Chef Joseph Salgueiro is shooting for the stars at SŌ Restaurant — a Michelin star to be exact.
Salgueiro came back on as executive chef and managing partner in September 2024. His background in fine dining goes back decades to the Big Apple, where he worked at various fine dining establishments, such as the Four Seasons Restaurant.
At Four Seasons, he worked with people from all over the world and learned to make all types of international cuisine, which inspires the “American nu cuisine” he creates at SŌ.
In late 2001, he moved to Arkansas and worked first at the Capital Bar & Grill in Little Rock before moving into an executive chef role at Maumelle Country Club and, later, to Capriccio Grill at the former Peabody Hotel in Little Rock.
He was first drawn to SŌ because it reminded him of a specific restaurant, Balthazar, in New York at a time when he was feeling homesick. The owners told him they modeled it with that place in mind.
He worked as executive chef there from the opening in 2006 through about the first eight months. Now, after a hiatus from SŌ that took him to 1620 Savoy, Cache Restaurant and Pleasant Valley Country Club, all in Little Rock, he is back in the lead spot.
Joseph Salgueiro
Even before the owner came to him with the idea of returning, Salgueiro happened to have been developing a new menu.
“I just sat down, and I started building this menu,” he said. “I’d be up until 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock in the morning, and my wife was like, ‘What are you doing?’”
He answered that he was making a menu for himself.
Now a lot of that menu is used at SŌ.
“What we’re trying to do is we want to be more higher end than the fine-dining restaurants that are happening right now,” he said. “This is why I feel this would be the best place, a great place, for business people to come here and not just entertain their clients but also to impress them — not just with the food but with our service.”
If one is not sure where to host their next corporate shindig or take an important client, SŌ Restaurant is the answer.
The restaurant has many different spaces to entertain, including the lounge downstairs, a big back dining room, an intimate wine room and an outdoor patio. He offers four prix fixe menus at varying prices points, from $80 to the “CEO prix fixe menu” which sits at $195. The CEO menu includes decadent options such as a morton-brady smoked duck salad, a 32-ounce porterhouse steak, a 1-pound lobster and a vanilla creme brulee or Belgian chocolate lava cake to finish. Salgueiro is also happy to sit down with clients and customize menus for events.
“You get a real local warmth when you walk in here,” he said. “We’re working on high-end food and fine dining. My final goals are trying to get a Michelin star and James Beard Award, but when anybody walks through the door, we’re not stuffy. We try to treat everybody like family.”
Visit the restaurant at 3610 Kavanaugh Blvd. in Little Rock or call 501-663-1464 for more information.
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