On a Saturday when the temperature will reach triple digits, food blogger Kevin Shalin is up early. Already, he’s posted about Benton’s Front Porch Market, encouraging readers of his blog, The Mighty Rib, to buy local/eat local. But while today’s recommendations might be for Arkansas tomatoes and peaches, his thoughts are on Texas.
Kevin, now fortysomething, grew up in Houston. His dad, a high school teacher, was his basketball coach. Kevin’s mom, a self-taught seamstress, built a name for herself among a cadre of women who craved her creations. She is also a stellar cook.
On Sunday afternoons, often with a Houston Oilers game unfolding on TV, the family would eat fried chicken and mashed potatoes, two of Kevin’s mom’s specialties. Fried chicken is a tricky dish, but so are mashed potatoes.
“You have to salt the water while you’re cooking the potatoes,” Kevin says. “And don’t use too much butter. You don’t want your end result swimming in butter.”
The intricacy of potatoes was Kevin’s first introduction to food criticism. Spuds could be rated on a scale of one to ten, with his mom’s at the very top. That’s the same ranking he’d give her today.
Twice a month, the Shalins ate at a nearby Chinese restaurant, which helped expand his developing palate. Once out of college, he spent several years teaching vocational skills to high school seniors. It was a job he enjoyed. During that time, more than thirteen years ago, he started The Mighty Rib and continued writing when his young family moved to Boston and then Little Rock, where his wife, Dr. Sara Shalin, serves on the faculty of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).
Good food blogging is about a lot more than regional cuisine. “When I moved to Little Rock, I didn’t know a soul here,” Kevin says. “Any friend I have now is probably directly related to food in some capacity.”
While many reviewers dine for free, Kevin pays for every meal. Although he’s always honest, he leans toward the positive, because he understands the power of words, the ability to devastate somebody with one flip comment. “The truth is, if I write something good, or bad, on the blog, I’m probably going to run into someone it’s going to effect within a month or two, and I have to be willing to stand by what I wrote.” He also doesn’t accept advertising, keeping his integrity unblemished.
Kevin is humbled by his influence. “Nothing makes me happier than hearing someone say, ‘You wrote about us, and our business increased thirty percent last Saturday.’ It’s the communication, the interaction, that truly drives me. There’s no money; it’s a massive volunteer project.”
Through The Mighty Rib, he’s found hidden gems and long traditions. In Northwest Arkansas, fine dining has emerged as prominently as the area’s fine art. He’s found culinary wonders in Crossett, Cave City, Pine Bluff, and Leslie. In Eureka Springs, he discovered the funky, one-of-a-kind artist’s mecca, which is a perfect weekend getaway. Bed and breakfasts abound, as do unique eateries like Local Flavor Café, Mud Street Café, and Gotahold Brewing, which Kevin calls one of the best breweries in the state.
Not being a native Arkansan has its advantages. He sees with new eyes. Tastes with heightened anticipation. If he had to choose the quintessential Arkansas meal, he would pick the Farmer’s Market Splendor at Trio’s Restaurant in Little Rock. (Trio’s was named one of the best 2023 restaurants in Little Rock by Southern Living magazine.) The meal consists of black-eyed peas, Granny Verna’s Tomato Relish, Summer Squash Gratin, Mexican Street Corn, Heirloom Tomato Caprese Salad, and fried okra.
The Mighty Rib than 57,000 followers, although it took time to build his audience. Kevin says two things will stop a new blogger: anxiety over slow growth and a thin skin. If you’re going to critique, you’re going to be critiqued. “I get called an idiot at least twice a week,” Kevin says.
Kevin has also started a podcast, There’s Something Here, with his friend John Wilkerson. On a recent trip to Fort Smith, they met Mayor George McGill and ate at Pho Vietnam and Vinnie’s Pies. They loved both.
“I was so pleasantly surprised. It had been a couple of years since I’d done a food tour in Fort Smith. So much improvement. So many options. And just the overall growth of the city. You can tell it’s on the upswing. The Vietnamese food is second to none, and you have so many other options. I’ve loved Green Papaya through the years. The Fort Smith Coffee Co., and that whole area in the Bakery District. It’s excellent. Exciting things are happening.”
One of his gifts is his willingness to adapt and try new things. At times, though, his enthusiasm has been tempered by controversy. In 2022, Kevin wrote on his blog’s Facebook page, “It’s called dinner. Not supper.”
Southerners who grew up eating breakfast, dinner, and supper were appalled. (Dinner was the heavier meal, especially for farm folks.) The Mighty Rib follower David Rust wrote: Jesus and his disciples did not eat the “last dinner.” It was the Last Supper. Some mentioned supper clubs, not dinner clubs, and others said dinner at night was reserved for rich people. The rest of us had supper, as God intended. Before it was over, more than 82,000 people had commented.
The post made it to the folks at the Today Show, and Kevin was interviewed for their online reporting.
Kevin has also been instrumental in raising awareness of Arkansas’s agriculture to a wider audience and attracting new customers to the state’s eclectic food scene. He serves on several nonprofit boards, including as co-chair of Soup Sunday. Kevin often speaks to students, which brings him back to the classroom, and a middle school recently worked with him when the staff was redesigning their lunch program. As the cherry on top, two fans met through the blog and are now married.
In his growing role, he’s also able to promote the charities he admires. In 2023, The Mighty Rib raised $14,000 for the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, doubling the amount the readers raised in 2022.
His reach is so great, that on a recent trip to France and Belgium, his followers were sending him dining options. “To get a recommendation for a little bar in an alley in Bruges, Belgium, it was the most wonderful experience. And I never would have gotten there had it not been for a reader.”
Staying true to his life as a food critic, Kevin retries his least-liked dishes every few years. “Palates change,” he says, “so you never know.” He recently sampled liver again. Palates might change, but they don’t morph like shape-shifters. Liver is still a big no.
Kevin doesn’t see himself as the world’s most complex food critic. He’s a man who drinks his coffee black and he’d eat a cookie for breakfast every day if he could. He adores his wife and their two daughters. He’s loyal to Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains, groups that defined his teen years in the 1990s.
And Kevin loves Arkansas. The rolling hills, the sparkling waterfalls, the wide expanses of rice and corn, strawberries and peaches. Loving someplace other than Texas was a thing his young heart couldn’t fathom. “I thought I’d spend my whole life in Houston. I never thought about leaving.”
But Arkansas has its own magnetic pull. Breezy front porches, fried okra, and iced tea so sweet it makes your teeth feel fuzzy. Dogs named Sister or Rufus. And biscuits cooked in cast iron skillets passed down in families, as precious as acres of land. And a whole lot of people who’ll say, “Come on in. Sit yourself down. It’s near about suppertime.”
Dinner, as we’ve established, is for the snootier crowd.
Kevin’s 10 Not-To-Miss Restaurants in Arkansas
(in no particular order)
Ridgewood Brothers BBQ in Russellville
Taylor’s Steakhouse in Dumas
Pho Vietnam in Fort Smith
Pizzeria Ruby in Johnson
The Towne Bistro at Prestonrose in Clarksville
Ciao Baci in Little Rock
Atlas in Fayetteville
Cozy Nook Café in Lonoke
Best Café in Hot Springs
Janssen’s Lakefront Restaurant in Edgemont
WORDS Marla Cantrell
IMAGES courtesy The Mighty Rib
