It's not easy for a woman business traveler, despite all the advances. We criss-cross the US, land in strange places at odd hours and still have to eat a decent meal to fuel us for our next day. Landing in Little Rock, where everyone sounds like Bill Clinton, I wonder what dinner will bring. I soon find out. Bourbon sounds to the left at the bar at PF Chang's pan-Asian restaurant and cell phone chatter to the right. It's a decidedly weeknight Southern happy hour mixed with out-of-area business travelers. I gravitate here because of the predictable menu and convenience to my hotel.
All of which normalizes what could be a jarring scene after a ding-dong long day.
I find an end seat next to the animated stand-up order area but, thank heavens, with a guy to my right with a wedding band who doesn't whoop like the rest. (They whoop a lot in the South.) I also lucked into a seat at the TV end showing college basketball versus the girlie sitcom shows 15 seats away. My neighbor doesn't try to hit on me, which is absolutely perfect. I ease into my Wall Street Journal, as an amenity for a day of traversing the US, and he pencils in his crossword puzzles and talks to his wife on the cellphone. Winding down, like me.
OK, PF Chang's -- been there, done that, in Palm Springs and LA, but never more welcome than in suburban Little Rock. I enjoyed one totally dependable corporate-fostered, quality-controlled Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon Steamed With Ginger -- prepared over asparagus and mushrooms and served with naked brown rice. Healthy eating is possible though not automatic once you get outside of the big cities.
Arkansas, like Texas and other Southern parts, seems to call for the armament of a man. Who else can josh with the bartenders about cars and football??? For me, being able to comfortably settle into the bar for dinner as a solo woman traveler at dependable PF Chang's smoothes the transition, just like the Starbuck's in every airport (including here) and the Pottery Barn in every city of a certain size. As one who typically seeks unique localized experiences, on a business trip it is comforting to arrive late, be starving and know what I'm getting.
