The Root Café in Little Rock's SoMa district receives $50,000 national grant

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A Little Rock farm-to-table café in Little Rock's trendy SoMa district has received a national grant recognizing its uniqueness.

The Root Café in SoMa received a $50,000 grant from the Backing Historic Small Restaurants program, sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express. The Root Cafe was one of 50 restaurants in the country to receive this honor.

The grant acknowledges CAFE The Root’s farm-to-table operation. Representatives of the restaurant point out that 75% of the café’s food budget is spent locally, with a menu having ingredients from farmers and producers throughout Arkansas. This puts The Root Cafe in the top half of 1% of farm-to-table restaurants nationally.

Officials with the restaurant said the grant would be spent on beautification and improvement projects for the building’s outside, including new energy-efficient windows, fresh paint, patio updates, lighting repairs an...