NASHVILLE NOW
By John Mariani

Exhibition at The Country Music Hall of Fame

        A good deal of well-deserved national attention is accruing to Nashville these days, of course for its music, but not least for an array of new and old restaurants that rank with the best in the U.S.A., including those downhome places that have never sought publicity because they're too busy serving their loyal customers. Others, as is the usual case in Nashville, dole out true Southern hospitality (with one notable exception below), and generous portions at reasonable prices for damn good food, from steaks to Italian, from meat-and-threes to Mexican.  You won't ever go hungry.

SOUTHERN STEAK  & OYSTER

150 Third Avenue

615-724-1762

http://www.thesouthernnashville.com

 

         In 29 years of Esquire’s awarding Best New Restaurants honors, only a handful of steakhouses have ever made the cut, largely because even the best of them tend to keep to a strait-jacket menu and stereotyped look dripping machismo. Which is just not enough.

         Southern Steak & Oyster, on the other hand, has a wide-open, bonhomie that is as appealing to women as men. (The owners even play women’s softball games on the TV screens.)  You could come by for a big breakfast or drop in anytime of the day for good gumbo, benne-crusted shrimp with peach-and-sour sauce, or Caribbean-spiced Dominican pork.  And at dinner you could even skip the steaks and chops and feast on terrific fried chicken with mac-and-cheese, Southern greens and country ham gravy or a mess of fish and sweet potato grits with hot tasso vinaigrette.

         But you really don’t want to skip the beef.  You really do want to order the “Nudie Suit”—named after the flamboyant, rhinestone-studded designer outfits favored by country singers like Buck Owens and Marty Robbins.  This steak is “tailored to your appetite,” which means you go up to the counter, the chef sets his knife anywhere you like on a huge slab of well-marbled beef, cuts it, then cooks the thing exactly the way you want it (right)

         Southern Steak & Oyster just goes to show how to work an old, well-proven concept and make it even better and a lot more fun. When it comes to steakhouses, that is not as easy as its sounds.

Mas Tacos Por Favor

732b McFerrin Avenue
615-543-6271

    The two-year-old Mas Tacos Por Favor has already become a fixture for Mexican food in a town not exactly inundated with such places. "MTPF" has the look of a place in the barrio, deliberately scruffy, with not a frill in sight, just a blackboard menu, but you're with good company here, since all of Nashville piles in at one time or another. Owner Teresa Mason, who began with a Winnebago taco truck on the East Side,  has put her heart into the enterprise, and she's always back there whipping up soulful dishes like pulled pork tacos dripping juices; fabulous grilled corn elotes with cheese, lime, and cayenne; rich, chunky chicken tortilla soup (right); signature tilapia tacos, and whatever else strikes her fancy to make that day.  You go up to the counter, give them your order, and then wait as you sniff the air full of aromas that will have your appetite flaring by the time you get your food.  There's a juke box to help you wile away the time. Don't bring too much money either. The tacos are only three bucks.

SWETT'S
2725 Clifton Avenue 
615-329-4418
swettsrestaurant.com

    Swett's is a "meat-and-three," around since 1954,  opened by Walter and Susie Swett, who had ten children to feed, so they know about portions and appetites and economy of means.  One of their sons, David, is now the proud keeper of the flame, along with a barbecue in another location.

    A meat-and-three is a familiar concept in the South—one meat and three sides—though Nashville seems the capital of such eateries, and Swett’s is exemplary.  It’s cafeteria style, with a big menu hung above the line, which is manned by the friendliest servers you’ll ever meet, the kind that gives everybody a little extra, coaxes you to try the beans or the beef tips are looking real nice today, and don't forget the peach cobbler that just came out of the oven.

    The BBQ chicken is exemplary in that crisp-succulent way so many young chefs in fancier digs try to get right by brining or sous-Vide-ing or doing whatever they do and still not get it right. There is also rotisserie chicken, impeccably fried fish, BBQ ribs, and pig’s feet.

    Now, about those “threes”: classic soul food items like turnip greens and candied yams are out there, alongside okra, fried apples, pinto beans and golden  cornbread that is fired for  extra flavor.

    Those fruit cobblers are nonpareil, as good as the pecan pie and the lemony buttermilk chess pie (whose name has never been explained).

You drink soda or iced tea (I was dying for a beer), but that’s the way it is, was, and will be when you go.  What doesn’t change at Swett’s only gets better.  They've had seven decades of practice to get it right.

 

 

TAVERN midtown

1904 Broadway
615-320-8580
tavern.com

    On its snazzy, expansive, inside-and-out, bar-and-booth surface, Tavern Midtown, looks like a place people go for a good time and decent food. There's a mezzanine here, a vibrant (loud) bar scene, lotsa music, and the requisite plasmas and big screens--fourteen of them. But Culinary Director Robbie Wilson calls this a "chef’s pub” experience, and it is all that and a lot more, with a better conviviality than you often find at many modern gastropubs where guests are made to feel privileged to be there. Here you'll see people--a very attractive crowd, too--having a great time of it, meeting friends and making new ones, checking out the faces at the bar, some of whom might be Nashville celebs.
    So what about the food? Well, I'm very happy to report that it's some of the most impressively, genuinely thought-through American fare you'll find anywhere in the country. Even at brunch--my least favorite time to eat--Tavern delivers high points on just about everything, starting with impeccably prepared fried eggs with warm coconut jam, Texas toast, and sweet soy.  The blueberry cornmeal waffles with cinnamon molasses takes on added interest from a dollop of whipped mascarpone, and if you're just up for salad, how about a crunchy Tuscan kale and parmesan offering with toasted almonds, currants, dressed with olive oil and lemon.  O.K., how's the burger? It is terrific, made from a beef ribeye and filet, generously proportioned, on a "meltaway bun," with your choice of cheese, bacon, griddled onions, and roasted chilies. This is what an American burger should be, great beef, great roll, solid, fresh garnishes.  Add some "white trash hash" to your brunch, and you're in business. The Tavern fries are as carefully cut and cooked as everything else, and the Tavern has become justifiably famous for its egg rolls, done up like  Philly cheese steaks. Wood-grilled artichokes with a zesty remoulade are addictive, and I could sit at the bar all day and munch on the crispy little fried catfish dusted with cornmeal and served with a tartar sauce, jalapeño-spiked cornbread, and sweet potato fries.
    There are also a few global touches, including a hearty Singapore stir fry with eggs, bacon, scallions,  and sweet and spicy soy: if this doesn't cure a hangover or anything else that ails you at noontime, nothing will.
    Saturday and Sunday they offer a Game Day Menu, which is not quail and pheasant, but geared to the kind of grub served for college and pro games on the weekends.
    The wine is not as impressive as the spirits and beer list, so there's always room for improvement.
    But not much: Tavern is expressive of the best ideas of what an American restaurant should be.  Throw in a little Southern swagger, and it's a good place to be any hour of the day. Even brunch.




Pomodoro East
791 Porter Road
615-873-4978
pomodoroeast.com

    You come upon Pomodoro East out of nowhere, perched above the street, welcoming, with a patio outside, and inside some truly warm and inviting décor that includes rough-hewn old barn wood, an open pizza oven, comfortable seating, tablecloths, and first-rate waitstaff. The place smells great, wood-burning, grilling, sweet tomatoes, autumn itself.

    Chef Joe Shaw has been in the fine dining business for over 25 years and worked with Frank Stitt at Highlands and Bottega in Birmingham, then was Executive Chef at the Watermark Restaurant in Nashville.  Chef and owner Guillermo ‘Willy’ Thomas was the spirit behind  Nashville’s Capitol Grille, one of my Esquire picks in 1995 as a best new restaurants. These guys know what they're doing. It's what you call being a professional.
    They follow the rubrics of simplicity that defines good Italian cooking, beginning with carefully made antipasti like spiedini of fried mozzarella and lemon butter, and roasted white shrimp with garlic butter. Pastas are lavish with flavor and content, like stuffed ravioli with pumpkin, crab and sage, and fat bucatini with tomato and duck meat and a porcini ragù.
    The main courses include a dish Southerners know as much about as Italians--braised pork shoulder, with cannellini beans and a salsa verde, and veal short ribs with saffron risotto.  The lamb shank is braised till it gives way to the touch of a fork and knife, in a rich tomato and red wine sauce with creamy polenta on the side.

    Of course, being a contemporary Italian restaurant, there is pizza, just $9-$11, with straightforward, savory toppings that include tomato sauce, mozzarella, fontina, provolone, parmesan and basil; roasted fingerling potatoes, radicchio, gorgonzola and tomato sauce; roasted corn puree, mozzarella & fontina, pancetta and blistered onions; and pork and fennel sausage, wilted spinach, fontina, mozzarella and tomato sauce.  The crusts are good, the taste smoky, the ingredients first rate.
    The wine list is smaller than I expected, but the bottlings are well chosen.
    Nashville is fortunate to have an Italian restaurant of this caliber, and doubly so to have two chefs so dedicated to keeping it that way.

Catbird Seat
1711 Division Street
615-810-8200

   The less said about the much-hyped Catbird Seat the better, since it is not so much an inviting restaurant as it is an ego-driven laboratory of gimmickry and a few molecular riffs designed to dazzle you rather than sate your appetite. There's also no reason to show a photo of the place because there is no décor, not even any windows, just a gray room with dark gray counter and open kitchen where the cooks work in monastic silence (with music blasting in the background).  The sole note of color is the EXIT sign. The rest is a U-shaped counter (hip contemporary chefs who believe they invented this configuration might go to any local diner or, if that's beneath their notice, to Joël Robuchon's original L'Atelier, where this style of counter first hit the high end of Paris gastronomy, oh,  ten years ago.)  A meal at Catbird Seat goes on for hours, with no choices for the guest, and much of the food and drink gets adulterated, even a single estate Champagne into which the sommelier adds quince vinegar and honey--flavors the maker certainly never intended to taste in his Champagne.  From there on, you get tiny little dishes of tortured smoked food, including dots of tasteless, hay-infused yogurt, smoked cod char roe and burned bread, puffed rice, and  a truly bizarre ice cream made by pouring milk over the burning embers of a wood fire, which tastes like what it is--smoked milk.  For this and the rest of the food you pay (including wine and a service charge for a waitstaff that does little but clear plates) $220 per person.  You may leave hungry and you may leave woozy from all the paired wines, whiskies, beers, and sake you are poured.  So, if that's your idea of a great dining experience, do call. If going out to eat convivially with friends and choosing what you like to eat is your preference, Catbird Seat is not for you.

 

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