Chelsea's Corner Cafe — Restaurant in Eureka Springs

"Corner Cafe" Is probably the least accurate description of this place. When I think of a corner cafe I think of a charming environment to listen to a band play, maybe grab a drink from the bar, and hangout while the atmosphere washes over you. However I was misled but stayed for an entire evening just to watch the spectacle of such a poorly run business' gears grind away. I will breakdown my entire experience so you don't have to experience a breakdown.

To start, the entrance to this place is a weird stucco tunnel as if a failed taco joint used to be here and the bar was just slapped into place hoping it would be quirky. There's a pizza restaurant attached upstairs which judging by the way the locals on the street joked about "Chelsea's revenge" I steered clear of. The grease from the pizzeria makes an appearance however on everything. A wall? Greasy. Table? Glistening. Wooden pillar? shiny as a clean toilet. So OK, it's not a cafe, so what? It has a clear idea of what it's going for.

I took a step out on the patio which was full of people who were the first to tell you that they were locals. The staff seemed to hang out outside as much as possible, sometimes abandoning the bar completely to smoke cigarettes and other smokables with the musicians and patrons. I tried to be polite and asked the bartender if I could go in to order a drink and the response I received was "Yeah I'll meet you in there when I'm done with this" as they held up a half smoked cigarette. I figured I'd wait on the patio too since the inside smelled like a grease trap that leaked onto a raccoon's bed. About a minute later a skinny woman leaned into the patio and said "I need a drink!" and the bartender exclaimed "Be right there honey!" and snuffed their cigarette out and promptly went to help who I could only presume was another local. I followed and it was about then I decided to stick around for another drink to see the bartender resume serving customers without even so much looking at hand sink. I ordered a bottled beverage and decided to listen to the band who the patio folk kept saying were "soooo good" Spoiler alert: They were mediocre at best. The musicians were incredibly proud to talk about how they lived in town though!

After many years of riding my motorcycle around the United States I've never come across a more disappointing joint. It's just your average tourist trap pub, local musicians singing shock value Hank III wannabe songs, bartenders who think they've got the best job in the world yet hardly put an effort in to do it, and a bunch of locals on unemployment trying to be interesting to tourists. Because of the large amount of locals here I could only imagine this place was just a reflection of the town, so I would recommend it if you fit into the demographic here which is people that are too poor to go to New Orleans, scared of being around people that aren't like them, or you're on unemployment and think smoking a pipe and blowing smoke in the faces of visitors is funny. If you're looking for a "Corner Cafe" keep going, there are plenty of places in this town that aren't trying so hard to not...

I guess when you're in a tourist town you don't have to try for customer retention. This place was such a let down. Having heard about Chelsea's for years I finally got to stop by with my girlfriend while we were in town. Let me start with something simple...bring cash. It's 2018 but no one at Chelsea's knows. They don't accept cards. They do have an ATM if you don't mind a $2.25 fee. We went upstairs to grab some dinner at the cafe and it just went downhill from there. Ordered chicken nachos and some cheese bread. The nachos were in order, but they were out of bread...apparently they don't just use pizza dough even though they make pizzas. Lost me there. Our server suggested the garlic knots so we went with that, adding cheese. She gave us our waters after we sat down, and then didn't return until almost an hour later to bring our food. Yes, on a lightly busy night it took almost an HOUR for an order of nachos. She made a joke that the cooks must have forgotten about us, and when I asked if that was what happened she didn't respond...definitely forgot about us. I asked about our garlic knots, she acted as if they slipped her mind and went to fetch them. While we waited we started on the nachos. You wouldn't believe it, but they managed to mess that up too...steak nachos when we ordered chicken with black olives we asked for on the side. 10 minutes later, once I realized they had very obviously not put our order in when we placed it, and were feverishly trying to just get something out to us, I cancelled the knots and got my money back. Never got a refill on water, no utincils, and weren't checked on again for the duration of our visit. At least she gave me $0.50 extra when she refunded me for the knots. I will most definitely not return to this place. It's a pile and a TOTAL waste of time and money. Go somewhere else and get yourself a decent meal, multiple drinks, and the correct food that you can pay for...

This is a charming hidden gem we found. I only happened to notice it because we were discussing food and I saw a sign I hadn't noticed previously on the way to a public restroom. It was between a couple buildings down some stairs.

The establishment was actually quite large with two stories. It had a downstairs with a bar, seating, and a stage. I assume bands probably come and play for different fun events they host. We were just there for a peaceful lunch. Upstairs is the restaurant portion and they have a small indoor seating area and a decent outdoor seating area.

The bar downstairs is a separate entity from the restaurant upstairs it would seem. Our server was too young to carry alcohol so I had to go downstairs to order and bring the drink back up. We got a delicious blueberry cider that sort of reminded me of a sweet champagne. It was delicious. Note: this bar accepts cash only. Fortunately, I had some cash but it was the only place we stumbled upon that was cash only in Eureka Springs.

For food we ordered spinach dip and a gluten free pizza. Hooray for the GF pizza find. The crust was good and the toppings were better. While I have not tried every pizza joint in Eureka Springs, I have to say this was the best pizza by far. We had an all meat pizza. The toppings were large chunks of ham, sausage, and huge pepperonis smothered in chunks of melted mozzarella. They contained the perfect amount of flavor and bite into cheese. 100% will go back for this pizza.

They normally serve their spinach dip with pita but since we need to be GF they were happy to substitute chips. I would definitely recommend them if your looking for...