Pleasant Ridge has been advertising its new Third Thursdays event for some time. The blueprint is to get you into its shops and boozed enough to feel comfortable with paying $175 for a cotton Tracey Reese top like one you could easily find for $30 at Stein Mart. It's the same concept that's in place for Second Friday Art Nights downtown and First Thursdays in Hillcrest. A nice respite from a long work week and free wine? Sign us up.
We definitely enjoyed ourselves. We browsed a couple of shops we'd never noticed before that have dynamic selections: Nia-Ja's (home to several Hobo clutches and Denim of Virtue jeans, recently featured in In-Style and US Weekly) and Frock-Sole (lovely designer threads – a whole wall of them on discount.)
We also hit three stores that have moved from other locations to Pleasant Ridge: Solemates, Forsythe's/Kristen Todd and Understatement. We adore the offerings at all three, like these lovely Nicole flats at the punny shoe store:
This too chic metal and leather arm cuff at Forsythe's/Kristen Todd ($75):
And at Understatement, these PJs, which may be the most adorable thing we've seen in weeks. Yup, those are mini sushis. The sight of raw fish has never been so appealing ($58):
From the perspective of a late 20-something with just a hint of discretionary income, Solemates was the favorite stop of the night. There's both luxury and savings to be found here, but the best part was the schmoozy staff. They refilled our pinot with a smile and offered to order a special size in a favorite comfy brand for Shop Girl's absurdly small feet (to which we attribute her lack of grace.)
But Pleasant Ridge has some work to do. Only a handful of shoppers milled about the stores, and most of them checked the "Over 50" box on their credit card app. While merchandise at PR's boutiques is higher end, it's definitely marketed to those of us who were more recently inducted into our companies' 401K plans. PR needs to find a better way to reach Little Rock's younger spenders.
They also need to consider attractions besides live music for these events. It was painful to see the rather loud band playing to an audience of one mid-40s dad waiting on his wife.
Shop Girl's suggestions? How about handing out free canvas shopping bags, staging a short fashion show featuring local models and samples of the food from Fresh Market, Bonefish, Crew and the new restaurant that's going in. Ohhhhhh, and Panera when it opens! The Hills Set, afterall, lusts after free food and fashion.
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