The Copper Mule Table & Tap is a relatively new, exciting, and popular restaurant in Bryant, AR. It’s been on my list to try for a couple months now and I had a wonderful experience last night! Here is the breakdown:
ATMOSPHERE
The Copper Mule is located in a new shopping center and isn’t anything too fancy.
It’s modern with the beams showing and metal chairs, and I love that they serve their food on metal trays. They have two dining areas and a bar.
MENU
Drinks:
There is a large menu of signature drinks: different versions of Arkansas mules and then their own specialty cocktails are the main event.
There is also Happy Hour Tues- Friday from 4-6, where the drafts and mules are $1 off and the specialty cocktails are $2 off.
We went during happy hour, of course!
Food:
The menu is mostly Cajun fare, including jambalaya, voodoo pasta, crawfish mac and cheese, etc. However, there are a few sandwiches to choose from as well, such as po’boys, fried bologna, and burgers. There are also fried baskets of all sorts, including fish and chicken strips. There are salads, but not too many options. What sounded the most exciting to me are their starters, which include fried boudin balls (mule balls), fried pickles, fried crawfish tails, and more.
FOOD and DRINKS
Head Hunter ($7 during happy hour) and Blueberry Mojito ($6 during happy hour)
The Head Hunter is two different rums, vodka, blue curacao, lemon, lime, pineapple, and Demerara simple syrup. It was delicious and tropical, just like I imagined.
The Blueberry Mojito was exactly what you’d expect. It had rum, simple syrup, club soda, lime, mint, and blueberries. It was good, but nothing too unique.
Strawberry Basic Mule ($8 during happy hour)
This drink was our favorite of all three. It has strawberry vodka, basil vodka, ginger beer, grenadine, lime, and strawberries. It packed great flavors that really worked well together to make a nice, refreshing drink.
Fried Green Tomatoes ($7, or $10 if add spicy crab on top)
We voted to get ours plain and these were pretty good. Perhaps a little greasy, but come on, we are eating fried green tomatoes. The remoulade sauce was so delicious, though! We kept the leftover sauce to put on whatever other food was headed our way next.
Fried Berkshire Chop with Lemon Caper Sauce plus Fried Okra and Greens ($18)
This was the best meal of the evening. Everything was so good, but especially that massive, perfectly fried bone-in porkchop. It was very thick, and cooked perfectly. It was so juicy and flavorful. The crust was perfectly crunchy. Though, the sauce gave it that extra punch of flavor that I loved. It was so big, I took half of it home.
The fried okra wasn’t anything special, but it wasn’t greasy and that is a good thing!
The greens had almost as much pork in them as they did greens, but that doesn’t bother me. There was so much porky flavor, it was delicious.
Chicken and Andouille Gumbo Bowl ($12)
This bowl was massive! It came with two scoops of creole potato salad, like they do in New Orleans. Overall, it was good, but it needed more seasoning for sure. It was a little bland. Thankfully, not only do they put salt and pepper on the tables, but there’s also a house spice blend you can sprinkle on whatever you like. We put all three on this one and it was much better.
Fried Shrimp Basket ($12)
I didn’t get to try this, I was too full from everything else. Though, my mom enjoyed it. The shrimp looked perfectly fried with a light batter and crispy. Again, nothing was greasy here. It came with that delicious remoulade sauce, so that made it worth it no matter what.
OVERALL
The whole experience was great because the service was top notch. Our waiter was so kind and friendly and knowledgeable about the menu, both food and drink. There wasn’t a hiccup all night and our food came out with perfect timing, piping hot and fresh.
I think this place is a real winner and have no doubt they’ll be around for a long time. I will definitely be back, probably to get that pork chop again.