one of the best burgers I've ever had, and I really do appreciate it. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I was just about to ask, what's it like to work with your spouse? How's that going?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:She doesn't think he's as funny as he does. Right. Never that a lot.
SPEAKER_00:Never. Um, but yeah, I mean, it it's just the food is just really yummy and really satisfying. And the good thing is, is like, you know, you can bring in any type of um date, whether it's like a family date, it's a business kind of meeting, or it's an actual date. Like there's something for everyone.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, We see did a very good job. Like, I mean, we we built it from scratch, so you know, it was a complete build-out, all of that. So she was very good about thinking of what it what it was going to be. You know, I kind of just focus on food. I'm kind of simple-minded like that, but you know, with the idea, it's it's not a sports bar because you can go in the dining room and listen to music and be on a date night, but then the next night you can sit at the huge bar, like I was saying, and it be a different experience, but you're at the same restaurant, which I think is really cool, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, because you're not always in the same headspace when you go. Exactly. I may still want that French dip inspired sandwich, but I may want that at a table with nice music. Thousands. And then I may want that while I watch a hog game. Yep. Very, very cool. Tell us, speaking of cool, you've got your fifth annual fried chicken and champagne dinner coming up. Tell us about that.
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's actually a pretty, I don't want to say classic pairing because it's not an old pairing, but it's certainly a pairing that is very much ubiquitous in our industry, I think.
SPEAKER_02:Like last 15 years, it's been fairly popular.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like it's it's definitely a little trendier than usual right now, but um, it's the idea of taking opposites and attracting them e to each other to kind of best complement. So you have something really, really bright and minerally and dry like champagne, and then you have something really kind of crispy and fatty and really warm. And, you know, we we do dark meat chicken. So you have a lot of kind of more rustic flavors.
SPEAKER_02:And it's even too, it's like it's like the high low, right? It's like fried chicken. Like you can go to any joint in eastern Arkansas or in the south and you know, cheap, delicious, beautiful fried chicken. And then on the opposite end of the spectrum, we're serving, you know, single grower champagne that's from France, that's super luxurious, and it's like it's funny to put them together. But it works, it works a thousand percent.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I mean, there's also caviar. And it's caviar from Missouri. I was just gonna ask where you get your caviar from.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so we we try to get local caviar, we get hackleback caviar from Missouri every year for it.
SPEAKER_01:So I'm pretty familiar with fish. I don't know what a hackleback is. What is that?
SPEAKER_02:So, in order to be caviar, uh, most of the time it has to be sturgeon, but they kind of make exceptions. So Hackleback is like a first cousin of Sturgeon, and then you have paddlefish, which is probably like the first cousin that you don't want to see from Sturgeon. But those three are are are referred to as caviar, and then any other like fish eggs is just row, so like trout row, salmon row, but those those three are are caviar.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, very cool. So, how do people if if uh do you have availabilities for this? How do people get to that?
SPEAKER_00:I think we're pretty much all down.
SPEAKER_02:We have a wait list, so you know it's still two weeks away from this Thursday, so people might cancel. So if people are are interested on the wait list.
SPEAKER_01:I had to ask. You understand?
SPEAKER_02:Sure, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:It's a lot of familiarity.
SPEAKER_02:It's a good problem to have, right? Like yeah, oh heck yeah, it is. So we're we're pretty excited about it.
SPEAKER_01:So uh we had a little time. You work together, your husband and wife. Have you always worked together in your relationship?
unknown:No.
SPEAKER_01:This is our first time.
SPEAKER_02:We ever worked with each other.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, what's that like?
SPEAKER_02:It's just like, I mean, it's everything. We if you're married, it's it's work, right? But for us at Cleita, I think, I mean, I think you might have touched on it, since she's she does beverage and she focuses on front of the house, and I do back, like I trust her, you know immensely with whatever she thinks needs to happen in front of the house or with beverage, like she's great at it, so I don't have like it's perfect actually. Does it make it makes that trust even easier? Even easier because I trust her because she's my wife, but I trust her because she's phenomenal at what she does. So it makes it like I I don't know. We got lucky, you know. I think.
SPEAKER_01:Is that reciprocated?
SPEAKER_00:I think so.
SPEAKER_01:I mean tough questions.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, it's I mean, if you work with your spouse, you understand it's much higher stakes, right? And the fact that we own our own business, you're already putting your blood, sweat, and tears into something that is your livelihood, but also something that you feel passionate about. You know, our biggest thing is trying to keep it at work. You know, when we bring when we bring home a bad day, it's both of our bad days. It's not just yours, it's not just mine, like me trying to, you know, vent and tell you about what a terrible day it's been. The other person already knows. And so it's kind of a double-edged sword because you want to be able to vent your spouse. You want to be able to have that support and for someone to listen, but you also want to leave it at work because it's a shared experience.
SPEAKER_02:Lisa's way better at that than I am. She's always the one it's like, hey, not now. Let's let's watch always more intense, aren't they?
SPEAKER_01:Is what kitchen staff is always more intense, anyways, really.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and right now, I mean, hiring is just a nightmare right now, and trying to get people knock on wood. The two guys that I have at Cleita, uh, my chef Nathan, he's been with me since day one. So he's been with me for almost five years. It's basically his kitchen now. And then we have a Sioux chef Gabe that's been with us for three years. I mean, I'm I'm very, very lucky that they can run Bar Clita and we can focus on on the big lieutenant right now.
SPEAKER_01:So I mean, that's a real luxury for any restaurant for any business, right? And you guys are starting uh you've started, but you guys are involved in a a business together that you own. That's like being anchored, anchoring two boats on one anchor. And that's really scary because my wife and I are in the same boat. We're in different boats, same anchor. Anyway, uh, what was that like originally when you started? Was it was it scary, or did you guys both know you were so good at this, because you really are, that it just wasn't going to be a problem until COVID.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, for me, I think I mean I've ran kitchens in New York City, Wisias ran, you know, beverage programs and things like that. We never owned anything ourselves, so I think for me it's like maybe kind of just being naive about some of the problems that you would have to think about being a business owner, and then those come later, I think. At least that's that's my experience. Um I think it's more difficult now than it was in the beginning. I think you're right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think that we knew that building our restaurant in Bentonville the time that we did it, we were early. We knew that we were kind of coming in early with a new concept that maybe a lot of people weren't familiar with.
SPEAKER_02:But we thought we were opening a casual restaurant with Barclay, and we quickly learned that people viewed us as like a fine dining restaurant.
SPEAKER_01:Very fine dining. Really? Yes. So so I certainly see it that way. So in what way am I incorrect in that?
SPEAKER_00:You're not incorrect. It's just our level of fine dining that we used to work in, you know, and especially in New York City.
SPEAKER_02:I mean I mean, I came from doing seven course tasting menus, wine pairings all the time, like much more intricate type things. We still took all of those things for us, but in our mind, Bar Cleita, it's like you could walk in and flip-flops and feel comfortable. Um, I guess maybe that's good to know. I'm noting that. I guess maybe it's it's just the ingredients and maybe the steps of service that we will that we use that that kind of gave people the illusion that we were fine-dining.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think that we can definitely issue a PSA and say, number one, there's no dress code as long as you're wearing clothing and shoes. I think we're in a good space. That's very reasonable. Yes. And the second PSA is exactly to what uh Trey is saying. I just called you Chef, by the way, Chef Trey. Um is that we find a lot of people kind of googling um words on their phone while they're reading our menu. And it's really interesting because our staff is incredibly trained. We we focus on it. They're phenomenal. They're phenomenal. We we put a lot of time and effort in talking about dishes and talking about ingredients and making sure that they can represent their product at the end of the day very well. And they really are the source of information. And we still find people kind of like being nervous and intimidated by words they don't understand. Obviously, a lot of um Trey's uh food is based in like kind of French fine dining too. So there are words that I understand that an average person who isn't used to maybe going to this type of restaurant doesn't understand. But you know, to PSA that, it's like you can definitely ask us. Like we're very willing to answer, we're very happy to answer.
SPEAKER_02:Staff knows and they and they enjoy doing that.
SPEAKER_01:And they have to know. And that's the difference between I think a really, really good restaurant with great staff. And I just notice this as a customer because I can be a difficult customer. I'm I'm that guy that'll be like, what should I order today? And that's just a lot of pressure on a waiter or waitress. Like, I don't know what. But I do like it when, you know, say I don't know what a pizzole is. Sure. You know, tell me. It's it shouldn't be a bad question.
SPEAKER_02:That's why they're there, right? Right? That's like we want all of our guests to come in and to kind of just take a pause from life for a little bit, and we want to be able to take care of them, whether it's giving them delicious food, suggesting a beautiful wine pairing, or just explaining what the dishes are. Like it's like come in, shut your brand off for a little bit, and let us take care of you. That's the goal.
SPEAKER_00:And it does kind of come full circle, even just talking about, you know, this honor that we've been um uh honored with in when wine enthusiasts, you know, our staff is a huge reason why we receive that honor. You know, the hospitality that we always trying to instill into them, they're already foodies, they're huge foodies, all of them. And maybe they didn't all start as foodies or people who are really into wine, but they're now all snobs. And I love that. But besides just the passion, these are people who are passionate about making people happy, like very much so. You know, when we do interviews and we try to build a staff, we're not always looking for experience. It doesn't really matter to us. It's more about are you teachable? Are you someone who at the end of the day wants to come in and give someone a good experience at the end of the day? You know, it doesn't really matter where you come from, it's all teachable. And I think that we were very, very blessed with staff that have stayed with us, like Chef Nathan from day one. You know, two of our managers right now have been with us pre-co since pre-COVID and we rely on them a hundred percent on the day-to-day.
SPEAKER_02:And these are people who take a lot of responsibility in what they do and I think take a lot of joy in giving people kind of this type of yeah, like Wheezy was just saying, I think one of the things that I always ask or I say when we're hiring a new team member, and again, it's like both restaurants are small, so it's not to sound corny, but it's a family, you know? So we're we're working very tight with each other, we're working close. But my thing is it's like I can teach someone how to cook, I can't teach someone how to care. So that's what we look for. We look for people that that care about what they want to do and end of the day, care about our guests because that's the whole point, right? Sure, cooking food is important, but we cook the food because we want to take care of our guests.
SPEAKER_01:It's part of caring, correct. Well, guys, thank you so much for joining me today. I really enjoyed getting into your head and getting into your space a little bit. Can't wait to get to Barclita here later this week. I want to thank everyone for listening as well. Remember, you can catch all of the new American Town podcast episodes on streaming channels, following our social platforms, or going to visitbentonville.com. Don't forget to follow Visit Bentonville on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok. We have a lot of exciting events coming to Bentonville in 2023. Check out our event calendar and plan your trip today. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time.