Conway food scene has become a ‘little Charleston.’ How did the city get there?

Kelli Thomas said when she began waitressing at Rivertown Bistro months after it opened in 1994, she had no idea what to do when a customer ordered calamari.

Thomas, who now works for Conway Alive, went to the bartender, thinking it was a drink, and together they tried to figure out how to make a calamari. At that point in time, Conway was a small Southern town and a restaurant had never added something like fried squid to the menu.

Conway has come a long way since Rivertown Bistro had Thomas learning what calamari is on the job.

When Darren Smith first opened the restaurant, he said Conway was a “one-restaurant town.” That has changed drastically in the last 10 years, with more than 20 restaurants now open in a small radius.

This evolution was not accidental. The city capitalized on H