A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas

NWA Transplants Embrace a New American Town

• Visit Bentonville • Season 7 • Episode 18

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Brittany and Amin, the dynamic pair behind @NWATransplants recount their unlikely love affair with Bentonville—a city they once couldn't locate on a map. We hear about their passion for the culinary and cultural scene. And it's not just about tantalizing taste buds; there's a deeper resonance in the way they've embraced community that makes their story so special. 

Follow along their food adventures on Instagram @nwatransplants on Tik Tok at @nwatransplants

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Beth Bobbitt:

Welcome to A New American Town, a podcast proudly presented by Visit Bentonville. I'm your host, Beth Bobbitt, broadcasting from Haxton Road Studios near the beautiful downtown Bentonville Square. Join us as we share stories, insights and happenings from our city, connecting you with the locals who make this town worth visiting. Okay, so this is a treat. Brittany and Amin are here from Northwest Arkansas Transplants. Welcome to you both. Thank you for joining. Thank you for having us.

Amin:

Yes, thank you for having us.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yes, of course, your Instagram is pure gold. I love the way you showcase the rich culture of Northwest Arkansas and help our transplants as well as residents. I've lived here most of my life and I'm learning a lot from your feed, so not only do you share about the food experience, but you take a deep dive into the menu and talk about the ambiance and it's just been so great. So you hail from Buffalo, New York Is that right, Brittany? And then Toronto, Canada.

Amin:

That's right.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yep, okay, so you've lived here for a few years. You met in dental school, is that right?

Amin:

Correct, that's right.

Beth Bobbitt:

Okay, take us back to that time. So you had heard of Northwest Arkansas and Bentonville. What were your expectations? And then, what has been your experience since?

Amin:

It's a great question.

Brittany:

So Arkansas first came like on the list of possibilities in January of 2020. So we met in dental school, we went to separate residencies and then mine was two years, his was three, so we were on Long Island for his last year and we're kind of brainstorming where we wanted to live next and, um, we wanted to be near an international airport, by the ocean and have access to, like, professional sports teams. Um, and Arkansas came on the list and I was like, absolutely not, I was. I was like you can go to Arkansas by yourself. I will not be going. I'm like you're from Canada, you don't even know, yeah, and I thought it was like closer to California.

Brittany:

Really.

Amin:

So I was like this is going to be great.

Brittany:

I love hearing these stories and like full disclosure. I didn't know where it was either, but I knew it wasn't near California. I was like I know that's incorrect. And then COVID hit and so the jobs for Amin's specialty when he got out kind of dried up really quick and there weren't many options and it was kind of a weird time I was laid off for three months and Arkansas remained on the list. So we came to check it out and it was spring.

Amin:

We visited North Dakota first.

Brittany:

That was weird things happen during COVID. You like you entertain things Maybe you you wouldn't normally.

Brittany:

Right Um and North Dakota is cool, but it's very flat and there's it's not so deciduous, there's not a lot of trees, and so we had been there like the week before, and then we came to Arkansas and it was May and we landed and I think that's just the perfect time to see the area because it is just green and lush and beautiful, and his employer at the time showed us a couple of different places. We went to that bar above Preacher's Son.

Amin:

Yeah, we walked around the square.

Brittany:

Yeah, we did Devil's Den, so we did some of that stuff and we were like we could actually see ourselves here. And then we moved and we say we traded professional sports teams for the Razorbacks and we traded an ocean for Beaver Lake and an international airport for XNA, which we love because you can pull in and out without getting yelled at at all.

Beth Bobbitt:

No one yells at you. It's wild.

Brittany:

So some things that we thought were priorities maybe weren't, and I'm in a place in my career where I am a co-owner of Storms and Switterski Orthodontics, so I can treat patients the way that I feel like they should be treated, like family. So you can't find that everywhere. And so we traded some priorities.

Beth Bobbitt:

Well, we're glad you compromised, because now we get to have your expertise here and I want to hear way more about your food journey. But first we start off the podcast usually with a warm-up question. So what does a dream day in Bentonville look like for you both and where you can answer collective or individually? Set the scene, what's the temperature, what are you doing, what are you eating so for?

Amin:

For me it has to be spring, spring, I think I would start. I would. I want to check 21c the hotel, actually like the rooms, like I've been around the museum, part of it and everything, but I think would start there at 21 c you want to start waking up at 21c yeah yeah that's perfect and I'm gonna need coffee immediately.

Brittany:

Um so probably onyx for a latte, love it oh, for sure, yes um, and then one thing we like to do when we're like showing off the area is bring people to the walmart museum. We must have went like six times our first year, like just with people visiting and stuff.

Amin:

Yeah, I love showing it off to people.

Brittany:

Yes, Is there like a rewards card we can get? Do you have a sponsor yet? Um, and we love like for a breakfast spot. We love India Mart, which is maybe not your like traditional breakfast spot around here, but we love because we usually do more brunch than breakfast yeah, but they have dosas, um, and we love like a masala dosa and a mango lassi and that would be the perfect like brunch breakfast for us, maybe not for everybody, yes, um crystal bridges oh yeah, we can.

Amin:

What outside the walkway?

Brittany:

yeah, the Crystal Bridges has tons of art and it's beautiful, but we also like the outside is such a unique space too yeah tons of art on the trails too yes, yeah, there is it's a very cool and like internationally known like when we're flying next to people on the airplane. Sometimes they're coming just for the museum right um, where would we have lunch? Um if we're hungry yeah we could get Meld yes, Meld is a really good sandwich spot. It's kind of tucked away, but it's hours are like they close at seven.

Amin:

So if it was on a day that we could do that that'd be great, yeah um back to Bentonville Square yeah, go to the check out the bars though the rooftop one yeah, tower bar yeah uh-huh, that's a really cool view.

Brittany:

Or you know that? Preacher Son bar is always special to us, and there's all those little shops around Bentonville Square. There's like a ton of small boutiques. We could go in and probably not buy anything, but we would look at a lot. Yes, appetizers. Oh, we would go to Conifer. This day is filled with food. Yeah, of course it is. We've endless stomachs in this vision.

Amin:

Probably go to Conifer for the appetizers. And then dinner would go to Bar Cleeta.

Brittany:

That's probably one of our favorite date night spots. Love it Because it's right on the square too, so it's a really fun ambiance and a new one that just opened for maybe after that would be Butter Scotch Bar oh, I haven't been there yet. You haven't. It's very Instagrammable so modern and chic and I love the name. I didn't realize it quite at first, but Butter Scotch because there's bakery on the first floor and the second floor is the bar. So what?

Brittany:

else could you possibly want, like just oh, that's perfect if we stay awake yeah, we haven't been here, but backroom social is in like the upcoming music and arts district of Bentonville, but I'm always too tired to make it there. But every time we see him we're like we're going to come. Well, this is a dream day. So you're awake you're caffeinated.

Beth Bobbitt:

I would have needed a second coffee at some point, but yeah those places are fantastic and we love all that Bentonville has.

Brittany:

It's really a unique area.

Beth Bobbitt:

Perfect, and I should have put a trigger warning on this If you're not hungry when you start you will be by the end of this. So let's get back to food. Tell us your thoughts, just generally, on the culinary scene in Northwest Arkansas. What surprised you? What are your favorite hotspots? You've named a couple.

Brittany:

Yeah, we love the food scene in all of Northwest Arkansas and that's a question that in my consults that's what I ask my patients. I'm like, what's your favorite place to eat? And then that's kind of our opener, our warm-up question. We love how much growth there is and with that comes growing pains, but it's a place that's really welcoming to small businesses and to new restaurants. So there's always somewhere new opening and it's really exciting to see. And also it's more diverse than we thought it would be. It's less diverse than the area we came from, but more diverse than we thought it would be.

Amin:

Yeah, and I think we see a lot of local support for local businesses here as well, um, which is really nice to see yeah.

Beth Bobbitt:

And to that end, what do you want to see more of? What do you think is missing? International food?

Brittany:

For us it's. We love international food. I know maybe that's not everybody's um taste, but like there's still some food cultures that are missing that. If anybody out there wants to open a spot, we'd be into it. Um Persian food. Um Ethiopian food. We love Ethiopian. That's something we get whenever we travel. Bentonville is great for Indian food, like that's. We were just in Amin and was like do you want to get Indian? I'm like we've got great Indian like fantastic Indian food here, so that's a bonus, but yeah.

Amin:

But I always feel like there's something coming. Yeah, that's what I'm always like. There's going to be another restaurant coming up very soon where it's like what are they going to be? Just wait a week, yeah, literally.

Brittany:

just wait a week Like Chinese food. We don't have a ton of like, we could just have more. You know I'm happy with what we have, but I'll always want a little more.

Beth Bobbitt:

Yeah, understandable. Well, thanks to you, my family had a fun like family night out Saturday. We went to Flashback Pizza, oh good, and my husband cares about the food a lot and your video was really helpful, and my daughter cares about the experience a lot and I am all about the ambience, and so you know, I love that you could kind of peel back the curtain a little bit.

Brittany:

And so, thank you, I'm glad to hear that and that's what we focus on too is showing that in our video and then in our write up. Maybe you get a little bit more of like what my personal views are, but taste is subjective, so everyone should try it and make their own choices.

Beth Bobbitt:

Right, right. So any advice for someone thinking about moving or visiting Bentonville in terms of either culture, community, food.

Brittany:

We always say that no matter who your people are, you'll be able to find them in Northwest Arkansas. I wouldn't say that that process is easy. We moved here not knowing a single soul, like, obviously we couldn't find it on a map either, and it wasn't easy, but it's doable. But you have to put yourself out there and you have to be looking for your community. But if you are, your community will find you there and you have to be looking for your community.

Brittany:

But if you are, your community will find you, and there's so many different ones here that whatever that is to you, you'll be able to find it. There's so many great things that the Northwest Arkansas, or Bentonville specifically, can offer that I definitely think it's worth trying somewhere new, and you can't grow if you're not uncomfortable Absolutely.

Amin:

It's not going, not gonna be easy, but it'll be worth it.

Beth Bobbitt:

That's great advice remind us where we can find you online so we are.

Brittany:

Our is @NWA Transplants on Instagram and on Tiktok and for if you want to contact us. Sometimes those messages end up in the like, request or other folder. If we haven't responded, or something like that, feel free to shoot an email NWATransplants at hotmail. com, because Amin loves Hotmail. Yeah.

Amin:

I do.

Beth Bobbitt:

A little throwback there. Yeah Well, thank you both for coming in and sharing your food experiences, and now that we're all hungry we can go break for lunch. But first check out at Northwest Arkansas Transplants on Instagram or TikTok before your next night out. 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 the newsletter and check out the website at visitbentonvillecom. Thanks for listening.