#BecauseBentonville, a project of the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce, calls it widescreen living. A 360-degree human experience revealing a past, present and future that connects us to nature, to the world, and to each other by organically weaving arts and culture, the outdoors, culinary excellence, and the power of human relationships into people’s everyday lives.
Town and Country Magazine, “the authority on modern society”, gave readers a glimpse of this 360-degree experience in their recent article entitled “7 Things to Do in Bentonville, Arkansas”. The article highlights Crystal Bridges, the art trails around the museum, the Frank Lloyd Wright house, the Walmart five-and-dime, Slaughter Pen Mountain Bike Park, 21c Museum Hotel, and the Preacher’s Son, which taken together is exemplary of the organic weaving mentioned above.
This experience also shows up in places like the Scott Family Amazeum, where residents like Ivy and Shawn Barney regularly take their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Lulu to explore the intersection of science, education and the arts.
And again in places like the 8th Street Market, where both The Holler: A Local Hangout and Mai Papaya just recently celebrated grand openings.
The Holler is a 10,000 square foot experiential community space that offers residents and visitors alike a place to eat, drink, work, play, and more. The hangout houses three shuffleboard courts and specially-designed workspaces.
Mai Papaya, the latest addition to the South Market, is a southeast Asian kitchen serving comfy food. Dishes range from wild sticky rice (purple), to a spicy Thai chicken salad, to ground beef laab, to khao piak, and Lao sausage, plus many more. Don’t know what any of those are?! Go check it out and discover a whole new side of the not-so mainstream dishes of southeast Asia!
Mai Papaya joins Sweet Freedom Cheese and Pure Joy Ice Cream. The three will soon be joined by Kalye Manila (Filipino Food) and La Fonda (Colombian Street Food).
When people ask us how we found this level of satisfaction in our lives, the answer is simple: #BecauseBentonville.
GREATER BENTONVILLE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The thread that binds all of these together is clear; a small city that is betting its economic future on delivering experiences that can’t be found anywhere else.
Cover photo courtesy of @bangsandbalance on Instagram.
