Nicolas Cage was in Little Rock last month.
I learned this fact from a recent short piece in AY Magazine noting that filming for the movie Best Pancakes in the Country, starring Cage, was starting to wrap up. Apparently, the action movie has exactly one setting, a small-town diner, and takes place over the course of one night, rather like the odd-“bottle episode” of a television show. It didn’t take long to find out where filming was happening: the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas (EOA) media editor, Starr Carr, located a Reddit thread about a movie being made in Pinnacle Valley, and an email to a friend in the media confirmed it.
I pulled up the location online and was hit with a very powerful memory.
You see, the building where this movie was being filmed was the former location of the Pinnacle Valley Restaurant. Years ago, my wife and I would occasionally cycle out around Two Rivers Park (site of the former county penal farm) or hike Pinnacle Mountain or nearby trails, and we ended our excursions pretty hungry. Sure, there was always the option of packing up the bicycles and driving somewhere for lunch, but how nice would it be to cycle up to a restaurant for a spell? So when we saw the “Coming Soon” sign for Pinnacle Valley Restaurant, we were elated…