Date: April 26, 2020 | Story: Stephanie Maxwell Newton | Photography: Rett Peek | Styling: Lauren Cerrato |
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for the father-daughter duo behind Hillcrest Little Bakery
Little Rock locals who have frequented Hillcrest in the past year may have noticed the transformation of a small, nondescript residence 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-for-breakfast treat.
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.
Hillcrest Little Bakery aims to be good stewards of the planet by using as many reusable, recyclable, and compostable products as possible.
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.
Find out more about Hillcrest Little Bakery at hillcrestlittlebakery.com and follow along on Instagram (@hillcrestlittlebakery).
