TASTE

Cooked to Order Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for the father-daughter duo behind Hillcrest Little Bakery LOCAL BITES

WRITER STEPHANIE MAXWELL NEWTON PHOTOGRAPHER R E T T P E E K STYLIST LAUREN CERRATO

Find out more about Hillcrest Little Bakery at hillcrestlittlebakery.com and follow along on Instagram (@hillcrestlittlebakery).

Little Ro k lo als who have frequented Hill rest in the past year may have noti ed the transformation of a small, nondes ript residen e near Markham Street into a bustling neighborhood bakery. That’s thanks to Scott Loye and his daughter, Zara Schmidt, who celebrated the opening of Hillcrest Little Bakery earlier this year.

“It was cool to see how excited the community was about it. The first few weekends there was a line out the door of people waiting,” Zara says, noting their limited seating only adds to the cozy atmosphere. The menu has all the makings of a sweet-meets-savory Southern breakfast—eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy, and pancakes— but with influences from all around the country. From hot chicken in Nashville to donuts in Chicago, Scott can usually point to the exact meal that made him think, We should do this in Little Rock. “I fell in love with this one place in Seattle—not only did they have great biscuits, but they had a small kitchen that could put a lot of food out,” he says.

One such menu item is the bananas Foster pancakes, which were inspired by Scott’s childhood trips to New Orleans, the birthplace of bananas Foster. Here, he and Zara share their recipe for the sauce that transforms a typical short stack into a dessert-forbreakfast treat.

RECIPE Bananas Foster Sauce SHOP ¼ cup butter 1 cup brown sugar ½ teaspoon cinnamon ½ ounce banana liqueur 1 banana, quartered handful of walnuts, chopped 1 ounce dark rum

PREPARE Combine butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a flambé pan or skillet over low heat. Cook, stirring until sugar dissolves. Stir in banana liqueur, then add bananas and walnuts to the pan. When bananas begin to soften and brown, carefully add rum. Continue to cook until rum is hot, then use a long match or grill lighter to ignite the sauce. When flames subside, lift bananas out of the pan and place over pancakes. Spoon sauce generously over the stack and serve immediately.

FULL PLATE Craving something more on the savory side? We recommend the croque madame. Hillcrest Little Bakery puts a Southern spin on the French sandwich by serving it atop a buttery biscuit and alongside crispy breakfast potatoes.

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