Ask a regular at Problem Child pizza where the best barbecue in Midtown used to be, and they will point at the floor they are standing on. Same dining room, same address, same neighborhood reputation for being the place worth driving to. Only the name over the door has changed.
That single building at 201 Keightley Drive has quietly become the most reliable indicator of what Midtown actually rewards. It is not chain-friendly real estate. It is not a space that sits vacant for long, either. Three different concepts have run that kitchen, and every one of them has been a genuine local favorite rather than a national name filling a gap. If you want to understand how this neighborhood eats, that address is a better guide than any list of new openings.
Three Restaurants, One Address
The building's résumé reads like a short history of Midtown's food identity.
| Restaurant | Known For | What Happened |
|---|---|---|
| Ozark Country Restaurant | The name locals still bring up when they talk about the building's history | Eventually closed, opening the door for the next tenant |
| Count Porkula | Competition-style barbecue, born as a food truck in 2008 before graduating to brick and mortar | Closed its Keightley Drive location on October 13, 2024, after operating in Midtown for nearly two years |
| Problem Child | New York-style pizza with a full bar and an 85-seat dining room | Opened in March 2025 and immediately became one of the most talked-about restaurants in the city |
What is notable is not that the tenant changed. Restaurants close everywhere. What is notable is what didn't happen. The building didn't sit dark for a year while a developer figured out what to do with it. It didn't get demolished for a drive-thru. It didn't go to a regional chain looking for a foothold in a growing corridor. Every operator who has run that kitchen has been a local one, betting their own name and their own money on a Midtown address.
The Restaurant That Filled the Barbecue's Shoes
Count Porkula's owners, Walt Todd and Kelly Lovell, said when they announced the closure that they needed a bigger room, one where more people could gather. That left an opening for whoever came next, and the people who took it had already proven they could build something from nothing.
Adam and Alicia Sweet are not new to the restaurant business. Adam, a Jacksonville, Arkansas native, started working in restaurants at 17 and later became a partner at Zaza in Conway. He and Alicia, a certified sommelier, went on to open King Dough and Natural State Provisions in Indianapolis before selling their shares and moving back to Arkansas. The couple put between $300,000 and $400,000 into transforming the Keightley Drive space, with Adam personally covering $50,000 of that investment. What they built was a full-service restaurant with room for 85 guests, a menu built around elevated pizza-shop staples like the War Pig and the Little Devil, salads, meatballs, chicken parmesan sandwiches, and a full bar pouring wine and cocktails.
The bet paid off fast. In the 2026 Arkansas Times Readers Choice Awards, Problem Child won both Best Pizza and Best New Restaurant for the Little Rock and North Little Rock market. The restaurant also picked up nominations for Best Dessert, Fun, Best Chef for Adam Sweet, Overall Restaurant, Salad, Sandwich, and Wings. That is not the record of a restaurant quietly getting by in a neighborhood spot. That is a restaurant that outgrew its own category.
The Twist Nobody Saw Coming
Here is where the story loops back on itself in a way that even longtime Midtown residents might have missed.
Count Porkula never fully disappeared after the Midtown closure. The barbecue restaurant kept its other location open at 10840 Maumelle Boulevard in North Little Rock, the spot that had operated alongside the Midtown location since 2022. That location closed too, sometime around June 2026, leaving Count Porkula without a storefront anywhere in Central Arkansas.
Problem Child announced in July 2026 that it is opening a second location, in North Little Rock, just east of Maumelle. The address is 10840 Maumelle Boulevard. The same building Count Porkula just left.
The pizza shop that took over the barbecue joint's Midtown building in 2025 is now taking over the barbecue joint's other building in 2026. That is not a coincidence anyone planned. It is what happens when one operator keeps winning and one keeps deciding it is time to move on, in a market small enough that the same handful of buildings keep changing hands between the same handful of ambitious owners.
The Mall Down the Street Is Having Its Own Second Act
Zoom out from Keightley Drive and the same pattern shows up at a much larger scale. Park Plaza Mall, the enclosed shopping center that anchors Midtown's retail identity, opened in 1960 as the first major shopping center in what was then called West Little Rock. It has been through more than one near-death experience since. The mall went into foreclosure in 2021 after its owners fell behind on a $99 million loan, and Deutsche Bank took ownership through the courts. In March 2023, a Florida-based investment firm called Second Horizon Capital bought the property with plans for what it described as a significant investment to bring the mall back, bringing in JLL as the new management company.
The mall's two Dillard's stores, run as flagship locations, were never part of any of that turmoil since Dillard's has always owned its own real estate there. But the rest of the property has spent the last few years proving the same point the Keightley Drive building proves on a smaller scale. Midtown's commercial backbone does not quietly decline when a tenant or an owner leaves. It changes hands and keeps going.
The Regulars Who Never Left
None of this reinvention has touched the restaurants Midtown residents already treat as their steady rotation. Crazee's Cafe, Trio's Restaurant, and Ciao Baci all continue to show up alongside Problem Child on local rankings of Midtown's best places to eat. Those places were not part of the Keightley Drive turnover story, and that is exactly the point. Midtown's food scene has room for both kinds of restaurants: the ones that have been dependable for years, and the one address that keeps producing the next big thing.
That mix is what makes a neighborhood feel settled rather than static. The regulars hold the center. The Keightley Drive building keeps proving there is still room for someone new to walk in, take a risk, and win.
If you already live in Midtown, none of this changes your Tuesday night plans much. But it is worth knowing that the corner you drive past on the way to Park Plaza has quietly become one of the best pieces of evidence in the city for how a neighborhood actually renews itself. Not through demolition. Through the same building, handed from one ambitious local owner to the next.
If you are watching Midtown for reasons beyond dinner plans, whether that is a future move, a sale, or just keeping an eye on what a neighborhood like this is worth, The Ellison Group pays attention to these details because they add up to something buyers and sellers both need to understand. Schedule a Free Market Consultation whenever you are ready to talk about it.
