September 3, 2025 • 19 mins
Join us inside the heart of Downtown Bentonville’s Motto Hotel at Junto, with chef Donovan Johnson. In this episode of Dining Out Bentonville, host Biju Thomas uncovers Donovan’s journey through Bentonville’s dining culture to Junto.
Discover how this popular restaurant elevates the downtown culinary scene through sushi, hospitality, and community. This episode is a must-listen for food lovers, business travelers, and anyone curious about the flavors fueling Bentonville’s rise.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Biju Thomas (00:00):
Dining Out Bentonville.
Beyond the menu, behind theflavor.
Hey everybody, welcome toanother episode of Dining Out
Bentonville with me, bijou, andour lovely friends at Visit
Bentonville.
Today we're coming to you fromthis beautiful little hidden
sushi place named Junto, just afew feet off the square of
(00:22):
downtown Bentonville, inside theMotto Hotel, and stick around,
we're going to give theirinterpretation of a beautiful
little grilled cheese right here.
Chef Donovan, how are you, bud?
It's so great to meet you.
Thanks for joining us and doingthis.
What a lovely place you havehere.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Yeah, you did all this.
Huh, all of it by myself.
(00:43):
Unbelievable.
It's a big team to make thishappen.
Yeah, so I've been fortunateenough to move to Bentonville
just a couple of years ago and Icome from Colorado, which is
also another landlocked state.
I did not expect there to bethis level of sushi available in
the middle of Arkansas.
Yeah, sure, what is happening?
Why is this happening?
Donovan Johnson (01:03):
this happening.
Oh well, the only way to makeit happen is very carefully,
with a lot of special planning.
Okay, um, so we have a lot ofgreat vendors that are out in
japan specifically.
All right, luckily we're ableto get some of the fresh fish
delivered morning of, caught themorning of and get it to our
doorsteps within from japan.
From japan.
Get out, really so it'll be.
Uh, flying out of some of thenorthern islands in japan flies
(01:26):
directly to a refrigerationairport in san francisco.
Okay, gets delivered that samenight over to here.
We have it at our doorstepwithin about 44 hours that is
craziness.
Biju Thomas (01:36):
So we're legit downtown.
The downtown bentonville squareis right there.
We're in the middle of arkansas, which is in the middle of the
country.
Obviously, it rains a lot here,but that doesn't mean fresh
seafood and the level of, youknow, sushi and the level of
food that you guys are doinghere is so beautiful.
Thank you.
I've been lucky to be able tocome here a few times because I
live within walking distance and, you know, in addition to the
(01:58):
food, of course, the physicalspace is just incredible.
Donovan Johnson (02:09):
You don't expect this.
When you're in Bentonville justwalking down the street and you
come in here, how do youexplain the space?
What is happening here?
The best way I can explain itis it's intimate, real nice
tight quarters, as well as verylarge at the same time.
The way we kind of have itbroken out to you is in three
separate sections.
We have our main dining room inhere.
It's a little more elevated,like I said, a little intimate.
Um, you'd want to celebrate,like special occasion,
anniversaries, birthday.
It's nice.
Here we have our inside bar,kind of the same theme but a
(02:31):
little bit louder, more livelyin there, yeah, and then right
out here at the back doors, wehave our bar capu.
How do you pronounce?
Biju Thomas (02:37):
that bar capu, bar capu.
So it's spelled k a p?
U.
Yes, it's a tiki, bar right,it's a tiki and I couldn't tell
is it kapu or kapu?
So it's bar kapu.
If you're wondering bar kapu,okay, please sorry oh sure, yeah
, because I didn't know how topronounce this.
I've been like, yeah, there yougo, bar kapu.
Donovan Johnson (02:55):
Yeah, the bar kapu.
Outside it's a little bit moreof an upscale tiki bar.
It's not just Japanese food,it's more Polynesian island food
, a good variety of everything.
Nice, it's a little bit louderout there.
We'll often have fun events outthere.
We'll have a DJ that comes outweekly, sometimes nightly.
Out there we got a nice littleRobata.
It's a Japanese grill.
We'll work everything up offthat.
Is that visible?
(03:16):
Is that behind the bar?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can goout there see it.
Guests can interact, talk totheir stuff working out there.
Biju Thomas (03:21):
Because I've sat at the bar there.
You've got that beautiful barwith the great outdoor courtyard
space.
It's totally unexpected whenyou're walking down the alley,
gorgeous space, and then so youhave the Roboto, roboto, roboto,
roboto Japanese grill.
Am I saying any of these thingsright?
No, that sounds right.
Roboto.
Right behind the bar.
It's fantastic, beautiful spaceand, especially on a warm night
(03:44):
, nothing like a big, fun,delicious cocktail and a little
bit of smoke and food happeningoutdoors.
It's nice.
Donovan Johnson (03:51):
You can smell it walking down on the other
side of the square.
That's pretty dang cool by thesmell.
Biju Thomas (03:55):
Yeah, one more question to the space.
The space feels very much likea warm, like it's somebody's
basement full of records andbooks.
Yeah, I mean, there are recordsright there.
They're stacks and stacks andstacks of old vinyl records.
Um, what is that theme or howdoes that tie into everything
happening?
Donovan Johnson (04:13):
it kind of hits around on the 70s, 80s, along
with like a little bit of likeJapanese upscale.
Um, it kind of makes it alittle bit more interactive.
Over here on the other side ofthe building we have our our
record room or listening room.
We have a nice, beautiful,round, comfortable couch.
Uh, we have a nice recordplayer in there with a preamp
hooked up to some really nicespeakers.
Oh nice, all those records yousee over there hanging on the
(04:34):
shelves.
Guests can come up, pull oneoff, take it over that room and
kind of jam out.
That's awesome.
As much as it is decoration, itis interactive that is awesome
because it definitely has thatvibe.
Biju Thomas (04:44):
If you just want to chill, listen to music, hang
out with your friends, itdoesn't feel like a place where
you got to rush in and rush out.
Oh no, some places have thatfeeling like, okay, you get your
food and get out, we got to seemore people no, we'll keep you
here.
Donovan Johnson (04:55):
If you want to get out, we can help you get out
.
But most people come in lookingfor like a full-on experience.
Yeah, and it's a nice course.
That can have it coarse stoutor you can come in for a quick
bite and bounce pretty quick ifyou want to.
Biju Thomas (05:06):
That is definitely how it feels and I was telling
you earlier.
Sometimes you come in here likeright now obviously it's not
busy yet because we're recording, so the place feels rather
intimate.
But when you come in here andit's busy, it's almost like the
space expands.
It feels like twice the sizewhen it's full of people, where
a lot of restaurants have theopposite vibe.
When it's full, it just feelscrowded.
This place is built for justbig, loud groups of people
(05:29):
having fun together.
It's very cool.
Yeah, absolutely.
How long have you been makingsushi?
How long have you been in theJapanese food space?
Donovan Johnson (05:37):
So, with us opening up in the middle of last
summer that's when I joined onwith the company, so I'm
relatively new to the Japanesecuisine experience.
I've been in the industry for awhile I got lucky enough to
meet with our head of Japanesecuisine within our company,
Indigo Road.
His name is Chef Masa Hamaya,head of a Japanese cuisine
within our company, indigo Road.
His name is Chef Masa Himaya,and he's kind of been the one to
(05:58):
help me navigate with operatingrunning this restaurant, along
with his long-term expertise inthis cuisine.
So really the only way thiswhole place works or happens is
with a collective group effort,and it's everybody's little bit
of help is what makes it run.
Biju Thomas (06:11):
It's a big operation, so do you all do does
this hotel do room service also?
Donovan Johnson (06:17):
No, not currently, so a little bit on
the hotel side.
So we do have like a goodamount, I believe, like 174
rooms up in here.
Really they're a little bitmore minimalistic, they're nice
sleek, but the whole vibe of iteven like there's not even a
coffee maker up in there.
So we do have a nice littlelovely coffee shop called Kohi
over here and the whole theme ofit is to kind of drive,
navigate people down to thisbottom floor big hangout space,
(06:40):
be it.
If you're coming down to dosome office work, zoom meetings,
want to meet up with people.
Like I said, listen to somerecords Drives people down.
Here you can get some wonderfulcoffee that we partner with
Onyx with using their beans, andpeople can walk up from outside
on the sidewalk walk up to thecoffee yeah, we get.
Yeah, we kind of have like abike drive-thru window is what I
always find cool.
Biju Thomas (06:58):
Yeah, yeah, it's nice yeah, and for folks that
are visiting for the first time,you'll notice, there's the
ledger building, which is rightacross street, which has a ramp
that you can take from thesidewalk all the way to the top
of the seventh floor, and Ibelieve that's the only building
of its kind so far anywhere inthe world.
I'm gonna go with anyone in theworld, and originally when I
heard about this hotel opening,the whole idea was this hotel is
(07:20):
opening to support people thatare coming into town for work,
for meetings, to ride your bikes, whatever.
There's a bike shop opening upsoon in here that will build up
your equipment.
Get it ready for you.
Have it ready.
You have a great dinner, havebreakfast, have coffee, go do
your thing, drop.
They ship it home to you.
It's all like between just afew feet.
Here it's a full serviceoperation, which is really cool.
(07:41):
That's awesome.
So on the restaurant side, arethere more Junetos around the
country, or is this it?
Donovan Johnson (07:48):
So we're the only Juneto, but within our
parent company it's called Oku.
So you'll see, we have a few ofthose over on the east coast,
charleston being, like our homebase main operation, oh nice.
So we'll have people beingdifferent, different name junto
compared to oku, but we'll havepeople who, over on the east
coast, a lot of like you said, alot of people either come out
here to bike or business tripsor whatnot.
(08:08):
They'll come in and be like, ohmy gosh, this tastes just like
some same great sushi I had eastcoast and yeah we kind of like,
reluctantly, we're like, oh hey, like we are actually them.
So you can't find us elsewhereon the east coast, but junto is
its own little special thingright, that's very cool.
Biju Thomas (08:23):
Yeah, okay, so you're.
You've been here for how manyyears now, how long you've been?
Donovan Johnson (08:27):
in.
I've been here, northwestarkansas, about 15 years.
I've been here working on thesquare in downtown bentonville
for about seven years all.
Biju Thomas (08:34):
so as somebody who technically you're a native.
Now, if you've been here morethan two years, you're
technically a native, yeah, soyou've been here long enough to
where you know what's happening.
When you've got friends andfamily visiting that are coming
out for the first time, where doyou send them?
What is your favorite thing todo or send people to go and do
Somebody who's visiting?
Where do we send them?
Donovan Johnson (08:53):
Be it from here .
Well, so I mean I'm going to bebiased and I love to have
friends and family come here,but it's nice.
You can come on a weekend nightwhenever we have that outdoor
amphitheater, the momentary.
It's awesome to come out Eat atone of like the nice local
great restaurants we have here.
I believe you hit up Conifer,matt Cooper over there a bunch
(09:14):
of great places to go eat at, avariety of restaurants to go eat
at, and then you can either gohit up some nice live shows, go
on bike trails there's just somuch to do around here.
Biju Thomas (09:23):
You know you bring up a good point Because it's
such a small community ofrestaurants and you've been here
as it's grown.
You've been here as it's grown,as have other people on your
staff, so you've been able towatch as these things are
happening and you've all beenable to support each other and
help each other and growtogether, which is really cool.
Donovan Johnson (09:39):
It's nice, yeah .
So, like a lot of therestaurants all around here,
we're pretty close knit, likeoften if, say, we have a supply
that didn't get to make it in.
We're all nice, tight, reallygood friends.
We'll borrow from each other,help support each other.
Biju Thomas (09:59):
Even often like we'll do like restaurant week
around here and a lot of us willpartner with other restaurants,
come up with a special, uniqueitem.
That is like highlighting bothrestaurants and then serve it
for the week.
That's awesome, okay, that'ssomething that would not happen
in the vast majority of citiesaround the world.
Yeah, for one.
Physically, everyone's toospread out.
You know you're too far awayfrom other people too.
Unless you grew up with thesepeople, unless you spent time in
kitchens together and in towntogether, you would never be
that comfortable.
Yeah, sure, but how cool isthat?
Donovan Johnson (10:20):
Oh, it's nice.
Yeah, I mean I could go walkdown occasionally if I'm taking
like a quick break beforeservice starts, I'll go visit my
good friends over at Evan Tapps, just a 30 second walk over
there, be able to hang out, chatfor a little bit.
Vice versa, they can come overhere.
They get off work.
We're open a little bit later,say I'll be outside cooking on
the robota, I get to have myother chef buddies come out and
hang out.
Biju Thomas (10:39):
We just get to eat good food yeah, that, uh, pretty
much makes it all worthwhile tomove to a small town.
Nice, get a job in a kitchen,work your way up and kind of
have a community.
You know where you get to dothe thing that you love to do
with friends, which is prettydang awesome.
Nice, okay, on the menu here.
What's your favorite thing thatyou like to eat on the Junto
menu?
Oh gosh, other than the grilledcheese, of course, which is not
(11:02):
on the menu.
It's only a super-secret menu,but if you had to pick one thing
that's a star of your menu sofar, you can pick a couple.
Donovan Johnson (11:09):
Okay, I'm a big sucker for our just classic
nigiri.
We get some amazing bluefintuna in.
We get the whole fish in, so weget to break down the whole
part.
You can either get the belly,any other sides of it.
Our sushi team does an amazingjob with all of our nigiri.
So if you're going down thatroad, we do have some signature
nigiris where of course, you canget like your classic take on,
(11:33):
you know, like fan favorites,traditional Japanese sushi, as
well as like different takes onit as well as we do some Hakko
sushi box.
So it's a little bit more ofold school sushi as opposed to
your roll maki mono.
Yeah, this is a box press oneand this is my favorite as far
as like actual individual piecesushi goes.
But it's the rice is mixed withsquid ink, real dark, rich.
(11:57):
As well as then, we'llincorporate some tempura fried
lobster, mix that in with it,top it with some spicy egg.
Biju Thomas (11:59):
This sounds amazing .
This is on the regular menu.
Yes, oh well, okay, pleasesorry.
Oh, I mean that's amazing.
Donovan Johnson (12:04):
So, like you can get a variety of, like I was
saying, of traditional Japanesecuisine, as opposed for just
sushi we do on our menu isfilled with a whole bunch of
other hot items, so we'll get alot of people who come in.
Uh, a lot of people around inthis area are still really new
to sushi shore fish so we haveplenty of hot items to go around
as well.
Uh, rock shrimp it's one of ourmore popular ones tempura fried
(12:27):
rock shrimp and then it'stossed in a gin, juniper, berry
base aioli.
It's sweet, pretty savory, yeahyeah.
And then, of course, our baobuns are pretty dang popular.
We've got a little bit of beef,short ribs and pickled red
onion oh man, a little bit ofmicro cilantro.
Sesame seeds Sell a ton ofthose.
Biju Thomas (12:43):
It all sounds pretty spectacular.
Okay, so a second ago, what wasthe one you were talking about?
The gin, juniper berry, aeolianRock shrimp, rock shrimp.
How is that served?
Donovan Johnson (12:52):
So I mean, it's a share plate like kind of the
theme of our restaurant, Like itdoesn't have to be, but it's
intent to share with a group ofpeople, oh, nice, so that just
comes out on just like a littlebit of lettuce for a garnish.
Yeah, yeah, the highlight of itup, nice, high, served with a
little lemon wedge.
If you want to, you can hit itup with a little bit more acid
and it's just amazing simple byitself.
Biju Thomas (13:12):
Yeah, that's such a cool combination of flavors.
You've got those really brightherbal notes gin and juniper and
then to bring it together witha little bit of aioli and a
little crunchy shrimps thelittle rock shrimp, the little
guys.
They're perfect because you canpick up a couple in a bite.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
So I know we've got a grilledcheese coming, but I've got more
questions about food.
(13:32):
If that's all right, yeah, sure, for non-fish eaters and
non-seafood eaters, what's kindof the highlight of the menus?
Donovan Johnson (13:38):
Okay, so we do some.
Talking about Kapu, we havesome nice Wagyu smash burgers.
Okay, little sliders onHawaiian kind of hints, on the
little bit of a tropical islandtheme.
Uh, as much as we can, we tryto order local, so that ground
wagyu comes from a little farmabout two hours outside of here.
All right, sean bansley's.
So amazing, amazing pork andbeef there.
(14:00):
Let's see what else can we do.
Again, back on the bao beeflocal meat beef rib from
bansley's as well, as well as avariety of we do a lot of
seasonal salads.
It's rolled out local greens,again from local farmers, with a
little bit of a Yuzu pinkpeppercorn vinaigrette and local
strawberries as well fromBarnhill Fonds, a little bit of
(14:20):
leeks Dude.
The sauce sounds awesome, it'sgreat.
It's a pretty extensive menuand if you don't like one thing,
you're absolutely going to findsomething that you are going to
like here yeah, there's.
Biju Thomas (14:31):
I mean, the place smells wonderful, looks
wonderful.
Look at this.
Look what's happening.
All right, what is happeningover here?
You somehow managed to makegrilled cheese.
What do we got here?
Anthony Szymanski (14:43):
so we have, uh don stef donovan's version of
our grilled cheese.
We have a chocoupon, also knownas japanese milk, that we make
here in-house every single day.
What Garlic butter, miso withGruyere cheese and smoked
cheddar cheese that's fantastic.
Biju Thomas (14:57):
What's your name?
Anthony, anthony, thanks, man,this is super cool.
So is this a bread that y'allkeep in-house regularly, or is
this something you make?
We make it fresh here everysingle day.
Anthony Szymanski (15:05):
What do you do with it normally, normally?
What do you do with it normally, normally?
It's on our, I'm sorry, goahead, dylan.
Donovan Johnson (15:09):
I was going to say right now we have a
wonderful caviar service.
We get this toasted up realnice, cut into little triangles,
perfect for transporting yourcaviar.
Biju Thomas (15:18):
Whoa.
And it's always that thick.
It depends on where we're going.
This is a little bit thicker.
So it's a whole loaf that youguys are slicing as you need it,
fresh dude that is so beautifulhave you ever had shogupan
before?
Donovan Johnson (15:30):
no so Japanese milk bread.
It's like rich, creamy, fluffy.
It has an amazing texture,especially whenever it's like
fresh untoasted, but wheneverit's toasted as well, yeah, I
might pick this for the grilledcheese.
It toasts up so nicely wheneveryou give it a good amount of
butter with it.
Biju Thomas (15:44):
Anthony, you want to hang out and have a bite with
us?
Tell us a little bit more.
All right, come on in.
Um.
Wonderful Anthony, what's your?
Anthony Szymanski (15:52):
role here?
What do you do here?
I am the food and beveragedirector.
Biju Thomas (15:55):
Oh cool, general manager ah, I got the exact chef
and the food and bev manager ofchaguntow hanging out with us,
all right, so this, uh, this isbeautiful.
Thanks for doing this for us.
If it ends up on the specialsmenu or the feature once in a
while, you do not have tomention me at all.
No, I'll call it the BJ Grubbs.
Oh my gosh, you guys, youdidn't have to do that.
Okay, anthony, how long haveyou been part of this?
Anthony Szymanski (16:17):
Since day one , donovan and I.
I was hired a few months beforeDonovan, but we opened the
doors together, so and have youbeen in, lived here for almost
13 years now.
Biju Thomas (16:29):
All right, I got to do this real quick before it
stops being melty my goal, allright, look at that.
What kind of cheese do we havehere?
Look at that incredible Chefhands you half buddy, thank you.
You're in smoke cheddar, so wegot Greer.
Yeah, he can't smoke cheddar,sir.
Please, anthony, you have someright.
That is incredible.
Look at that.
Bread is soft and chewy andbuttery.
(16:50):
This is like a perfect grilledcheese bread Dude.
That is so good.
Thick and rich and crunchy andchewy all at the same time.
It's so good, anthony.
Sorry, I got distracted bygrilled cheese and that's
totally acceptable.
How long have you been?
Anthony Szymanski (17:03):
here in Bentonville.
It's about 13 years now,actually.
Really, yeah, and did y'allwork together before here?
It's funny.
We've never worked togetherbefore, but we've worked with
the same people.
Somehow we have we're connectedwith the people that we've
worked with in different areas.
Donovan Johnson (17:16):
Nice Finally came full circle.
It's kind of nice meeting upwith Anthony.
We know a lot of the same crew,same people.
It's really nice finally beingable to get to meet you and work
with you.
Biju Thomas (17:27):
That is so cool.
All meet you and work with you.
Yeah, ah, that is so good.
Anthony Szymanski (17:32):
All right, um , as the f and b director here,
are you also responsible for thebar outside of the restaurant?
I am the the restaurant here,the lobby bar, cohi, our coffee
bar as well, well, and thenfinally, kapu barker poo in the
back, and I bet you get yourhands on all the things, all the
things.
Biju Thomas (17:43):
Yeah, yes, man, what, uh, what a cool team you
guys got going on, and how bigof a crew do you guys usually
run?
How?
How many people are in herecranking all this out?
Donovan Johnson (17:50):
Oh, let's see on the back of the house.
I got about a busy night about12 people in the back.
Anthony Szymanski (17:53):
Okay, and then what do you got on the
floor?
On the floor we have roughlyabout 15 people usually, so
totally we run about 60 to 65people total, as far as those in
here with us that is so cool.
Donovan Johnson (18:04):
Yeah, and then with Cohe opening up early in
the morning 6, and then we'll beopen late to the night, at 11
o'clock at night, just aboutthroughout the whole night,
throughout the whole day, wealways have some sort of team
here operating, producing food.
There's always somebody doingsomething, always somebody doing
something.
Biju Thomas (18:18):
And is the baked goods and the pastries for Kohi?
Is that all made here?
Yeah, oh, wow, fresh daily aswell too.
That explains this too.
You know, front of the house,back of the house, everybody out
on bicycles once in a while.
Yeah, so we're going to startbuilding that then as we bring
(18:40):
on more restaurant folks.
So just once a week we'll gotour around town.
We can talk about therestaurant biz, we can vent, we
can, you know, rejoice about howgreat, great it is, we can go
try other people's food.
But, yeah, you guys are firstto be called when we start
riding bikes together.
I appreciate it.
Well, I appreciate you bothtaking time.
Anthony chef donovan, thank you.
(19:00):
Thank you so much.
This is wonderful.
Thank you, thank you to hangingout and watching from uh junto
in Bentonville.
Dining Out Bentonville.
Beyond the menu, behind theflavor.
Hey everybody, welcome toanother episode of Dining Out
Bentonville with me, bijou, andour lovely friends at Visit
Bentonville.
Today we're coming to you fromthis beautiful little hidden
sushi place named Junto, just afew feet off the square of
(00:22):
downtown Bentonville, inside theMotto Hotel, and stick around,
we're going to give theirinterpretation of a beautiful
little grilled cheese right here.
Chef Donovan, how are you, bud?
It's so great to meet you.
Thanks for joining us and doingthis.
What a lovely place you havehere.
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Yeah, you did all this.
Huh, all of it by myself.
(00:43):
Unbelievable.
It's a big team to make thishappen.
Yeah, so I've been fortunateenough to move to Bentonville
just a couple of years ago and Icome from Colorado, which is
also another landlocked state.
I did not expect there to bethis level of sushi available in
the middle of Arkansas.
Yeah, sure, what is happening?
Why is this happening?
Donovan Johnson (01:03):
this happening.
Oh well, the only way to makeit happen is very carefully,
with a lot of special planning.
Okay, um, so we have a lot ofgreat vendors that are out in
japan specifically.
All right, luckily we're ableto get some of the fresh fish
delivered morning of, caught themorning of and get it to our
doorsteps within from japan.
From japan.
Get out, really so it'll be.
Uh, flying out of some of thenorthern islands in japan flies
(01:26):
directly to a refrigerationairport in san francisco.
Okay, gets delivered that samenight over to here.
We have it at our doorstepwithin about 44 hours that is
craziness.
Biju Thomas (01:36):
So we're legit downtown.
The downtown bentonville squareis right there.
We're in the middle of arkansas, which is in the middle of the
country.
Obviously, it rains a lot here,but that doesn't mean fresh
seafood and the level of, youknow, sushi and the level of
food that you guys are doinghere is so beautiful.
Thank you.
I've been lucky to be able tocome here a few times because I
live within walking distance and, you know, in addition to the
(01:58):
food, of course, the physicalspace is just incredible.
Donovan Johnson (02:09):
You don't expect this.
When you're in Bentonville justwalking down the street and you
come in here, how do youexplain the space?
What is happening here?
The best way I can explain itis it's intimate, real nice
tight quarters, as well as verylarge at the same time.
The way we kind of have itbroken out to you is in three
separate sections.
We have our main dining room inhere.
It's a little more elevated,like I said, a little intimate.
Um, you'd want to celebrate,like special occasion,
anniversaries, birthday.
It's nice.
Here we have our inside bar,kind of the same theme but a
(02:31):
little bit louder, more livelyin there, yeah, and then right
out here at the back doors, wehave our bar capu.
How do you pronounce?
Biju Thomas (02:37):
that bar capu, bar capu.
So it's spelled k a p?
U.
Yes, it's a tiki, bar right,it's a tiki and I couldn't tell
is it kapu or kapu?
So it's bar kapu.
If you're wondering bar kapu,okay, please sorry oh sure, yeah
, because I didn't know how topronounce this.
I've been like, yeah, there yougo, bar kapu.
Donovan Johnson (02:55):
Yeah, the bar kapu.
Outside it's a little bit moreof an upscale tiki bar.
It's not just Japanese food,it's more Polynesian island food
, a good variety of everything.
Nice, it's a little bit louderout there.
We'll often have fun events outthere.
We'll have a DJ that comes outweekly, sometimes nightly.
Out there we got a nice littleRobata.
It's a Japanese grill.
We'll work everything up offthat.
Is that visible?
(03:16):
Is that behind the bar?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can goout there see it.
Guests can interact, talk totheir stuff working out there.
Biju Thomas (03:21):
Because I've sat at the bar there.
You've got that beautiful barwith the great outdoor courtyard
space.
It's totally unexpected whenyou're walking down the alley,
gorgeous space, and then so youhave the Roboto, roboto, roboto,
roboto Japanese grill.
Am I saying any of these thingsright?
No, that sounds right.
Roboto.
Right behind the bar.
It's fantastic, beautiful spaceand, especially on a warm night
(03:44):
, nothing like a big, fun,delicious cocktail and a little
bit of smoke and food happeningoutdoors.
It's nice.
Donovan Johnson (03:51):
You can smell it walking down on the other
side of the square.
That's pretty dang cool by thesmell.
Biju Thomas (03:55):
Yeah, one more question to the space.
The space feels very much likea warm, like it's somebody's
basement full of records andbooks.
Yeah, I mean, there are recordsright there.
They're stacks and stacks andstacks of old vinyl records.
Um, what is that theme or howdoes that tie into everything
happening?
Donovan Johnson (04:13):
it kind of hits around on the 70s, 80s, along
with like a little bit of likeJapanese upscale.
Um, it kind of makes it alittle bit more interactive.
Over here on the other side ofthe building we have our our
record room or listening room.
We have a nice, beautiful,round, comfortable couch.
Uh, we have a nice recordplayer in there with a preamp
hooked up to some really nicespeakers.
Oh nice, all those records yousee over there hanging on the
(04:34):
shelves.
Guests can come up, pull oneoff, take it over that room and
kind of jam out.
That's awesome.
As much as it is decoration, itis interactive that is awesome
because it definitely has thatvibe.
Biju Thomas (04:44):
If you just want to chill, listen to music, hang
out with your friends, itdoesn't feel like a place where
you got to rush in and rush out.
Oh no, some places have thatfeeling like, okay, you get your
food and get out, we got to seemore people no, we'll keep you
here.
Donovan Johnson (04:55):
If you want to get out, we can help you get out
.
But most people come in lookingfor like a full-on experience.
Yeah, and it's a nice course.
That can have it coarse stoutor you can come in for a quick
bite and bounce pretty quick ifyou want to.
Biju Thomas (05:06):
That is definitely how it feels and I was telling
you earlier.
Sometimes you come in here likeright now obviously it's not
busy yet because we're recording, so the place feels rather
intimate.
But when you come in here andit's busy, it's almost like the
space expands.
It feels like twice the sizewhen it's full of people, where
a lot of restaurants have theopposite vibe.
When it's full, it just feelscrowded.
This place is built for justbig, loud groups of people
(05:29):
having fun together.
It's very cool.
Yeah, absolutely.
How long have you been makingsushi?
How long have you been in theJapanese food space?
Donovan Johnson (05:37):
So, with us opening up in the middle of last
summer that's when I joined onwith the company, so I'm
relatively new to the Japanesecuisine experience.
I've been in the industry for awhile I got lucky enough to
meet with our head of Japanesecuisine within our company,
Indigo Road.
His name is Chef Masa Hamaya,head of a Japanese cuisine
within our company, indigo Road.
His name is Chef Masa Himaya,and he's kind of been the one to
(05:58):
help me navigate with operatingrunning this restaurant, along
with his long-term expertise inthis cuisine.
So really the only way thiswhole place works or happens is
with a collective group effort,and it's everybody's little bit
of help is what makes it run.
Biju Thomas (06:11):
It's a big operation, so do you all do does
this hotel do room service also?
Donovan Johnson (06:17):
No, not currently, so a little bit on
the hotel side.
So we do have like a goodamount, I believe, like 174
rooms up in here.
Really they're a little bitmore minimalistic, they're nice
sleek, but the whole vibe of iteven like there's not even a
coffee maker up in there.
So we do have a nice littlelovely coffee shop called Kohi
over here and the whole theme ofit is to kind of drive,
navigate people down to thisbottom floor big hangout space,
(06:40):
be it.
If you're coming down to dosome office work, zoom meetings,
want to meet up with people.
Like I said, listen to somerecords Drives people down.
Here you can get some wonderfulcoffee that we partner with
Onyx with using their beans, andpeople can walk up from outside
on the sidewalk walk up to thecoffee yeah, we get.
Yeah, we kind of have like abike drive-thru window is what I
always find cool.
Biju Thomas (06:58):
Yeah, yeah, it's nice yeah, and for folks that
are visiting for the first time,you'll notice, there's the
ledger building, which is rightacross street, which has a ramp
that you can take from thesidewalk all the way to the top
of the seventh floor, and Ibelieve that's the only building
of its kind so far anywhere inthe world.
I'm gonna go with anyone in theworld, and originally when I
heard about this hotel opening,the whole idea was this hotel is
(07:20):
opening to support people thatare coming into town for work,
for meetings, to ride your bikes, whatever.
There's a bike shop opening upsoon in here that will build up
your equipment.
Get it ready for you.
Have it ready.
You have a great dinner, havebreakfast, have coffee, go do
your thing, drop.
They ship it home to you.
It's all like between just afew feet.
Here it's a full serviceoperation, which is really cool.
(07:41):
That's awesome.
So on the restaurant side, arethere more Junetos around the
country, or is this it?
Donovan Johnson (07:48):
So we're the only Juneto, but within our
parent company it's called Oku.
So you'll see, we have a few ofthose over on the east coast,
charleston being, like our homebase main operation, oh nice.
So we'll have people beingdifferent, different name junto
compared to oku, but we'll havepeople who, over on the east
coast, a lot of like you said, alot of people either come out
here to bike or business tripsor whatnot.
(08:08):
They'll come in and be like, ohmy gosh, this tastes just like
some same great sushi I had eastcoast and yeah we kind of like,
reluctantly, we're like, oh hey, like we are actually them.
So you can't find us elsewhereon the east coast, but junto is
its own little special thingright, that's very cool.
Biju Thomas (08:23):
Yeah, okay, so you're.
You've been here for how manyyears now, how long you've been?
Donovan Johnson (08:27):
in.
I've been here, northwestarkansas, about 15 years.
I've been here working on thesquare in downtown bentonville
for about seven years all.
Biju Thomas (08:34):
so as somebody who technically you're a native.
Now, if you've been here morethan two years, you're
technically a native, yeah, soyou've been here long enough to
where you know what's happening.
When you've got friends andfamily visiting that are coming
out for the first time, where doyou send them?
What is your favorite thing todo or send people to go and do
Somebody who's visiting?
Where do we send them?
Donovan Johnson (08:53):
Be it from here .
Well, so I mean I'm going to bebiased and I love to have
friends and family come here,but it's nice.
You can come on a weekend nightwhenever we have that outdoor
amphitheater, the momentary.
It's awesome to come out Eat atone of like the nice local
great restaurants we have here.
I believe you hit up Conifer,matt Cooper over there a bunch
(09:14):
of great places to go eat at, avariety of restaurants to go eat
at, and then you can either gohit up some nice live shows, go
on bike trails there's just somuch to do around here.
Biju Thomas (09:23):
You know you bring up a good point Because it's
such a small community ofrestaurants and you've been here
as it's grown.
You've been here as it's grown,as have other people on your
staff, so you've been able towatch as these things are
happening and you've all beenable to support each other and
help each other and growtogether, which is really cool.
Donovan Johnson (09:39):
It's nice, yeah .
So, like a lot of therestaurants all around here,
we're pretty close knit, likeoften if, say, we have a supply
that didn't get to make it in.
We're all nice, tight, reallygood friends.
We'll borrow from each other,help support each other.
Biju Thomas (09:59):
Even often like we'll do like restaurant week
around here and a lot of us willpartner with other restaurants,
come up with a special, uniqueitem.
That is like highlighting bothrestaurants and then serve it
for the week.
That's awesome, okay, that'ssomething that would not happen
in the vast majority of citiesaround the world.
Yeah, for one.
Physically, everyone's toospread out.
You know you're too far awayfrom other people too.
Unless you grew up with thesepeople, unless you spent time in
kitchens together and in towntogether, you would never be
that comfortable.
Yeah, sure, but how cool isthat?
Donovan Johnson (10:20):
Oh, it's nice.
Yeah, I mean I could go walkdown occasionally if I'm taking
like a quick break beforeservice starts, I'll go visit my
good friends over at Evan Tapps, just a 30 second walk over
there, be able to hang out, chatfor a little bit.
Vice versa, they can come overhere.
They get off work.
We're open a little bit later,say I'll be outside cooking on
the robota, I get to have myother chef buddies come out and
hang out.
Biju Thomas (10:39):
We just get to eat good food yeah, that, uh, pretty
much makes it all worthwhile tomove to a small town.
Nice, get a job in a kitchen,work your way up and kind of
have a community.
You know where you get to dothe thing that you love to do
with friends, which is prettydang awesome.
Nice, okay, on the menu here.
What's your favorite thing thatyou like to eat on the Junto
menu?
Oh gosh, other than the grilledcheese, of course, which is not
(11:02):
on the menu.
It's only a super-secret menu,but if you had to pick one thing
that's a star of your menu sofar, you can pick a couple.
Donovan Johnson (11:09):
Okay, I'm a big sucker for our just classic
nigiri.
We get some amazing bluefintuna in.
We get the whole fish in, so weget to break down the whole
part.
You can either get the belly,any other sides of it.
Our sushi team does an amazingjob with all of our nigiri.
So if you're going down thatroad, we do have some signature
nigiris where of course, you canget like your classic take on,
(11:33):
you know, like fan favorites,traditional Japanese sushi, as
well as like different takes onit as well as we do some Hakko
sushi box.
So it's a little bit more ofold school sushi as opposed to
your roll maki mono.
Yeah, this is a box press oneand this is my favorite as far
as like actual individual piecesushi goes.
But it's the rice is mixed withsquid ink, real dark, rich.
(11:57):
As well as then, we'llincorporate some tempura fried
lobster, mix that in with it,top it with some spicy egg.
Biju Thomas (11:59):
This sounds amazing .
This is on the regular menu.
Yes, oh well, okay, pleasesorry.
Oh, I mean that's amazing.
Donovan Johnson (12:04):
So, like you can get a variety of, like I was
saying, of traditional Japanesecuisine, as opposed for just
sushi we do on our menu isfilled with a whole bunch of
other hot items, so we'll get alot of people who come in.
Uh, a lot of people around inthis area are still really new
to sushi shore fish so we haveplenty of hot items to go around
as well.
Uh, rock shrimp it's one of ourmore popular ones tempura fried
(12:27):
rock shrimp and then it'stossed in a gin, juniper, berry
base aioli.
It's sweet, pretty savory, yeahyeah.
And then, of course, our baobuns are pretty dang popular.
We've got a little bit of beef,short ribs and pickled red
onion oh man, a little bit ofmicro cilantro.
Sesame seeds Sell a ton ofthose.
Biju Thomas (12:43):
It all sounds pretty spectacular.
Okay, so a second ago, what wasthe one you were talking about?
The gin, juniper berry, aeolianRock shrimp, rock shrimp.
How is that served?
Donovan Johnson (12:52):
So I mean, it's a share plate like kind of the
theme of our restaurant, Like itdoesn't have to be, but it's
intent to share with a group ofpeople, oh, nice, so that just
comes out on just like a littlebit of lettuce for a garnish.
Yeah, yeah, the highlight of itup, nice, high, served with a
little lemon wedge.
If you want to, you can hit itup with a little bit more acid
and it's just amazing simple byitself.
Biju Thomas (13:12):
Yeah, that's such a cool combination of flavors.
You've got those really brightherbal notes gin and juniper and
then to bring it together witha little bit of aioli and a
little crunchy shrimps thelittle rock shrimp, the little
guys.
They're perfect because you canpick up a couple in a bite.
Oh, that's great.
Yeah, that's fantastic.
So I know we've got a grilledcheese coming, but I've got more
questions about food.
(13:32):
If that's all right, yeah, sure, for non-fish eaters and
non-seafood eaters, what's kindof the highlight of the menus?
Donovan Johnson (13:38):
Okay, so we do some.
Talking about Kapu, we havesome nice Wagyu smash burgers.
Okay, little sliders onHawaiian kind of hints, on the
little bit of a tropical islandtheme.
Uh, as much as we can, we tryto order local, so that ground
wagyu comes from a little farmabout two hours outside of here.
All right, sean bansley's.
So amazing, amazing pork andbeef there.
(14:00):
Let's see what else can we do.
Again, back on the bao beeflocal meat beef rib from
bansley's as well, as well as avariety of we do a lot of
seasonal salads.
It's rolled out local greens,again from local farmers, with a
little bit of a Yuzu pinkpeppercorn vinaigrette and local
strawberries as well fromBarnhill Fonds, a little bit of
(14:20):
leeks Dude.
The sauce sounds awesome, it'sgreat.
It's a pretty extensive menuand if you don't like one thing,
you're absolutely going to findsomething that you are going to
like here yeah, there's.
Biju Thomas (14:31):
I mean, the place smells wonderful, looks
wonderful.
Look at this.
Look what's happening.
All right, what is happeningover here?
You somehow managed to makegrilled cheese.
What do we got here?
Anthony Szymanski (14:43):
so we have, uh don stef donovan's version of
our grilled cheese.
We have a chocoupon, also knownas japanese milk, that we make
here in-house every single day.
What Garlic butter, miso withGruyere cheese and smoked
cheddar cheese that's fantastic.
Biju Thomas (14:57):
What's your name?
Anthony, anthony, thanks, man,this is super cool.
So is this a bread that y'allkeep in-house regularly, or is
this something you make?
We make it fresh here everysingle day.
Anthony Szymanski (15:05):
What do you do with it normally, normally?
What do you do with it normally, normally?
It's on our, I'm sorry, goahead, dylan.
Donovan Johnson (15:09):
I was going to say right now we have a
wonderful caviar service.
We get this toasted up realnice, cut into little triangles,
perfect for transporting yourcaviar.
Biju Thomas (15:18):
Whoa.
And it's always that thick.
It depends on where we're going.
This is a little bit thicker.
So it's a whole loaf that youguys are slicing as you need it,
fresh dude that is so beautifulhave you ever had shogupan
before?
Donovan Johnson (15:30):
no so Japanese milk bread.
It's like rich, creamy, fluffy.
It has an amazing texture,especially whenever it's like
fresh untoasted, but wheneverit's toasted as well, yeah, I
might pick this for the grilledcheese.
It toasts up so nicely wheneveryou give it a good amount of
butter with it.
Biju Thomas (15:44):
Anthony, you want to hang out and have a bite with
us?
Tell us a little bit more.
All right, come on in.
Um.
Wonderful Anthony, what's your?
Anthony Szymanski (15:52):
role here?
What do you do here?
I am the food and beveragedirector.
Biju Thomas (15:55):
Oh cool, general manager ah, I got the exact chef
and the food and bev manager ofchaguntow hanging out with us,
all right, so this, uh, this isbeautiful.
Thanks for doing this for us.
If it ends up on the specialsmenu or the feature once in a
while, you do not have tomention me at all.
No, I'll call it the BJ Grubbs.
Oh my gosh, you guys, youdidn't have to do that.
Okay, anthony, how long haveyou been part of this?
Anthony Szymanski (16:17):
Since day one , donovan and I.
I was hired a few months beforeDonovan, but we opened the
doors together, so and have youbeen in, lived here for almost
13 years now.
Biju Thomas (16:29):
All right, I got to do this real quick before it
stops being melty my goal, allright, look at that.
What kind of cheese do we havehere?
Look at that incredible Chefhands you half buddy, thank you.
You're in smoke cheddar, so wegot Greer.
Yeah, he can't smoke cheddar,sir.
Please, anthony, you have someright.
That is incredible.
Look at that.
Bread is soft and chewy andbuttery.
(16:50):
This is like a perfect grilledcheese bread Dude.
That is so good.
Thick and rich and crunchy andchewy all at the same time.
It's so good, anthony.
Sorry, I got distracted bygrilled cheese and that's
totally acceptable.
How long have you been?
Anthony Szymanski (17:03):
here in Bentonville.
It's about 13 years now,actually.
Really, yeah, and did y'allwork together before here?
It's funny.
We've never worked togetherbefore, but we've worked with
the same people.
Somehow we have we're connectedwith the people that we've
worked with in different areas.
Donovan Johnson (17:16):
Nice Finally came full circle.
It's kind of nice meeting upwith Anthony.
We know a lot of the same crew,same people.
It's really nice finally beingable to get to meet you and work
with you.
Biju Thomas (17:27):
That is so cool.
All meet you and work with you.
Yeah, ah, that is so good.
Anthony Szymanski (17:32):
All right, um , as the f and b director here,
are you also responsible for thebar outside of the restaurant?
I am the the restaurant here,the lobby bar, cohi, our coffee
bar as well, well, and thenfinally, kapu barker poo in the
back, and I bet you get yourhands on all the things, all the
things.
Biju Thomas (17:43):
Yeah, yes, man, what, uh, what a cool team you
guys got going on, and how bigof a crew do you guys usually
run?
How?
How many people are in herecranking all this out?
Donovan Johnson (17:50):
Oh, let's see on the back of the house.
I got about a busy night about12 people in the back.
Anthony Szymanski (17:53):
Okay, and then what do you got on the
floor?
On the floor we have roughlyabout 15 people usually, so
totally we run about 60 to 65people total, as far as those in
here with us that is so cool.
Donovan Johnson (18:04):
Yeah, and then with Cohe opening up early in
the morning 6, and then we'll beopen late to the night, at 11
o'clock at night, just aboutthroughout the whole night,
throughout the whole day, wealways have some sort of team
here operating, producing food.
There's always somebody doingsomething, always somebody doing
something.
Biju Thomas (18:18):
And is the baked goods and the pastries for Kohi?
Is that all made here?
Yeah, oh, wow, fresh daily aswell too.
That explains this too.
You know, front of the house,back of the house, everybody out
on bicycles once in a while.
Yeah, so we're going to startbuilding that then as we bring
(18:40):
on more restaurant folks.
So just once a week we'll gotour around town.
We can talk about therestaurant biz, we can vent, we
can, you know, rejoice about howgreat, great it is, we can go
try other people's food.
But, yeah, you guys are firstto be called when we start
riding bikes together.
I appreciate it.
Well, I appreciate you bothtaking time.
Anthony chef donovan, thank you.
(19:00):
Thank you so much.
This is wonderful.
Thank you, thank you to hangingout and watching from uh junto
in Bentonville.
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