What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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www.malco.com www.malco.com www.malco.com www.malco.com YEAR IN REVIEW 6 WHAT'S UP! DECEMBER 19-25, 2021 Yeyo's El Alma de Mexico (801 SE 8th St., Suite 41, Fayetteville) is a favorite of Nguyen's — you can find lots of delicious-looking posts about the popular Mexican spot on his IG feed. (Courtesy image/Joseph Nguyen) One of the best things about following Nguyen's IG account is finding out about spots that might otherwise fly beneath your radar. In this post from November, he listed his favorite spots for ramen and noodle soups — like this beautiful bowl from Ramen Nara (301 S. Dodson Road, Rogers) (Courtesy Image/Joseph Nguyen) UPDATE Joseph Nguyen, the avid bicycler and foodie behind the Instagram account The Hangry Pedaler (@hangrypedalernwa) has had some exciting things happen in his life since the last time we talked. First of all, he cruised right past 10,000 Insta- gram followers over the summer and, today, has nearly twice as many followers as he did when we spoke in March 2021. But we're burying the lede — Nguyen proposed to his longtime love, Nina, in Cancun in June; the two are planning a wedding for October of next year. "We also bought a house at the beginning of last year," he says. "So we've been busy with furnishing the house and also wedding plans." Meanwhile, Nguyen's passion for the Northwest Arkansas foodie scene is as infectious as always. He says there are many new spots worth checking out that opened during the pandemic — like Ruby Pizzeria (5519 Hackett St., Suite 100, Springdale), Hail Fellow Well Met, (5519 W. Hackett Road, Suite 101, Springdale) the 120 Tapas Bar (120 S. 2nd St., Rogers), and Williams Famous Fried Chicken and Soulfood (409 W. Center- ton Blvd., Centerton), a popular spot that recently reopened as a food truck. Nguyen was so excited at the prospect of a new dim sum restaurant in the area that when he heard Chi's Baohouse was planning on opening in early 2022, he called to see if he could help in any way. "I wanted to let him know that if he needed help with promot- ing it, I can help with that." Nguyen hopes the new year will find him offering his followers a deeper dive into the regional food scene. "I have a guy that does video, and he wants to start doing more behind-the-scene food videos," he says. "I'm definitely going to work more behind the scenes — like how they make the dishes, interviewing the owners, hearing their story and their back- ground. My page is just mainly pictures right now, and I want to change it up a little bit, make it more interesting." reviews are unbiased. Every now and then, a restaurant will say, 'Hey, come in, we've got a new menu item — check it out, and it's on us,' but they always reach out to me. I would never do this for money. It's just for fun." And, he says, he only posts positive things. There have been a few places, he admits, where he struggled to find something positive to say — so he simply does not post about them. His only intention from the beginning has been to boost the industry in Northwest Arkansas. "Everything posted will be something that I like," his very first Instagram post reads. "I'm not here to critique or leave negative reviews. I'll leave that to Yelp. With all the negativity in this world today, I just want to unite us all through the best avenue possible — food!" Towards that end, when Nguyen realized the difficulty that the pandemic was going to cause the restaurant industry, he set out to try and make a difference by highlighting restaurants that had pivoted to takeout and curbside delivery and hosting gift card giveaways on his account. "I would reach out and say, 'I want to buy the gift card with my own money, is it OK if I put your name on the giveaway?'" he says. "They would say, 'Heck, yeah. We absolutely love that. Next time you're in, have a drink on me.' They have been really appreciative. I'm just trying to support local when I can." Nguyen says he hopes to incorporate more cycling posts in the upcoming year, a reflection of how popular the sport has become in Northwest Arkansas. And he's chewing over an idea he has for a cycling event from Fayetteville to Bentonville that incorporates stops at restaurants near the Razorback Greenway — a sort of pub crawl, but food instead of booze and biking instead of walking. He's hoping to collaborate with a few area restaurants on this idea, so entrepreneurs might want to take note and get in touch. Nguyen has gotten pretty good at predicting the next big thing. "With cycling getting bigger and bigger here, I just want to be part of the scene and showcase what we have to offer," he says. "I think I found this little niche, cycling and food, and they kind of go hand in hand. So, yeah, I want to be that guy — the guy who spreads the word about our area." Hangry Continued From Page 5