About Conifer
In 2022, Chef Matthew Cooper opened Conifer inside The Howard hotel on East Central Avenue in downtown Bentonville, and the American restaurant world took notice — slowly at first, then all at once. Three consecutive James Beard Award nominations for Best Chef: South have since confirmed what the dining rooms of Northwest Arkansas already knew: Cooper is cooking at a level that invites comparison with the best tables in the country.
The concept is deceptively simple. Conifer is entirely gluten-free — not as a marketing statement but as a genuine commitment to cooking that cannot rely on convention. Every dish must justify itself through the quality of its ingredients and the precision of its technique. The menu changes hyper-seasonally, sometimes week to week, tracking the harvests of nearby Ozark ranchers and farmers, the freshness of Pacific coastal catches, and the rhythms of a land that Cooper has spent years learning to read. The in-house baked gluten-free bread alone — warm, golden, delivered with cultured butter — signals the level of commitment the kitchen brings to even its most incidental moments.
The kitchen's sourcing philosophy is not merely ethical; it is gastronomic. Proteins come from producers Cooper knows by name. Fish arrives from partners who understand his tolerance for second-rate freshness: zero. The result is a menu where chicken at $32 and mushroom pasta at the same price point are not budget options but deliberate statements — that the best ingredient, handled with the right technique, needs nothing added but craft and attention.
The room is calm, warm, and intimate — a contrast to the grandeur of The Preacher's Son across town. Conifer's architecture defers to the cooking. Tables are arranged to allow genuine conversation; the lighting is precise without being clinical. Service is attentive, knowledgeable about sourcing and preparation, and free of the rehearsed-script quality that plagues restaurants attempting to operate at this tier. Reservations are essential: book on Tock, plan two to four weeks ahead for weekend evenings. For visiting executives entertaining clients in Bentonville, there is no more authoritative table in Northwest Arkansas.
Why Conifer for Impressing Clients
The James Beard nomination does the heavy lifting before the first course arrives. Clients who consider themselves serious about food will arrive with heightened expectations — and Conifer consistently surpasses them. The tasting format encourages conversation between courses rather than menu-selection paralysis; the gluten-free commitment signals a kitchen that takes nothing for granted. For executives hosting Walmart suppliers or buyers from out of market, Conifer communicates taste, local knowledge, and the confidence to take someone somewhere they would never have found themselves. That is exactly what high-stakes client dining should accomplish.
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