carpetbagger, esq.

Nashville: Rotier's for a cheeseburger on french bread (pretty well known place) or Monell's for a gut-busting southern lunch (you'll sit at a table of 12 and just pass food around. The loveless cafe would be cool to go to as well, but the problem for someone who is driving through town is that it is out in the middle of nowhere, and would be one heck of a detour. With Rotier's and Monell's, you can get to either one quite easily off i-40. Memphis: I'd just hit one of the classic BBQ places - Cozy Corner, A&R, Neely's, etc. (I'd skip Rendezvous, but that's just me. I found the Blues City Cafe ribs to be superior to Rendezvous). If you go out and check out the nightlife on Beale, you might also want to consider a burger at Dyer's. The next morning, you should go to the Arcade for breakfast - that place is awesome.

suggestion: don't bother moderating it. the best board i've ever been on was unmoderated, and the worst have had what i consider to be pretty heavy handed.

Unfortunately, I do not have any info on it. I can, however, ask around. Based on the menu, I don't see much I would want to order...maybe just the pork loin. If there's anything else that opens up between now and then that I hear about, I'll let you know. We haven't been going out much lately, so I'm out of the loop.

*BUMP* Well, after way too long of a delay, I finally made it to Martin's BBQ joint this afternoon. If you get a chance to be anywhere around the Nolensville area of Nashville, you should definitely go there! It's in a rather unassuming location, but that could also be part of the charm. It's not in the middle of the city...the section of Nolensville Pike where his restaurant is located is pretty rural (nothing like the other parts of Nolensville Pike that most around here call "Little Mexico"). When you pull up, you see the front porch and rocking chairs and you can smell the smoke. I had a feeling this would be a good lunch... When I opened the door, a wave of bbq goodness hit me. Yes, this place would work. The decor is kinda country kitsch, with various license plates and southern cultural icons all over the walls (think Dukes of Hazzard). You pick up your menu and order at the window. You have the all the basic options: pork or brisket sammiches in regular or jumbo, platters of the same, ribs, smoked turkey, bologna, wings and chicken. Sides include baked beans, green beans, cole slaw, cornbread, fries, etc. I went with two other people, and we had a good sampling of the sides. The pulled pork is very good. For comparison, I'd put it above Smokin' Ed's in Smyrna and Hog Heaven near Vandebilt. The brisket was very well done (read: tasty, not overcooked). It's definitely better than Texana (Hickory Hollow area); I haven't gone to Judge Bean's yet, so I can't say whose is better. I was fortunate to try both the hot and mild sauce. They're not kidding about the heat - you notice it. My girlfriend's mouth was on fire for a good five minutes after having sampling it. The mild sauce was the favorite of the table - it has a hint of sweetness that paired nicely with the pork The cornbread, about the size of a large pancake, was also quite notable as it was the closest my future mother-in-law has found to how her mother used to make. Next time, I think I will try and get the pork on cornbread. Oh! the smoked wings were phenomenal - even after three sandwiches and a giant piece of cornbread, I was so impressed by them that I just kept eating and eating. I didn't try the slaw, but it got high marks as did the coconut cake. I only had a bite because I was stuffed...thanks to Pat. Once I introduced myself, I was given a tour of the restaurant and smoker setup. Despite being on the way out, he was very friendly with me, and was happy to talk shop for a while (I'm a bit of a BBQ nerd). I got a bit of a scoop on some future dishes and big picture plans, and based on what I had today, I am positive he has the skills to do very well in this town. After we went back inside (it was darn near 100 today), he brought out a bunch of other things for me to sample before he left. I have to say, it was not expected and very much appreciated. Final thoughts: great food and atmosphere by a guy who clearly has a passion for his que. I hope you'll get a chance to try it next time you roll through our great city.

fyi, there is a new crocs model coming out called the bistro. mario batali apparently had some input on the shoe. info: "Batali is especially fond of the new Bistro shoe because it offers high comfort to workers in the restaurant and food service industry, while it is specially designed to meet workplace standards with a closed heel. In addition to its special slip-resistant design, the shoe also features a thicker metatarsal area to help protect the top of the foot, as well as a supportive arch and foot bed circulation nubs to ensure all-day comfort. The exclusive Croslite™ material conforms to the foot creating a custom fit and the added looseness allows the foot to bend and expand naturally to reduce fatigue. All of the new models are odor- and bacteria-resistant and can be simply sterilized in clean water and bleach." they'll be available late summer 2007. if you want, you can see it here: pdf warning.

i'd also recommend bbq usa. i've used it everytime i do a pork butt because it has tons of sauce recipes, and since i'm always preparing my bbq for a group, it pays off to make 3 or 4 different kinds of sauces to please different tastes. i'm currently reading peace, love & bbq, and that might be another book worth checking out.

just to add my 2c to this thread: I already have Authentic Mexican by Bayless and Walsh's Tex-Mex Cookbook, but I'm thinking that Kennedy's Essentials of Mexican Cuisine (since it combines her first 3 books according to the Amazon summary) will be the perfect addition to a solid mex/tex-mex collection.

what's a vanderbilt cocktail?

well, i'm going to try and do a better job of finding your setup this year. unless i happen to find a job out of state (being unemployed sucks), i should still be here.

You might want to consider Radius10, The Watermark or Tayst (the chef or owner posts here occasionally). I haven't gone to any of them, but i've heard good things. While not as $$$ as CG, i've never had a bad meal at The Acorn, Cabana or Germantown Cafe. IIRC, all of the restaurants listed above have websites. is this trip coinciding with georgia/vandy game?

sadly, the two or three best pizzas i think i've ever had lacked tomatoes as an ingredient. time to put on the thinking cap and hopefully come up with something worth submitting to the judges, as i am all about fabulous prizes.

the goal is to hold on to this until i can get something horizontal with an offset firebox (maybe a lang or klose smoker). for a gift, and onl $45, i can't complain too much. set and forget would be nice, but babysitting the fire for 12 hrs on a nice summer thing isn't the end of the world either. plus, my gf will be home in about 30 minutes, so i'll have someone to talk to and rock out with while my itunes library hums along.

maybe i'll try it next time. with no vents, temp control is kinda hard. so far i seem to be hanging around 225, unless i open the lid to mop. hopefully it turns out as well as last year's product. 5 hrs in now.

here was last year's post. as for equipment, you can see more pics here. if you go to my main flickr page, you'll get a sneak peek of the prep from last night.

i tried the minion method in my ecb last year, and it shot up to about 400 degrees. the few lit ones lit the whole darn pile of charcoal, and that just wasn't going to work for me! because of this, i've gone with a much more labor-intensive method of just adding a few coals at a time from the chimney i keep going. i'm guessing i waste a good amount of coal, but i really can't find a better way to do it on this smoker. it seems like i add a few coals every hour or so.

so far, this year's 4th of july bbq is going to smoother than last year (post 346 in this thread). about 3 hrs in at this point. no major screwups yet. temp maintenance will be the death of me. pics to follow tonight.... oh, and a quick question: do y'all keep a chimney going with coals hot and ready to go when temps dip a bit, or do you just add coals to the fire and let them ash over that way? the chimney method seems rather wasteful, but it's the way i've been doing it to date. any flavor issues with having the coals go through the lighting and ashing over process in the smoker?

i've always had rather junky knives...and never really did too much maintenance on them. recently, however, i was able to pick up some shun knives. so far, i love them, but i have a question - how exactly are you supposed to sharpen them on your own? the set came with a sharpening steel, but i've never had to use one before. do you hold it at a certain angle/do you place the tip on the counter top/etc. etc. etc. i quickly skimmed the egci knife sharpening post, and that seems like a good resource. is there anything different one should note while maintaining shun knives?

a few things that come to mind... 1) if you're going to make tea, make it sweet. 2) grits are perfectly acceptable morning, noon or night. 3) bbq doesn't mean the same thing down here like it does in yankeeland.

when and why did patrick's close? it wasn't perfect, (parking sucked, cramped interior, food was a little on the expensive side from what i remember) but i am a little surprised that it closed. i'm really surprised that ham n' goody's closed. i loved their desserts.

for things nearby vandy: tapas = rumba steakhouse = ruth chris, jimmy kelly's or nick & rudy's (never been to any of them, but they're all in the area) pizza = the pizza around vandy sucks. period. the closest good pizza (and i mean traditional red sauce pizza) will be mafiaoza's, which is in the 12th south area near green hills, belmont and lipscomb. best bbq in the area, and right near vandy too is hog heaven. in addition to great pulled pork sammiches, they're known for their white sauce on chicken or turkey. seafood - there's a place right near the med center called crescent cafe or crescent city cafe. there's also a place called batter'd and fried in east nashville. iirc, it's received meh reviews. down home cooking - monell's. it's in the germantown area, so not really "near" vandy, but it kicks you know what. you could also look at patrick's which is nearby in the vandy/midtown and serves po boys, jambalaya, etc. oh, and you should consider egullet poster whifflechef's place, tayst. it's mor or less in the hillsboro village area, which borders the med center property. edit: oh, and if you send me a pm with an email addy, i'll send you the 45 page nashville dining guide i made last year for a friend who was moving here. it's a little out of date now as some places have moved/closed and new places on the scene - but it will give them a good start to getting familiar with the areas and offerings.

had you just never been to rippy's before, or are you a repeat customer that really likes it?

this is probably going to sound rather foolish, but wth... is Hae Woon Dae a chain? there's one in nashville. i know nothing about korean, and that name could be as standard as panda garden or dragon garden.

the only places i can think of along the way are: - the original gus's fried chicken in mason, tn - the triangle of whole hog bbq referenced in the sfa oral history project here.

breakfast - the arcade lunch - huey's dinner - blues city cafe for ribs. late night, post-hurricane/diver night on beale - dyer's hopefully, i'll get to try gus's fried chicken next time i'm down there.

i'd like to see less "let me show you where to eat" shows. they're up to what - 30 now? we've got the one day show, the weekend trip show, the out of the way show, the really out of the way show, the out of the way but you can order their stuff online show, the out of the way eats on a cross-country roadtrip show. it's tiresome and redundant. just bring back best of and be done with it.