It’s early June, and anticipation hangs in the air as I walk into Heirloom at The 1907, an intimate tasting menu restaurant tucked away in downtown Rogers that’s become one of the hardest places in Arkansas to get a dinner reservation.

Dinner service is set to begin shortly. Heirloom only serves 20 people a night and only takes reservations three or four nights a week. The multi-course menu — dolled out at a flat rate of $145 per person plus tax and tip — changes monthly, and they don’t take reservations more than a month in advance. When new bookings open up on the 15th of every month, they are usually snatched up within minutes. I have no idea what I will be eating.

But it isn’t just my own excitement for what lies ahead of me in the next few hours, or the staff buzzing around the open-air kitchen doing their pre-service run-through, adding energy to the small room. No, something more momentous is on the horizon. Heirloom chef and co-owner Jason Paul, 44, is a regional finalist for best chef in the 2026 James Beard Awards, one of the most prestigious culinary honors in the country, and the ceremony is less than a week away in Chicago.

“It’s our first time even being nominated at all, so the fact that we’re going all the way to the finals feels a little bit crazy,” Paul said.

HUSTLE AND BUSTLE: Chef Jason Paul, the blur in the center, and the rest of the Heirloom at The 1907 crew scurry around the kitchen, preparing for another night of service at their intimate tasting menu restaurant in downtown Rogers. Credit: Novo Studio

Paul was named a semifinalist in January and moved on to the finals in March. His competition in the South region — consisting of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Puerto Rico — includes chefs from restaurants with spots in the Michelin Guide and on the North America’s 50 Best Restaurants list. This is the big leagues.

“There’s a couple other restaurants that are much more in the spotlight nationally than we have been, so I think they probably technically have a better chance, but I don’t know how the process works well enough to know how they actually choose,” Paul said.

While it may be his first rodeo in the James Beard arena, Paul is no greenhorn. Originally from Phoenix, he cut his teeth working as a teenager in the ’90s under chef Alex Stratta, himself now a Michelin-starred, James Beard Award-winning chef.

“I started going into the kitchen after school when I was 14,” Paul said. “Bit of a different time, so they allowed me to do that.”

Paul, barely a high schooler, had inadvertently secured a spot at one of the finest restaurants in Arizona: Mary Elaine’s, a legendary, now-defunct French restaurant in The Phoenician, a ritzy resort.

“It was like the best restaurant in Arizona. I didn’t know that at the time when I showed up,” he said.

Chef Jason Paul explains one of his culinary creations to dinner guests at Heirloom. Credit: Novo Studio

After stints cooking in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Maine, Paul and his partner, Danielle Ribaudo, moved to Northwest Arkansas in 2014.

“My dad retired here from Walmart. That’s what brought us to Arkansas, and we did not expect to be here long term,” Paul said.

Soon after landing in the area, Paul and Ribaudo started Heirloom After Dark, a pop-up restaurant serving a three-course dinner menu.

“Danielle and I have been together 16 years. We met in Phoenix, and we’ve been working together basically since Heirloom began,” Paul said.

A lunch-only spot in downtown Rogers provided a suitable space for their evening-only operation, and word spread. The two soon took over the full space, and Heirloom was on its own feet — at least for a couple of years.

“Someone bought that building, didn’t renew our lease, and we started working on this project in 2016,” Paul said.

Heirloom co-owner Danielle Ribaudo readies a table before diners arrive. Credit: Novo Studio

Heirloom was resurrected in 2019 as Heirloom at The 1907, named for the large historic building it now inhabits. Ribaudo, also a co-owner, handles front-of-house duties and serves as Heirloom’s sommelier. Paul, with his sous-chefs Graham Sloter and Christian Kruse, handles the cooking.

Just a short stroll away from Heirloom’s original location, The 1907 building was acquired and renovated by Onyx Coffee Lab in 2018 to serve as both its headquarters and a community gathering place. Onyx Coffee Lab was also a James Beard Award finalist this year for outstanding bar, the first coffee shop ever nominated in the category, giving The 1907 the rare distinction of being home to two different James Beard Award finalists.

The space also houses a taqueria, a mezcal bar and Pinky Swear, a speakeasy-style bar that Paul and Ribaudo opened in 2023. Heirloom guests pass through Pinky Swear to enter the Heirloom dining room, and can bookend their dinner with a rotating selection of craft cocktails and a menu of pizzas and small bites designed by Paul. 

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Guests file into Heirloom, which is tucked inside a bar owned by Jason Paul and his partner, Danielle Ribaudo. Credit: Novo Studio

Heirloom is the main attraction here, though, and the tasting menu I experienced exceeded my wildest expectations. But, some caveats before we break it down: This was easily the best meal I’ve ever had in my life. It is also the first encounter I’ve had with real fine dining. I’ve been to nice places, but never anywhere that made it to the final round of the James Beard Awards. I have no other tasting menu experiences to compare Heirloom against, so take my recommendation with a grain of fancy flaky salt. Still, it doesn’t take a gastronome to know when something tastes incredible or to appreciate the thought and consideration that goes into its creation.

I ordered a Hokkaido After Dark, Heirloom’s take on an Old-Fashioned, to nurse while I waited on the food.

Oat bread with butter, cultured and churned in-house, came first. Shaped like a madeleine and gently tucked into a cloth napkin, the bread’s delicate crust hid an explosive medley of sweet and salty within its spongy interior. It radically reshaped my perception of what bread is capable of and left me bewildered at what could possibly come next.

I can only describe the dishes that followed as some real fine-dining shit.

A potato chip cylinder stuffed with onions and crème fraîche. Credit: Novo Studio

Picture this: two small cylinders, one made of a potato chip and stuffed with onions and creme fraiche, the other made of tostada and full of spicy tuna — Paul’s reinterpretation of chips and dip.

Next, the big guns: wagyu beef tartare topped with pricey Ossetra caviar, sitting atop a crunchy sesame puff. I’d never had tartare — wagyu or otherwise — or caviar before and just ate them both in the same bite. The sesame puff and some sliced shallot balanced the buttery, decadent (yet still surprisingly fresh and bright) union of caviar and beef. I had Taco Bell for lunch earlier today, I found myself thinking. This is absurd.

Wagyu beef tartare with caviar, pictured on the bottom right, was one of the standout courses.

After that came my favorite dish of the night: dry-aged black cod, lightly oven-poached, with cucumber sorbet, pickled kumquat and a miso emulsion sauce. Did you know you could dry-age fish? I did not.

Paul explained that dry-aging the cod in a temperature-controlled chamber forces water out of the fish, causing its natural oils and fats to become more concentrated. Additional casual research indicates that the process causes enzymes in the fish to break down muscle tissue, making it more tender and deepening its flavor. 

Dry-aged black cod, lightly oven-poached, with cucumber sorbet, pickled kumquat and a miso emulsion sauce. Credit: Novo Studio

This was another dish of contrasts working together to create a harmonious balance. Cold sorbet with warm fish may sound weird, but the difference in temperature just worked here.

We were about halfway through the tasting menu, which is as good a time as any to pause and talk about the dining room, where every possible detail appears to have been carefully considered. The space is small, but doesn’t feel crowded, even at full capacity with chef Paul and company delivering food around the room. I couldn’t hear conversations from any other tables despite our proximity.

A view of the dining room and open air kitchen at Heirloom at The 1907. Credit: Novo Studio

Candles and understated light fixtures bathe everything in a warm glow, their soft radiance gently bouncing off the cozy wood-paneled interior and highlighting a massive arrangement of dried flowers that hangs from the center of the room like a chandelier.

One end of the room is the open-air kitchen, shiny metal cooking apparatuses and all, which provides a more modern, sleek contrast to the earthiness of the dining area. Strategically positioned mood lights add pops of pink and purple, and chef Paul’s curated playlist — featuring songs with a variety and range not unlike his cooking — ensures there’s never a palpable lull in the evening. It’s a very nice place to enjoy a meal.

A deboned chicken wing, stuffed with duck mouse rests atop a bed of snap peas, bok chop and radish. Credit: Novo Studio

Up next on the menu was a duck-stuffed chicken wing. Here’s how Paul described it, which is better than any hamfisted attempt I could make to recount this particular piece of culinary magic:

“We take the bone out, except for the wingtip … The rest of it, we debone it fully. We stuff it with a mousse we made from duck breast and a little bit of dried fruit. Roast the whole thing in the oven … We glaze these in a cherry gochujang, a Korean chili paste that we blend fresh cherries into, which are in season at the moment. Underneath, you got a little salad we made from local snap peas, local bok choy, radish and a touch of crispy duck skin.”

This was another first for me: eating a bird stuffed with parts from another bird. It was also another winner, with the cherry gochujang sauce a serious highlight in the ensemble.

Spinach and artichoke lasagna, braised lamb shoulder and edible nasturtium flower. Credit: Novo Studio

The next dish of the evening — spinach and artichoke lasagna and braised lamb shoulder with vermouth butter, garlic focaccia bread and an edible nasturtium flower — brought me closer to familiar territory. This, as with everything else, was delectable. Lasagna and braised meat executed at a level I’ve never seen. But if I were to rank the 10 courses, this one would probably be at the bottom, which simply speaks to how great everything is.

The final dish before we crossed the dessert threshold was the heaviest bite of the night. We’re talking about smoked beef tenderloin, cooked to perfection, with porcini mushroom rice, Dijon-hollandaise sauce, smoked white asparagus and little flakes of crispy fried ham, paired with a roll flavored with truffle and a little bit of whipped wagyu beef fat in place of butter.

Per Paul’s suggestion, I put a dollop of the wagyu fat directly on the steak, which thrust the dish to near-dangerous levels of sheer decadence. But I didn’t care. I was alive. And ready for dessert, which shortly came in two parts.

Black pepper cake, compressed strawberries, amazake semifreddo and yuzu sorbet with a brown butter-washed strawberry-and-rhubarb broth. Credit: Novo Studio

Phase one was a complex layered arrangement consisting of a small black pepper cake, compressed strawberries, amazake semifreddo and yuzu sorbet with a brown butter-washed strawberry-and-rhubarb broth poured over. Amazake is a sweet, fermented rice drink from Japan, while a semifreddo is a cold Italian dessert, translating to “semi-frozen” in English; it reminded me of ice cream. The whole shebang looked like a fancy strawberry shortcake and it rocked my world.

Phase two featured three individual bites. The first: a pate de fruit — a traditional French jelly candy — composed of rhubarb and pinot noir grapes. Next was a double-chocolate canele, a notoriously difficult-to-bake French pastry. I haven’t had a canele before this meal, but I feel pretty confident in saying they got it right. Last up was a lavender buttermint, inspired by — but much better than — the chalky mints found at weddings and social gatherings.

A take-home packet of salt and dried herbs, taken from sous chef Graham Sloter’s farm, served as the final course. Credit: Novo Studio

At the end of the evening, Paul instructed us to take a look at our silverware, specifically the wooden boxes that our forks and knives had been sitting on when I arrived. Pulling on one end of the box like a drawer revealed a compartment containing a little packet of salt blended with dried herbs from sous-chef Sloter’s farm. I’m a sucker for audience participation and little souvenirs, and was delighted at my salt packet, which is sitting on my desk right now as I contemplate a future meal worthy of its use.

If you have the chance to dine at Heirloom, do not miss it. 

The kitchen at Heirloom at The 1907. Credit: Novo Studio

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By the time you’re reading this, the 2026 James Beard Awards have come and gone, and while Paul didn’t bring home the Beard, he and Ribaudo were named two of the best-dressed attendees by Bon Appetit magazine, which is pretty cool as far as consolation prizes go.

I caught up with Paul one more time after the awards, and though he said he was disappointed he couldn’t bring an award home for Arkansas, it isn’t getting him down. Heirloom is operating even better now than when it was nominated in January, he said, adding that many James Beard winners were nominated several times before they finally got it. 

“We do it for the love of the game, to be honest, and if those [awards] come, that’s a bonus,” Paul said. “This one is a passion project.”