When I graduated from Arkansas Tech in 1995, my family gathered at Yesterday’s Restaurant in Morrilton. At the time, it was a nice, pleasant sit-down restaurant with trellises and an upscale attitude.
That’s not the Yesterday’s of today, but that’s okay, because it evolved to suit a community’s needs.
The bar and grill (behind the Motel 6, as its receipt loudly indicates) is a long driveway off North Oak Street (Arkansas Highway 95) on the west side of town. The large eatery is about one third bar, two thirds tables and booths and all covered under a rather extensive menu. And sometimes, there’s popcorn when you come in the door.
But seriously – Yesterday’s embraces its location. It fully grabs onto the fact that it’s located in the home city of Arkansas’s own Petit Jean Meats, bedecking its menu with sausages, ham and bacon items all tagged with that Petit Jean name. I know of no other place where you can get Petit Jean Italian sausages served fried with mustard, flights of Petit Jean sausages with cheese curds and Jezebel sauce or an all hog dog featuring one of the company’s sausages topped with its bacon, pulled pork, barbecue sauce and slaw. There’s even a Petit Jean ham steak topped with peppers, onions and Petit Jean bacon as well as a Jethro burger topped with a hunk of Petit Jean bologna.
Yesterday’s Morrilton love also comes in their Blue Bonnet pizza, a town favorite, with that Italian sausage, beef, onions, peppers, mushrooms and extra cheese. Throw in some regional love with Diamond Bear products present not only at the bar but in the signature root beer float and you can see that Yesterday’s is a place that belongs in exactly this … place.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1881.
It’s not all meats, though they do inch over onto the salad menu, as in the steak salad, which is a whole six ounce Wahrmund Farms skirt steak cooked to order, sliced and laid on a bed of lettuce,with plenty of tomato, cheese, an egg and, for some reason, a pile of dried cranberries with your choice of dressing. I cannot imagine why anyone would need anything else ordering this oversized, unusually combined salad. Its proportions are unusual, the ratio of lettuce is pleasingly low (it’s not a bowl of iceberg with accoutrements) and it comes served with Captain’s Wafers crackers. And yes, when I asked for my steak rare, no one batted an eye.
That salad could have become my go-to from now on, but the menu is too deep for that. I’m a fan of the California chicken wrap, where the chunks of chicken are grilled together with the onions before being placed on tortilla, lettuce, guacamole and Monterrey jack and rolled. It’s a nice, hefty two-hander of a meal. The price tag on the Big Bang shrimp seems a little high ($9.99 for six) until you receive your appetizer and see these are the jumbo 10-12 size shrimp and realize you’ve really ordered an entree (the same fried shrimp are offered in the seafood dinner section) that comes with an incredible sweet-and-spicy sauce.
I love the fried cheddar cheese cubes — which, yes, are literally just cheese cubes battered and deep fried, but they’re a nice change from the mozzarella sticks everywhere else — and the fried mushrooms are boss. I do wish Yesterday’s would go back to offering the massive sampler platter they had a decade back with those cheese cubes, fried mushrooms, fried pickles and fried green beans, but all of those things are on the menu still, so it’s not like you’re missing out on anything.
This place, though, packs out on Thursdays with its all-you-can-eat spaghetti deal. You can choose regular with meat sauce, with Italian sausage, with meatballs or a combination. The meatballs are beef with little to no filler and the portions are plentiful. The noodles are thicker than traditional from-a-box spaghetti, with a great mouthfeel and the sauce is mild. I was surprised to be offered a special hot sauce specifically for the spaghetti (because some diners like it spicier). It wasn’t tremendously spicy but was obviously concocted to add to the existing sauce and I liked it — just a little bit of a bite, not too much. I was more surprised at the size of the platter of spaghetti for the all-you-can-eat option. There’s no skimping on the serving here! I noticed a woman a few seats away from me on her fourth plate. It’s that good.
Yesterday’s may be a great local well for those who partake, but it still delights as a restaurant. The atmosphere is far more boots and jeans than it was when I dined there 30 years ago and that’s appropriate not just for the time, but for the place. I suspect it’ll see quite a few tomorrows.
(Courtesy Photo/Kat Robinson)