Chef Dava Parr had a loyal customer following at Wall Street Eats, but the timing of that restaurant opening in September 2019 just months before the Covid pandemic hit turned out to be unfortunate. During the shutdown early in the pandemic, no one was eating out and Wall Street Eats was too new a business to get government financial aid available to many business owners.
“We put in a little side window and people could sit out on a deck near the window,” Dava said. “That kept us going, but it was a struggle. I just had to close it.”
For the next two years she worked as a chef at the Retreat at Sky Ridge, a drug and alcohol rehab treatment center. She loved that job, and it allowed her to create a little nest egg again. But when the Retreat went through a downsizing, she was laid off.
“I was taking it easy and thinking about going to work for the Eureka Market or offering my services as a yoga camp cook,” Dava said. “I had about given up having another restaurant because it is so expensive to start up. But I knew that Bill King and John Rankine had a place next to Brews that was vacant. I was able to work with Bill and began dreaming up the concept, painting the walls. My little brother, Jon, was in town and offered up the name. By January 2023, we were open.”
Located catty corner from the post office, So Good Kitchen at 2 Pine St. quickly became popular with people who love healthy food primarily sourced from local farms. Being next door to Brews has been a great fit because diners can go over there for more seating and to buy a beverage.
Dava cooks S.O.U.L. food.
“I coined a phrase about ten years back called S.O.U.L., which stands for Seasonal, Organic, Unprocessed and Local,” she said. “It describes how I cook. We always emphasize what is local and fresh because it tastes good. I have the ego of a chef; I want it to taste good.
“Also, our bodies need to be eating plants from the soil surrounding us in order to have the nutrients to eat right to thrive where we live. We change our menu three times a year depending on what’s available from local farms. We have two or three specials every day, and a different soup each day. We have special smoothies based on when fruit is ripe.
“My passion, talent and skills are nothing without having farms to sell me food. I can’t do what I do without them. I have the farmers dictate to me what’s in season. They ask me what I want them to grow. We help each other. I wouldn’t be a chef in a restaurant of my own without having farmers who help me.”
So Good Kitchen doesn’t use a grill or a fryer, so you won’t find a cheeseburger or French fries. Her most popular offerings include bowls with rice, grain and legumes topped with the customer’s preference of grilled veggies, tomatoes, pickled onions, alfalfa sprouts grown onsite, kimchi, crunchy pumpkin seeds, goat cheese, avocado and dressings. The bowls start out vegan, and then dairy, eggs, salmon, pork or chicken can be added.
Also popular are burritos, sandwiches and salads—with or without meat or fish.
“We are a vegan paradise for sure, but we are also an omnivore restaurant,” Dava said. “We feed vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians and carnivores. We have a tofu jerked panini but can also accommodate with a jerked pork panini. We buy three types of bread from a Harrison bakery called Neighborhood Mills. Those breads make our sandwiches very special. We also sell fresh squeezed juice and Marcy Brewster’s sparkling kefir. We always have three or four smoothies on offer.”
People with food allergies sometimes can’t chance eating out because not all restaurants are conscious of special dietary needs. For example, there can be gluten in unlikely foods, like soy sauce. Dava has alpha-gal syndrome, a tick-borne disease that leaves people being unable to eat any mammals or mammal products like dairy, or seaweed—which can look like meat to the body. So, as chef, she is very conscious about cooking for people with alpha-gal and other food allergies.
Because the restaurant is small, they don’t have a walk-in cooler or freezer. So, they shop every other day, which is also the way to assure the freshest ingredients. Dava gets a lot of help from Carrie Merry, who helps source fresh produce and dry goods through Eureka Market. “I couldn’t do this without her,” Parr said. “It also helps that I have the very best chef I have ever worked with, Emily Cumming. She is a well-rounded, accomplished chef. She and I come up with specials. A lot of patrons come in every day just for our specials. They just want to see what we create.”
More than a year after opening, the business is thriving.
“It really helps that a lot of people love Brews next door,” Dava said. “They can order their drinks at Brews. That saved me a couple years of floundering, and maybe closing prematurely. Having Brews’ partnership gave me the confidence to reopen a restaurant.”
Earlier in her life, Dava lived in Aspen, Colo., where she learned to cook, and Paonia, Colo., where she learned to grow an organic garden. In Paonia, she had a bed & breakfast called Fresh and Wyld, a large organic garden whose produce was sold and delivered to people as part of a CSA, and farmhouse dinners every Friday night. She also hosted weddings, served breakfast every day and sold at farmers’ markets. Those businesses took a lot of time. It was crazy busy.
Now in Eureka Springs, she has limited the hours of the So Good Kitchen from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays through Tuesdays, closing Wednesday and Thursday to have time to rest, play in her garden, do her yoga practice and hang out with friends. On Sunday, they are open for brunch from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. She plans to expand hours as the business increases.
For more information or to sign up for a newsletter, go to the website sogoodkitchenes.com. To get notice of the daily specials, like So Good on its Facebook page.