LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Little Rock is evolving right before our eyes. New businesses are popping up daily, and the newest one, Waldo's Chicken & Beer, is open in the Breckenridge Village shopping center.
"It's day two of the opening of Waldo's in Breckenridge," Waldo's Chicken & Beer co-owner Tommy Keet said. "We were just really excited to have another space open in Breckenridge Village."
Keet said they currently have two other locations in Little Rock, but the one in Breckenridge Village stands out from the others.
"We've got a pool table, ping pong table, shuffleboard, and we've completely redone the courtyard so that it's astroturf so the kids can run around," Keet said.
Keet said this location is twice the size of the others, so they can include a bigger space and bar for people to hang out, which he said fits the aesthetic of Breckenridge Village.
"One of my good friends says that no married couple would ever fight about where they want to eat with their family again," Keet said. "We'll just say we'll go to Breckenridge and figure it out."
However, Keet isn't the only one excited to see the shopping center refocus from tornado recovery to redevelopment.
"Part of the development of a city is to embrace food and art and music," Waldo's Chicken & Beer co-owner Ben Brainard said. "This space is going to check every one of those boxes."
Brainard said it's nice to have the doors fully open, and the community can expect more to come.
"When we started talking about the strategic planning of the whole thing, we put a lot of thought into what made sense going into the space so that it can become something a little something for everybody," Brainard said.
The plan moving forward for Breckenridge Village is to apply for it to become an entertainment district. If approved, Keet said the community will be able to walk from place to place with alcoholic beverages and "have a good time and enjoy good food."